Festival Program

12:00 PM
SHORTS PRODUCED BY USF STUDENTS
Program Curator: Jared Nangle
Q&A with Student Filmmakers

1:30 PM
REPORTERO, 2011, Mexico/US, Filmmaker: Bernardo Ruiz, 90 min
* Selection of the Human Rights Watch Film Traveling Film Festival

Reportero follows veteran reporter Sergio Haro and his colleagues at Zeta, a Tijuana, Mexico-based weekly, as they dauntingly ply their trade in what has become one of the most deadly places in the world to be a journalist. Since the paper's founding in 1980, two of the paper's editors have been murdered and the founder viciously attacked. "Impunity reigns in Mexico, especially here along the northern border," explains Adela Navarro, Sergio's boss and Zeta's co-director. Despite the attacks, the paper has continued its singular brand of aggressive investigative reporting, frequently tackling dangerous subjects that other publications avoid, such as cartels' infiltration of political circles and security forces. As a veteran member of Zeta's editorial team, Sergio contributes to the investigative crime pieces that are the paper's bread and butter, but at this stage of his career, he is also after what he calls the "deeper story" of the region—the human stories that tend to fall between the cracks. http://www.reporteroproject.com/

3:45 PM
NUCLEAR SAVAGE: THE ISLANDS OF SECRET PROJECT 4.1
US, 2011, 60 min, Filmmaker: Adam Jonas Horowitz 
Q&A with director Adam Jonas Horowitz

Horowitz shot his first film in the Marshall Islands in 1986, and was shocked by what he found in this former American military colony in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Radioactive coconuts, leaking nuclear waste repositories, and densely populated slums were all the direct result of 67 Cold War U.S. nuclear bomb tests that vaporized islands and devastated entire populations. Twenty years later, Horowitz returned to the Marshall Islands to make this award winning shocking political and cultural documentary exposé; a heartbreaking and intimate ethnographic portrait of Pacific Islanders struggling for dignity and survival after decades of intentional radiation poisoning at the hands of the American government. Relying on recently declassified U.S. government documents, survivor testimony, and incredible unseen archival footage, this untold and true detective story reveals how U.S. scientists turned a Pacific paradise into a radioactive hell. Marshall islanders were used as human guinea pigs for three decades to study the effects of nuclear fallout on human beings with devastating results. The film is a shocking tale that pierces the heart of our democratic principles. http://www.nuclearsavage.com/

5:30 PM
DEAR MANDELA, 2012, South Africa, Filmmaker: Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza, 90 min 

When Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa, his government was faced with a seemingly insurmountable task: providing a better life for those who had suffered under apartheid. The cornerstone of Mandela’s ‘unbreakable promise’ was an ambitious plan to ensure housing for all. When the South African government begins evicting shack dwellers from their homes, three friends living in Durban’s shantytowns refuse to be moved. Dear Mandela follows their journey to South Africa’s highest court as they invoke Nelson Mandela’s example and become leaders in a growing social movement led by shack dwellers. Mazwi, an enlightened schoolboy, Zama, an AIDS orphan and Mnikelo, a mischievous shopkeeper, discover that the new ‘Slums Act’ violates the rights enshrined in the country’s constitution. By turns inspiring, devastating and funny, the film offers a fresh perspective on the youth’s role in political change in a South Africa coming of age. Winner Grand Jury Prize and Best Documentary, Brooklyn Film Festival; Best South African Documentary, Durban International Film Festival; Best Documentary, Montreal International Black Film Festival. http://www.dearmandela.com/

7:30 PM
BIDDER 70, 2012, US
Filmmakers: Beth and George Gage, 73 min
* Selection from the Human Rights Watch Film Traveling Film Festival

Bidder 70 tells the story of Tim DeChristopher and his stunning act of civil disobedience in a time of global climate chaos. On December 19, 2008, DeChristopher, as Bidder #70, derailed the Bush administration's last minute, widely disputed federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Oil and Gas lease auction, acting to safeguard thousands of acres of Utah land. Bidding $1.7 million, Tim won 22,000 acres of land with no intention to pay or drill. For his disruption of the auction, DeChristopher was indicted on two federal charges. Tim's civil disobedience has drawn national attention to America's energy policy and criticism to the BLM's management of public lands. Refusing to compromise his principles and rejecting numerous plea offers by the prosecution, Tim is willing to sacrifice his own future to bring this vitally important issue to global attention. Bidder 70 is Tim's story: his actions, his trial and his possible prison sentence. It is also the story of the scientists, activists, writers, and movements that influence and support his actions. http://www.gageandgageproductions.com/#!bidder70/c13x4

12:00 PM
SHORTS PRODUCED BY USF ALUMNI
Program Curator: Erika Myszynski
Q&A with Alumni Filmmakers

1:30 PM
JUSTICE FOR MY SISTER, 2012, US, Filmmaker: Kimberly Bautista, 70 min

Adela, 27, left home for work one day and never returned. Her ex-boyfriend beat her until she was unrecognizable and left her at the side of the road. Her story is all too familiar in Guatemala, where 6,000 women have been murdered in the last decade. Only 2% of those killers have been sentenced. Adela's sister Rebeca, 34, is determined to see that Adela's killer is held accountable. She makes tortillas at home and sells them in order to raise her five children, as well as the three children Adela left behind. The challenges Rebeca encounters in her search for justice are illustrative of the thousands of other cases like this one in Guatemala. However, her willingness to practically take on the role of investigator while she is still mourning is exceptional. She encounters many setbacks during her three-year battle: a missing police report, a judge accused of killing his own wife, and witnesses who are too afraid to testify. Completely transformed by her struggle, Rebeca emerges as a feminist leader in her rural community with a message for others: justice is possible. http://justiceformysister.com/

3:30 PM
IN SHOPIAN, 2012, US, Filmmaker: Christopher Giamo, 32 min

On May 29th, 2009, Shakeel Ahmad Ahanger, a Kashmiri man living in the town of Shopian, returned home from work to find his wife and sister missing. After notifying the police and searching through the night, he discovered their battered bodies in a nearby river. Although the initial post-mortem stipulated that they had been gang-raped and murdered, the Indian Government’s Central Bureau of Investigation later changed the ruling to death by accidental drowning. The incident immediately sparked massive strikes and protests against the Indian occupation, and continues to be a rallying cry for human rights and Kashmiri independence activism. Filmed in 2010, “In Shopian” presents a firshand account of Shakeel’s story amidst the current state of social unrest in the capital of Srinagar and outlying rural areas. It features rare on-site interviews with separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Yasin Malik, and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, as well as street battles between local youths and security forces. Shakeel’s story is a contextualized example of the plight of ordinary Kashmiris, and an aesthetic portrait of present-day Kashmir as a torn paradise. http://www.fogtoothmedia.org/in-shopian-3/

4:45 PM
THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA: THE STORY OF THE CHILDREN WHO FEED AMERICA, 2011, US, Filmmaker: U Roberto Romano, 80 min

Every year there are more than 400,000 American children who are torn away from their friends, schools and homes to pick the food we all eat. Zulema, Perla and Victor labor as migrant farm workers, sacrificing their own childhoods to help their families survive. The Harvest/La Cosecha profiles these three as they journey from the scorching heat of Texas’ onion fields to the winter snows of the Michigan apple orchards and back south to the humidity of Florida's tomato fields to follow the harvest. From the Producers of the Academy-Award® Nominated film, War/Dance and Executive Producer Eva Longoria, this award-winning documentary provides an intimate glimpse into the lives of these children who struggle to dream while working 12 – 14 hours a day, 7 days a week to feed America. http://theharvestfilm.com/

7:00 PM
AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY, 2012, Germany, Filmmaker: Alison Klayman, 91 min

Ai Weiwei is China's most famous international artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic. Against a backdrop of strict censorship and an unresponsive legal system, Ai expresses himself and organizes people through art and social media. In response, Chinese authorities have shut down his blog, beat him up, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention. Ai Waiwei: Never Sorry is the inside story of a dissident for the digital age who inspires global audiences and blurs the boundaries of art and politics. First-time director Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to Ai while working as a journalist in China. Her detailed portrait provides a nuanced exploration of contemporary China and one of its most compelling public figures. http://aiweiweineversorry.com/

12:00 PM
BAY AREA STUDENT SHORTS
Program Curator: Jared Nangle
Q&A with Student Filmmakers

2:00 PM
TRANSGENDER TUESDAYS: A CLINIC IN THE TENDERLOIN, 2012, US, Filmmaker: Mark Freeman, 54 min
Q&A with director Mark Freeman

The first Public Health clinic in the country specifically for transgender people opened in the Tenderloin in 1993, at the height of the AIDS Epidemic. Historically, trans people in the TL lived in lousy Single Room Occupancy hotels, or at times lived on and worked its streets. Distrustful of medical settings, the street is where they often got their hormones as well. The new clinic’s open-arms policy welcomed all who self-identified, breaking the old model of specialists and psychiatrists deciding who was trans.  It worked.  Within the first five years over 600 people “came for the hormones and stayed for the healthcare.” Transgender Tuesdays allows twelve of these courageous individuals to tell their stories of life in “the bad old days,” before any such clinic existed. The film also lets viewers go beyond labels or identities, to see transgender people—including those in the most harrowing circumstances—as normal, as neighbors, as part of us. And even as pioneers. FB: TransTuesdaysMovie.

 www.TransgenderTuesdaysMovie.com

3:45 PM
5 BROKEN CAMERAS, 2011, France/Israel/Palestine, Filmmakers: Emad Burnat & Guy Davidi, 90 min
* Nominee, Best Documentary Feature, Academy Award 2013

Winner at the Sundance Film Festival, 5 Broken Cameras is a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil'in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, the footage was later given to Israeli co-director Guy Davidi to edit. Structured around the violent destruction of each one of Burnat's cameras, the filmmakers' collaboration follows one family's evolution over five years of village turmoil. Burnat watches from behind the lens as olive trees are bulldozed, protests intensify, and lives are lost. "I feel like the camera protects me," he says, "but it's an illusion." http://www.kinolorberedu.com/film.php?id=1276/

6:00 PM
THE INVISIBLE WAR, 2011, US, Filmmaker: Kirby Dick, 95 min
* Nominee, Best Documentary Feature, Academy Award 2013
* Selection of the Human Rights Watch Film Traveling Film Festival

The Invisible War is a groundbreaking investigative documentary about the shameful and underreported epidemic of rape within the US military. With stark clarity and escalating revelations, The Invisible War exposes the rape epidemic in the armed forces, investigating the institutions that perpetuate it as well as its profound personal and social consequences. We meet characters who embraced their military service with pride and professionalism, only to have their idealism crushed. Focusing on the emotionally charged stories of survivors, the film reveals the systemic cover-up of the crimes against them and follows their struggles to rebuild their lives and fight for justice. The Invisible War features hard-hitting interviews with high-ranking military officers and members of Congress that reveal the perfect storm conditions that exist for rape in the military, its history of cover-up, and what can be done to bring about much needed change. Winner of Nestor Almendros Award. http://invisiblewarmovie.com/