Films focus on human rights

Starting next Monday, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival will present 11 films, one per night at Kettering. The films vary in situation and director, but they all have to do with stories of human rights issues and are documentary in style. This film festival is presented in conjunction with the Oberlin Film Series (OFS) and Amnesty International and is coordinated by college senior Ben Rosen.

The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival was started by Human Rights Watch, a group dedicated "to bring offenders to justice, to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom and to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime," their mission statement affirms. They carry this out by combining the power of the people and international community to apply pressure on the violators of human rights.

In order to do this, they educate the population about violations of human rights. The film series is a part of this public education. Now in its eighth year, the film festival travels all around the world and presents a variety of films. Rosen said that these stories of human rights violations "wouldn't have a voice without the film and festival."

This is the first year that the film festival has come to Oberlin, but Rosen has high hopes for its success. "I hope that it will fit into the Oberlin tradition of being open to many different views and of being worldly," he said. "This is a part of the Oberlin motto." He hopes to draw film-goers not only from the campus, but also from all over Ohio.

The films that will be shown vary in location and situation. From a nuclear power plant in Japan, to the story of a Guatemalan freedom fighter versus the United States government and multinational corporations and Proposition 187, the amendment that would deny access to public education and health care to illegial aliens in California, the films promise highly interesting and culturally broadening topics.

Presented in conjunction with three films will be three different speakers. On October 12, the film Stories of Honor and Shame will be shown and guest Linda Monsour will be speaking. This film addresses the situation of Muslim women living in the Gaza Strip. Monsour is a Palestinian lawyer who now practices in Toledo and she will be speaking on the issues of women's rights. There will be a question and answer period to follow the speech.

The next night, October 13, Sheryl Greenberg will be speaking along with the film Blacks and Jews. Greenberg is a professor at Trinity College and is currently writing a book. The last speaker is Nancy Bothne, who will speak about the Rwandan genocide in conjunction with the film Chronicle of a Genocide Foretold, to be shown on Oct. 14. Bothne is the head of the Midwest chapter of Amnesty International.

The main reason that Rosen wants to bring the festival to Oberlin is for the art's strong statements. He said the films are "constructive art that have a strong social imperative." The filmmakers are independant documentary filmmakers, many of which would not get a chance to share their art with such a large audience if it weren't for the travelling festival. "The films are not easy to watch and are not entertaining in the Hollywood fashion," Rosen said. "Hopefully, they will change us."