FILM TALKS - War, History, & Politics
• Balkan Rhapsody: 78 Films About Serbia and Kosovo
Directed by: Jeff Silva
Balkan Rhapsody is a feature length documentary/ cine-poem exploring the cultural intricacies and history of the conflict between Serbia, Kosovo and the NATO bombings in 1999. The film is a series of 78 short vignettes that articulate the complexity of the situation. Jeff was the first American allowed into Serbia after the bombings in June of 1999 and the video work he did while there informs the piece. Jeff later returned back to the Balkans to film in 2000 and 2005.
The film, outside of the specificity of the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo, explores the act of seeing/filming as evidence, issues of cultural representation, and the act of remembering. The 78 films are like shards of memories and stories that have been lost but recovered. The reason for the structure of 78 short films was chosen to represent the number of days of consecutive bombing by NATO forces.
The film weaves back and forth in a rhythmic rhapsody between intimate verité footage, interview testimonials from survivors, commentary from foreign policy experts Zinn and Chomsky, lyrical image montages, appropriated footage, quotations, and humorous musical interludes. The collection of detritus and shards of memories, experiences and facts creates a melodic echo that resonates into our present day conflicts beyond the historical moment of the conflict in former Yugoslavia.
Other Keywords: Human Rights, Cultural Study
• China in the Red
Directed by: Kathryn Dietz
TRT: 54 min
Filmed over a period of three years, China in the Red chronicles the lives of 10 ordinary people in China as they attempt to survive through turbulent economic times. Originally seen on PBS’s Frontline, the film shows a side of China not readily available to the West. The emotional, personal stories of factory workers, officials, and villagers captured on film depict individuals striving to retain jobs, adapt to the new economic situation, and provide for their families.
Other Keywords: Chinese Studies
• Greetings From Iraq
Directed by: Signe Taylor
TRT: 30 min
An award-winning half-hour documentary, was shot in Iraq in 1992, one year after the end of Operation Desert Storm. The video is about the effects of Operation Desert Storm and the international embargo on Iraqi children and their families. It features several English-speaking middle-class Baghdadi families and provides an excellent background to some of the causes of the current conflict in Iraq.
Other Keywords: Global Issues
• Voices
Directed by: Apo Torosyan
A gripping documentary film of four interviews with survivors of the Armenian genocide, Voices tells the stunning tale of a million and a half people who were tortured, starved, and murdered by the Turkish government from 1915 to 1923.
Other Keywords: Genocide, Turkey, Armenian Issues
• Voices From Africa
Directed by: Barbara Holecek
One of the major roadblocks to understanding the vast variety of peoples and nations that comprise the African continent is the lack of first person accounts from Africans themselves about their lives, their aspirations, their ideas, and their problems. This on-going project is developing an African oral-history series of videotapes for educational purposes and television audiences. Of utmost importance is the collection of oral histories from that generation of Africans who have lived through pre-and post-independence in Africa. The project also extends to interviews with contemporary participants in the social, political, cultural and economic structures of today’s African nations. Among those interviews to date are Hafsat Abiola, a young Nigerian activist for the pro-democracy movement, Betty Bigombe, former Minister of Peace under President Museveni, and Professor Kwabena Nketia, the highly respected Ghanaian ethnomusicologist, linguist, scholar, and composer. Also interviewed are Chief Enahoro, the elder statesman of Nigerian nationalism, Hanna Telahun, a teacher who has been part of the Eritrean Liberation Movement for 15 years, and Madame Aisatu Ba, who, along with her colleagues (housewives from the Sahelian region of Senegal), have formed an extensive grassroots movement for health care and empowerment.
Other Keywords: African Studies, Cross-Cultural Studies, Liberation Movements