East End Film Festival

April 24, 2010 15:00

Published: April 16, 2010 15:47 by East End Film Festival |

This event is part of a series of repeating events. To see all the events, click here.

Tagged as: culture environmentalism free_spaces gender migration repression social_struggles

Places: bethnal green hamlets hoxton shoreditch stepney tower whitechapel

Focus on human right at the East End Film Festival

Thursday 22 April – Friday 30 April 2010

 

 

The East End Film Festival has a particular commitment to films that tackle the issue of human rights, politics and the conditions that people live under both at home and abroad. Every year we watch scores of impassioned, angry, moving and at times distressing films that tackle human rights issues, and we are delighted to be partnering with the Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre to present a series of films, Q&As, discussion and short films at the Hoxton Action Centre and other venues that highlight issues from across the globe. Highlights include:

 

 

Amnesty International Human Rights Centre, Thursday 29 April, 7pm 

Introduced by Kate Allen, Director of Amnesty International UK, PRESUMED GUILTY is a documentary that attempts to exonerate a wrongly convicted man: a young breakdancer and rapper, sentenced to 20 years in prison for a murder he clearly could not have committed. Shot with a handheld camera by American-based attorney Roberto Hernandez and developed by British filmmaker Geoffrey Smith, the film exposes Mexico’s unsound legal system.

 

 

Rich Mix, Saturday 24 April, 8pm

Taking place on Election Night in 1979, as Thatcher comes into power. SUS is set in a police interview room, where Delroy is being questioned about his recently murdered wife. He suffers a night of callous humiliation at the hands of two racist coppers, both high on the impending Conservative landslide victory, and more concerned with the outcome of the election than establishing the truth. Written in 1979 by Barrie Keefe (The Long Good Friday) and based on a true story, SUS (Suspect Under Suspicion) is a powerful cry against institutional racism, and has clear parallels with Stop and Search powers today. Following the screening there will be a panel discussion, in association with Liberty, with cast, crew and guests including Doreen Lawrence, Stephen Kamlish QC, David Akinsanya, Pennie Quinton and Shami Chakrabarti.

 

RIOT, RACE AND ROCK’N’ROLL is a whole section of the East End Film Festival programme devoted to protest, politics, subculture and cultural resistance and music as grassroots action. This includes A RIOT OF OUR OWN, an exhibition of photographs  and artwork documenting the Rock Against Racism movement, which was originally conceived as a one-off concert but went on to lead the fight against racism in the UK. Jerry Dammers (The Specials) will DJ at the exhibition opening. Also features is a screening of a brand new re-edit of WHO SHOT THE SHERIFF, a classic documentary about the famous RAR concert in Victoria Park and the fight against the National Front, which is followed by an after party with live music from Sam Duckworth and celebrity guests. There will also be a panel discussion about the movement’s legacy, chaired by journalist Mark Steel and featuring Jerry Dammers, Gurinda Chadha (Director, Bend It Like Beckham) and Tom Robinson (musician, radio presenter and activist).

 

 

Rich Mix, Thursday 29 April, 6.15pm

TAQWACORE: THE BIRTH OF PUNK ISLAM, which tells the story of a slew of Islamic punk outfits touring North America and Pakistan in what is becoming a huge grassroots movement, taking punk to the streets of Lahore. This is followed by DON’T PANIC, WE’RE ISLAMIC, a discussion of music as a response to race, religion and identity in a post 9/11 world with filmmakers and journalists.   

 

 

Amnesty International Human Rights Centre, Sunday 25 April, 5pm

A former Amnesty Prisoner of Conscience, Ngawang Choephel was arrested on charges of espionage by Chinese authorities in 1995. Sentenced to 18 years in prison, he was released in 2002. For his Sundance Jury Award-winning documentary TIBET IN SONG, he returned to the land he left at the age of two to capture the music of his people before it’s lost in a void of cultural repression.

 

 

Amnesty International Human Rights Centre, Sunday 25 April, 2.30pm

LONELY PACK, documents the everyday life of street children in Kathmandu, Nepal, as they look for food, drugs, and rich tourists. Shot without any narration, music or staging, this is a harrowing document of young lives ruled by poverty and violence that nonetheless manage to experience moments of childlike freedom. This film is also screening alongside short documentaries portraying a farming community in Peru threatened by a large mining corporation, and short fiction films highlighting the issues of sex trafficking in the UK and the conditions imposed by Israel on Palestinians in the West Bank.

 

 

Amnesty International Human Rights Centre, Monday 26 April, 8.30pm

THE BORDER, Jaroslav Vojtek’s documentary, reveals the plight of a village arbitrarily divided between Czechoslovakia and the Ukraine under Soviet border policy in 1946. Finding themselves having to call to each other over a fence in order to maintain social and familial relationships, and having to travel 150 miles in order to obtain visas to cross to the other side, this reveals the absurd effects that Soviet policy had on the people it claimed to protect. Also screening with The Border will be EXIT, a short film documenting the efforts of ordinary Polish people to flee to the West shortly before the Soviet Union’s collapse.

 

Genesis, Wednesday 28 April, 8pm

LAND GOLD WOMEN, shot on location in Birmingham, is a drama portraying the struggle of Indian emigrants caught between Eastern and Western cultures. When an Indian university lecturer discovers that his daughter is in an illicit relationship, he has a difficult decision to make. This Anglo-Indian collaboration bravely tackles the spectre of forced marriage and honour crime. Followed by a discussion with the cast and crew.

 

 

Stratford Picturehouse, Thursday 29 April, 8.30pm

ERASING DAVID We live in one of the most intrusive surveillance states in the world. Filmmaker David Bond decides to find out how much private companies and the government know about him by putting himself under surveillance and attempting to disappear, which is a decision that changes his life forever. Leaving his pregnant wife and young child behind, he is tracked across the database state on a chilling journey that forces him to contemplate the meaning of privacy and the loss of it. Director David Bond will introduce the film screening in person, which will be followed by a live link-up Q&A.

 

 

This is just a small selection of the human rights and politically orientated films and events being shown at this year’s East London Film Festival. We also have a whole variety of free events taking place in Spitalfields market, including an outdoor screening of Alfred Hitchcock classic THE LODGER, with a live rescore by Minima. There will also be a GIVE & TAKE event, with film screenings and art installations, where anybody can bring and swap their unwanted items for free, whether it be their own work, memorabilia, DVDs, books, soundtracks or posters.  

 

Visit www.eastendfilmfestival.com for more information

 

---