The films of Film, Faith and Justice 2009

The Awakening: Empowering Women Through Microloans

In the shadow of today’s global economy, over two billion people lack access to any form of credit. Although many see their poverty as inescapable, some of the world’s poor are awakening to other possibilities. Through education that challenges their oppression and with access to micro-loans, many are liberating themselves from generations of economic apartheid. Awakening is about the social and economic empowerment of severely marginalized women. Shops are being built, organic farms seeded, and families that once had limited opportunities now look to a sustainable economic future with hope.

In Bihar, India’s poorest state, Sister Mary Lobo has organizes village women into groups where they learn to save small sums and invest their capital as a group. A new ideology is spreading that far transcends the boundaries of rural women’s traditional roles. In Afghanistan, the nation’s first woman-led micro-finance institution believes the nation’s long-term success is dependent on women’s economic empowerment. The film reveals the hidden lives of Afghan women few Westerners have seen. Now free to run their own businesses, they talk openly about their lives under the Taliban and current initiatives for women’s rights.

Burma VJ - Reporting from a Closed Country

Armed with video-cameras, a tenacious band of Burmese reporters face down death to expose the repressive regime controlling their country.
Director: Anders Østergaard, Year of Production: 2008, Running time: 84m

Call+Response

The first feature rockumentary to expose the world's 27 million most terrifying secrets: there are more slaves today than ever before in human history. CALL+RESPONSE goes deep undercover where slavery is thriving from the child brothels of Cambodia to the slave brick kilns of rural India to reveal that in 2007, Slave Traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.



The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court

An insightful documentary that follows two riveting dramas—the prosecution of unspeakable crimes and the International Criminal Court’s fight for justice.
Directors: Pamela Yates, Paco de Onis, and Peter Kinoy
Year of Production:2009, Running time: 95m


Look Into My Eyes

Is anti-Semitism a buzz-word for all kinds of real or imagined slights? Is it an arcane expression that should be retired, or is there legitimacy to outcries worldwide that anti-Semitism is again on the rise?
Director: Naftaly Gliksberg, Year of Production: 2008, Running time: 80m


Tapologo

Freedom Park squatter camp, situated in the Northwest province, accommodates a migrant workforce that mines the world’s largest single source of platinum. The women in this community service the needs of the male miners as a means of basic survival. A group of former sex workers living with HIV have created a network called Tapologo and have learnt to be home-based care-workers, joining in solidarity to care for others in the community living with HIV. As we learn each woman’s story, we come to understand how she herself was transformed—from someone who had lost hope into someone who decided to help others in the same situation.
Directors: Gabriela Gutierrez Dewar and Sally Gutierrez Dewar
Year of Production: 2008, Running time: 88m


Back Home Tomorrow

A cinematically stunning examination of two lives affected by conflict that illustrates how hope prevails in even the most desperate of settings.
Directors: Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Paolo Santolini, Year of Production: 2008, Running time: 90m


Remnants of a War

When the war ends, the work to save the land begins.
Director: Jawad Metni, Year of Production: 2009, Running time: 76 mins
http://www.remnantsfilm.com

REMNANTS OF A WAR - clearance scene excerpt from Jawad Metni on Vimeo.


My Neighbor, My Killer

When peace comes, how do you make it right again? An epic emotional journey in search of coexistence in Rwanda.
Director: Anne Aghion, Year of Production: 2009, Running time: 80m