salaam dunk
iraqi women form their school' s first women’s basketball team | salaam dunk, pt. 1
how female athletes in iraq beat oppression on and off the court | salaam dunk, pt. 2
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“of the majority of images and video to be coming from iraq…salaam dunk stands aside from the pack. ” – indiewire
set in northern iraq, salaam dunk is a documentary about basketball, friendship, and the pain of losing those we love .
our team included kristin vickery and josie leide. we were assigned a documetary film entitled salaam dunk. the filmmaker was director david fine .
' s salaam dunk, zendaya shares her thoughts on the challenges these women face culturally every day. how did you react to this series? share your thoughts with us !
' s documentary series, salaam dunk, meet the players who formed the first women' s basketball team at the american university in iraq and the tireless coach who leads them .
we at seedwell are proud to be part of nike jordan’s rise above campaign and to be given an opportunity to further spread salaam dunk’s message. here’s the video – tell us what you think !
salaam dunk has been an official selection at the international documentary festival amsterdam, doha tribeca film festival, and the los angeles film festival, as well as receiving accolades as a gold plaque winner at the chicago international film festival .
the daily life of young women living in iraq is full of strife, but salaam dunk tells a very different story. this stirring, four - part documentary series follows the first - ever female basketball team at the american university in iraq .
to celebrate the 2011 doha tribeca film festival screening of iraqi documentary ‘salaam dunk’, qatar foundation’s education city hosted a dynamic basketball tournament between five of doha’s leading female basketball teams. the winners of the tournament will compete against the qatar women’s basketball club and the sta
sort of. there’s a feature length documentary, salaam dunk, about the women’s basketball team at auis, which i coached (pictured above). the documentary follows the young women through their second season. it’s a sports movie that has both everything and nothing to do with sports .
a lot has happened in iraq and in the lives of the players since the documentary salaam dunk was filmed. today, we follow up with one of the players from the original auis women' s basketball team, enji issa, to see where she is now and how basketball changed her life .
david has worked in the film and television industry in a variety of disciplines (camera operator, editor, post production supervisor). after co - founding seedwell, david has been directing the company' s viral & commercial work. he loves shooting documentaries and pulling down rebounds. salaam dunk is david' s first feature film .
in episode three of salaam dunk, the women of the auis basketball team get a rematch with one of the first teams they every played. during the game they find the opposing players to be incredibly aggressive, and they must come together as a team and push themselves even harder to match them. find out how this close game ends .
dilband hassan was one of the original basketball team players at auis when salaam dunk was filmed. in the years since then, she has graduated from university and even started her own basketball club for women. sadly, since isis came to iraq in 2014 much has changed for her and everyone in iraq, and basketball has gone to the wayside .
through traditional interviews and private confessional video diaries, salaam dunk follows the ethnically diverse auis women' s basketball team as they discover what it means to be athletes. from the joy of their first win to the pain of losing the coach who started their team, the film gives a glimpse into an iraq we don' t see on the news .
salaam dunk follows the american university of iraq women' s basketball team as they discover what it means to be students, athletes, and friends. this is a story of triumph in the face of chaos and a testament to the perseverance of a handful of young iraqi women. a filmbuff presentation. mpaa rating: not rated release date: 11 / 13
while salaam dunk and various university administrators earnestly try to make the case that aui - s is training the next generation of iraq’s young leaders, beyond winning basketball games and passing exams the stakes aren’t adequately clear for these charismatic young women. equating the rigors of training and competition with the challenges of rebuilding iraq stretches the metaphor rather too far to sustain an entire film .
flying high after the team' s first victory, the women of the auis basketball team face a huge challenge when they' re matched against a club team and must play without the support of one of their strongest players. see what other challenges these players face off the basketball court with a glimpse into the world they came from in part two of salaam dunk .
it’s the last game of the season for the women’s basketball team at auis, and this one requires them to travel north for an away game in dohuk. they want more than anything to finish the season on a high note, not just because it’s the last game, but because it is the last game for their beloved coach ryan. see what happens in the final episode of salaam dunk .
seedwell has worked with brands like google, pepsi, microsoft, htc and nike to create viral branded content that has reached hundreds of millions of online viewers. their work has been covered repeatedly in mashable, the wall street journal, npr, advertising age and more. in 2012, seedwell produced a feature documentary, salaam dunk, that won awards at festivals internationally. seedwell later received funding from youtube’s original programming initiative to create an original youtube network called “american hipster”, documenting pop culture through the lens of hipsterism .
in the month and a half leading up to the festival we contacted the representative for our film and was told that they themselves had no interest in marketing their film at the festival and would not be attending. our contact said she would send us a pdf file of the poster, but then never got back to us. luckily, we had decided to go ahead and make our own materials to distribute. this included a salaam dunk poster stating the showing times at the festival, mini - basketballs with attached information about the show times for the festival .
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with an american' s help and despite sparse funding, iraqis attempt to revive the sport in a conservative society .
sulaymaniya, iraq — the tallest player on the women' s national basketball squad is 5 feet 7 inches. she and her teammates cannot practice in the nation' s capital because of poor security. and in northern kurdistan, where they are now based, they practice outdoors, often in frigid temperatures .
nonetheless, what they lack in height they make up for in enthusiasm, said deb packwood, an american consultant hired to develop the fledgling team, which aims to raise its international profile and someday compete in the olympics .
packwood, who played some college basketball at ouachita baptist university in arkansas, is working on behalf of the iraqi basketball assn. and the national olympic committee, which are seeking to revive a sport that has been crippled by war, inadequate financial backing and the growing challenges women face in a nation that is increasingly religiously conservative .
the people, they don' t like the girls to play ,
said team member rajwa abdul ahad, 28 .
they say,' no... it' s bad for you.' but i don' t care because basketball, it is in my blood .
since the blond, american athletic consultant from global sports partners began making the rounds in kurdistan this year, kurdish television crews and local newspaper reporters have sought interviews and flocked to tournaments. at one school alone, 85 girls expressed interest in playing, although packwood winnowed them down .
i think we are the best place for women' s sports in all of iraq ,
said rizgar mohammed raouf, a physical education professor at sulaymaniya university and representative of the local basketball federation .
our community believes in freedom more than being covered .
but building the team hasn' t been easy, particularly when the participants lack basic skills and the coaches themselves have no formal training. getting funding in the soccer - crazed, male - dominated country is also difficult, said sameera abdulla, head of the women' s sports office for the kurdistan olympic committee .
but abdulla said the head of the national olympic committee promised :
if i helped you before with one hand, i will help you now with two hands. let me assure you, there is a chance for women .
as in many other sports, the team is often overshadowed by the men' s basketball team .
with abdulla' s assurance, packwood and the women have moved full - tilt. this week the team traveled to syria to compete in the west asia women' s basketball championship, an event that has received almost no media coverage. they were knocked out by iran .
since the 2003 u. s. - led invasion of iraq, the ragtag national team has competed a couple of times in other middle eastern countries. the iraqis were beat soundly by women who towered over them, sometimes losing by as many as 50 points .
we cannot beat any team ,
abdulla said ,
but i think we will get better .
there' s just one other nagging issue, packwood recently joked :
they really are lacking tall players here .
dunya najat, 26, of sulaymaniya did not begin playing until she went to college - - in part because her parents would not allow it. now she is married to the basketball coach and plays on the national team. her hope, she said, is that iraq will become safer and that the team will be able to travel again to lebanon and jordan. and from there, who knows ?
i want to be famous ,
she said .
i want to go to america to see how they play. i hope to see michael jordan and shaquille o' neal .
although the national team has several players in their 20s, coaches have their eye on young talent, girls who have expressed passion in the sport and persuaded their parents to let them play. this month, about 40 girls 12 to 14 years old have started practicing with eight new coaches .
kausar mahdi, 17, said she has loved basketball since seventh grade, but had been rebuffed by her father .
he said:' care about your lessons. care to go to a good college.' but after three years, i asked my father again and he said,' ok.'
she watched games at school and her father helped her put up a hoop at home .
i' m not really good ,
she said .
i have to practice more .
farther north in irbil, 14 - year - old romrama shamael nano dribbles and shoots in a brand - new gymnasium, where she joins other aspiring female basketball players. their gym is the nicest in northern iraq, but they can practice and compete only when their coach isn' t busy with his three other teams .
i want to be a very good player ,
romrama said. with the completion of the new gymnasium, the players hope more tournaments will be scheduled so they can do more than just practice .
now we have an opportunity ,
said abdulla, of the olympic committee .
kurdistan is free. it is different from the south and the middle. we want to make the iraqi people be together, especially in sports .
in the world of college athletics... : he' s not an average joe: paterno wants to win - - and usually does - - but what sets him apart from many football coaches is that he won' t put game ahead of academics, integrity
syncup recently had the chance to interview ryan bubalo to learn more about his role as studysync’s education accounts manager. last week, ryan described his new position at studysync .
now, here is ryan on his personal experience with teaching and technology in the classroom .
i am very fortunate to come to studysync fresh off of two amazing teaching experiences. the first was in oxford, mississippi, where, while completing my mfa in fiction writing, i was awarded a three - year teaching fellowship .
in addition to learning how to write, my experience at ole miss really taught me how to teach. my first teaching job was as a teaching assistant for tenured faculty members in literature classes. i also enrolled in courses that examined the history of composition pedagogy. prior to ole miss, i had done some substitute teaching at the high school level, and i think that experience, as well as growing up around teachers, had given me some background in teaching. but in graduate school i learned the nuts and bolts of the profession – everything from how to rearrange the desks to reinforce a particular type of learning objective, to how and when to divide a course plan into different learning modes .
those lessons left me well prepared to take over my own classrooms when the time came. i taught both composition and creative writing courses at ole miss, and in 2008, after my first year as an instructor - of - record, the university’s center for excellence in teaching and learning awarded me their graduate instructor of the year award .
well, i followed up on my time in mississippi by doing what everyone would do: i took a job in iraq .
in the spring of 2008, i was researching a novel that i wanted to take place in baghdad. i found an opportunity to work in iraq, and i just couldn’t pass it up .
i taught at the american university of iraq - sulaimani (auis). the first thing for westerners to know in order to understand my job in iraq is that sulaimani is not baghdad. it’s a very safe city of around a million people located north of baghdad, and north of the line that separates greater iraq from iraqi kurdistan. that line demarcates the kurdish regional government’s (krg) area of control, and the krg area is generally much safer, for both westerners and iraqis, than greater iraq .
i walked to and from work. i ate out in restaurants. i rode the bus to the market. more than anything, i taught and taught and taught and taught. when i arrived, auis was a startup in its second year of operation – the facilities weren’t great, curriculum was still being ironed out, students were still getting used to an american system of education. but wow, were they willing to work .
the first course i taught was an esl immersion course – 19 students and me, 5 hours a day for 16 weeks. to say that i wish i had had studysync then would be the understatement of the year. the textbooks we used were all of about 100 pages, so if we covered more than a few pages a day, we would have run out of material in a quarter of the semester. every day was a combination of lessons and activities generated from scratch, group projects, and a lot of happy accidents and improvisation. it was simultaneously the best and worst class i’ll ever teach. i think teachers always have one class they’ll never forget, that they think of on the first day of any new semester, that they tell the most stories about. that one was mine .
i think it was my introduction to iraqi students, who, i’ve come to believe, are the hardest working in the world. granted, i’m biased. my students were so eager to learn, i actually had to be careful about how much homework i gave them because they’d stay up all night working to complete it and come to class unable to keep their eyes open. they asked for extra reading and writing assignments. they offered to walk to the bazaar with me on saturdays as long as we spoke english on the way .
honestly, i just can’t say enough good things about their work ethic, their intelligence, and their character. i know a lot of people perceive iraq as a violent, restrictive society, and i’m sure there are definitely parts of the country that reinforce that stereotype. but the young people i worked with, the ones who will hopefully become the next generation of iraqi leaders, defy those classifications. driven, intelligent, moral - the iraqi students forced me to become a better teacher just to keep up with them .
most of the young women had not played basketball before joining the team, so the game action doesn’t exactly look like the wnba. but these young women absolutely loved the game, and loved it in a way that you often don’t see in people who have played their entire lives .
the film premiered at the los angeles international film festival over the summer. it won the gold plaque award at the chicago film festival in october and also played at the international documentary film festival in amsterdam .
far and away my favorite showing, however, was at the doha tribeca film festival in qatar. in an incredibly gracious move, doha tribeca flew the entire basketball team (17 young women) from iraq to doha for the premiere. i flew out from the states and met them and their new coaches there. it was a surreal experience. for a week, we stepped out of our normal lives to walk the red carpet behind celebrities and play games in a giant arena .
if you’d told me when i first started teaching that in five years i’d be working and advocating for a web - based literacy program, i would have thought you were insane. i began as, and in some ways very much still am, an old - school chalkboard and lecture english teacher. i thought technology in the classroom was, at best, a diversion to reward students for having completed their “real” work, or, at worst, the dumbing down of education to the level of entertainment (or “edutainment” as it is sometimes derisively called) .
as with pretty much all the growth i’ve made as a teacher, my students were ultimately the ones who motivated my change. the students in my composition course had read malcolm gladwell’s the tipping point and the group that was presenting on gladwell’s chapter about “stickiness” employed so many different methods to teach their lesson – power point, video, blog responses prior to class, on the spot questionnaires, and even some good old fashioned chalkboard writing. the presentation was unforgettable, the perfect blend of form and content .
from there i started dipping my toe in the technology waters. a youtube clip here, a powerpoint portion of a lecture there. it was still a full year, though, before i started using my school’s lms to post texts and have students read and respond in a blog thread. when i did, the quality of my class discussions increased fivefold overnight. students were coming into the classroom having already read and responded to the text, and having already read their peers’ responses. they had such a better idea of what they wanted to say and, because they were more confident, they spoke up more in class. suddenly, those wallflowers in the back of the class were mixing it up in a discussion about jamaica kincaid .
ultimately, i think using technology in the classroom is about engagement. as a teacher, i want to engage my students in every way that i can. the more ideas from my classroom that find their way into my students’ lives, the better the odds that they consider those ideas in a thoughtful way. i may be a passionate advocate for sitting down in a quiet room with an actual words - on - paper book, and it’s fine for me to encourage that, but if i want to engage my students, i need to be willing to meet them on their turf. they live multi - modal lives. we all do. we need multi - modal classrooms if we’re going to engage students with literacy, writing, and critical thinking lessons that remain as important today as they ever were. in fact, with the proliferation of media and information, you could argue that these traditional skills are even more important today. it would be a shame for us to fail to teach literacy and critical thinking simply because we’re unwilling to alter our own modes of delivery .
studysync incorporates much of what i said above. it definitely drives student engagement. it is also a great model for the kinds of literacy skills students need in this day and age. i mean, how often in your real life does anyone ask you to take two weeks, read a book, and then write a 1, 000 - word response to it? almost never, right? it’s literature in a vacuum. but that’s the model still in place for teaching literature and literacy in many schools .
studysync® is a comprehensive blended ela / eld program. this complete curriculum is designed for today’s diverse classroom environments, with powerful digital instruction and the option for full print support. studysync links literacy and learning with the way today’s students experience the world. teachers benefit from an easy - to - use, flexible platform with strong classroom management tools and online standards - based assessment. excerpts in the studysync® library are intended as touchstones to generate interest in an author' s work. studysync® believes that such passages do not substitute for the reading of entire texts and strongly recommends that students seek out and engage the whole literary or informational work .
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relentlessly positive but tough when necessary, coach ryan bubalo of an iraqi women' s basketball team inspires both determination and loyalty among team members in this sports - oriented doc .
winning doesn’t come easily for the women’s basketball team at the american university of iraq (aui - s), located in the northeastern city of sulaimani. the private english - language university opened in 2007 to iraqi students of all ethnic and religious backgrounds and many attendees have relocated from baghdad and other cities for the opportunity to study in sulaimani. due to the security situation in iraq, the last names of team participants have been withheld in the film .
after an inaugural season racking up an unbroken string of losses, the players return in 2010 determined to put as many points on the board as possible. in his second year training the team, coach ryan bubalo is hopeful that the women may see some wins, but isn’t leaving the outcome to chance, preparing them with frequent sprints, drills and intense scrimmaging. even so, it comes as a bit of a shock, followed by a burst of exhilaration, when the team wins its very first game by a single point. the thrill is short - lived however, as a series of tough matches that follows tests their skills and commitment .
many aui - s players never played basketball — or indeed any sport — before joining the team, since women’s athletics are still largely frowned upon in iraq. the teams they compete against are mostly better - trained and more experienced, factors that sometimes result in major point spreads during games. the women also need to focus on their studies and maintain their gpas, additional sources of stress that compound the challenge of building the aui - s basketball program .
relentlessly positive but tough when necessary, bubalo’s own basketball background and upbeat attitude inspire both determination and loyalty among the team members .
the women also have personal and family issues to grapple with, including relocation from conflict zones, personal experience with the violence of war, and the deaths of friends and family members in the ongoing conflict. a temporary english instructor at aui - s, bubalo intends to return to the u. s. , a fact that unnerves his players and frames the bittersweet 2010 season .
the hd technical credits are serviceable, combining interviews, game play and the women’s personal video diaries, but lack the dynamic filmmaking or editing expected in a sports - oriented doc. a lively original score and soundtrack of local pop tunes effectively spurs the film’s momentum .
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in the west, we are often bombarded with dramatic and horrifying images of a violent and war - torn iraq. this makes it easy to forget that people there do
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two years ago, most of the women on the basketball team at the american university of iraq - sulaimani (auis) had never been running before. many had never played sports. none had ever been on a team with other women. they came from all corners of iraq to attend this prestigious school, but many cannot tell family back home they go to an
american
university .
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basketball is much more than a game in david fine’s stirring documentary about an iraqi women’s basketball team at the american university of iraq—sulaimani (auis) in kurdistan. for the young women on the team, most of whom have never touched a basketball or been allowed to play sports at all before, it is a blissful escape from the realities of living in a war - torn nation .
the team members come from a variety of ethnicities and sects—arab, kurd, christian, sunni, shiite—but the joy they discover in playing together and the deep love they come to feel for one another and for ryan, their young american coach, reveals an iraq united in a way we’ve rarely seen before .
“a stirring example of the possibilities for young iraqis outside the country’s war zones. ” – variety
“sometimes, it’s the simple things that we take for granted that can become the subjects of powerful films when told through the eyes of people a half a world away. ” – film slate magazine
“the film captures their love for one another and for the game. it’s a purity that leads them to shoot free throws in the rain, or run layup drills at a hoop in the middle of nowhere. they don’t play for fame, scholarships, or money; they play because they can. ” – espn
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a subtle indictment of a modeling industry that recruits very young girls from russia to work overseas .
this report concerns a project undertaken by volunteers working with the film festival marketing project for randy finch' s film producer class at ucf .
each team was assigned a film that would screen at the florida film festival. working with the festival staff, and the various filmmakers, the volunteers were responsible for the guerilla marketing of the films .
beau' score focus is forging relationships, strategic partnerships, and cultivating creative opportunities for content development at seedwell films. lewis is a passionate spokesman for emerging media - he enjoys applying his imagination and tchnical background to dream up new ways of telling stories. he has a bs in engineering form stanford university and a focus in international relations from oxford .
we decided the best way to go about marketing our film for the festival was to start with deciding who our core audience was and then reaching out and targeting specific groups and areas throughout the community where they would be exposed to the information about our film and possibly be convinced to attend one of the screenings .
once we had developed our distribution materials we mapped out where the optimally relevant locations were to post our fliers and distribute our basketballs, since we had a limited budget and limited supplies, we wanted to utilize the best possible locations to post our materials rather than wasting them by distributing them in as many places as possible and never actually reaching our core audience. we decided that the areas around rec centers, public basketball courts and multicultural centers would be in our first wave of distribution and in the second wave leading up to the film festival we would post in locations that allowed us to, close by to the enzian area, espescially near the rollins campus .
kristin created the poster design that we used and josie put together the mini - basketball fliers for us to distribute. all of the distribution was done together .
i received a positive response from a few of those that i was able to hear back from such as my contact at the muslim student association and muslim women for a cause who both said that the film sounded interesting and that they would pass on the information to people and see if they could get anyone to attend .
we were able to go on a radio show called time for talk on ucf' s wnsc online streaming radio station and talk about the film and attempt to garner attention and awareness of it' s showings at the festival, in hopes of pulling in a few possible audience members .
- our most rewarding interaction was probably with the local groups that we reached out to, unfortunately because or our show times being sunday at noon and thursday at 4 people were unable to make the screenings, due to work hours, scheduling conflicts etc. in fact, i actually had one of my group contacts say that if the screening had been in more of an evening slot they would have definitely made it to the film .
- we had originally planned on setting up a basketball hoop at enzian to gain interest in our film, we were however, unable to get a hold of a basketball hoop, and with our limited budget could not purchase one .
- attend and get in contact with intramural basketball teams to distribute film info .
- pass out fliers and basketballs in regal parking lot area and try and raise inerest in sunday screening .
- enzian pre - screening on thursday to pass out fliers and basketballs to garner interest for 4: 00 screening .
our calendar, for the most part, followed what we had originally planned to do with our marketing, the main difference was we had to create more materials than expected because we never received the posters from our film contact. also, we decided to do more hand to hand marketing and less talking to the media than we originally planned for in our marketing brainstorming .
our experience with this project was definitely a learning experience. when we were assigned this film we were dubious from the initial description as to whether or not we would actually even like the film, but once we watched we realized what a great documentary it really was. this lead us to the lesson that if a film is difficult to market, or explain to people then it' s easy for it to be over looked. most of the time when we tried explaining to people what this movie was about, they gave us the standard of
oh that sounds interesting
, but we got the feeling that they didn' t necessarily find it compelling enough to make the effort to go and see it. however, we saw how useful all the techniques we learned this semester could be for marketing a film on a budget and yield really great results .
the story of one winning group of women basketball players at the american university in sulaimani, iraq. they came from all corners of iraq to attend this prestigious university, but many cannot tell family back home that they go to an
american
university. the team itself is a
mini iraq
- comprised of arabs, kurds, turkmen, and christians. there are laylan and enji, the team captains, safa, the manager, and ryan, their american coach .
the film follows the women' s basketball team of the the american university of iraq – sulaimani (auis) for a full academic year. the players discover what it means to be students, athletes and friends in the difficult political, economic, cultural and ethnic / sectarian divide, and how basketball unites them around a game. the film follows the lives of some of the auis' woman basketball players, notably laylan (team captain), enji, ola and safa, and their basketball coach ryan bubalo, who is the university' s contractual english language teacher. the film is a testament to the perseverance of a handful of young iraqi women, and is a story of triumph in the face of chaos and adversity .
the film gained mostly positive reviews. it also became part of the nike jordans rise above campaign, which featured basketball team captain laylan in a five - minute presentation .
doha tribeca flew the entire basketball team (17 young women) from iraq to doha for the screening of the film, where they met their previous coach ryan bubalo, who had flown in from the us to attend the screening .
it won the gold plaque for
best documentary
award at the 2011 chicago international film festival. it was also nominated for the gold hugo
best documentary
award .
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the 23rd annual human rights watch film festival returns to new york from june 14 to 28 with a program of powerful human stories of oppression, injustice, and resilience from across the globe .
sixteen documentary and fiction films from 12 countries will be screened, including 14 new york premieres. a co - presentation of human rights watch and the film society of lincoln center, the festival will be held at the film society’s walter reade theater. most of the screenings will be followed by q & a sessions with filmmakers, and some by panel discussions with experts and film subjects .
the program this year is organized around five themes: health, development, and the environment; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (lgbt) and migrants’ rights; personal testimony and witnessing; reporting in crises; and women’s rights .
“what is truly inspiring and hopeful about this year’s program is how many films showcase the powerful impact that individuals have on human rights issues on the world stage, ” said john biaggi, human rights watch film festival director. “these films demonstrate that committed individuals can generate positive and lasting change. ”
“for over 20 years, the human rights watch film festival has provided a forum for the creative community to share stories that bear witness to the human condition, ” added rose kuo, film society of lincoln center executive director. “we are proud to support their mission of bringing important issues to the screen. ”
the festival will launch on june 14 with a fundraising benefit night for human rights watch, featuring kim nguyen’s war witch, an emotionally powerful drama about a 14 - year - old girl abducted by a rebel army in sub - saharan africa. the main program will begin on june 15, with the opening night presentation of alison klayman’s festival favorite ai weiwei: never sorry, an up - close look at renowned chinese artist and activist ai weiwei and his ongoing battle with the chinese government. the closing night screening on june 28 will be katherine fairfax wright and malika zouhali - worrall’s call me kuchu, which follows the bold efforts of ugandan david kato and a close - knit group of activists to repeal their country’s homophobic laws and liberate their fellow lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens, or “kuchus. ”
health, development, and the environment three american - directed documentaries highlight the wide - ranging effects of corporate commoditization on human rights. matthew heineman and susan froemke’s escape fire: the fight to rescue american healthcare skillfully examines the powerful forces maintaining the status quo of a broken medical system—a system designed for quick fixes rather than prevention, for profit - driven care rather than patient - driven care. micha x. peled’s bitter seeds is a vibrant investigation into a suicide epidemic among india’s cotton farmers, deeply in debt after getting caught up in program that uses genetically modified seed program. beth and george gage’s bidder 70 profiles courageous environmental activist tim dechristopher, who was sentenced to two years in federal prison in 2011 for deliberately sabotaging a much - protested bureau of land management auction of oil and gas leases on pristine public lands in utah .
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (lgbt) and migrants’ rights while the closing night documentary call me kuchu looks at the injustices facing the lgbt community in uganda, two other festival titles highlight the issues and abuses faced by predominantly african migrants in europe. in the emotionally charged documentary special flight, director fernand melgar gained intimate access to his subjects, rejected asylum seekers and unauthorized migrants in switzerland’s frambois detention center. german filmmaker maggie peren’s drama, color of the ocean, tells the moving story of a father and son, congolese refugees whose paths collide with those of an altruistic tourist and a canary islands police officer—changing the course of all their lives .
personal testimony and witnessing four films in this year’s program—including the narrative portrait war witch and the documentary profile ai weiwei: never sorry—reveal the permanent and pervasive impact of human rights abuses on the lives of individuals. annie goldson’s powerful brother number one follows new zealander rob hamill as he is given the chance to testify at the cambodia war crimes tribunal against comrade duch, the man responsible for ordering the death of thousands of prisoners at the khmer rouge’s notorious s - 21 prison, including rob’s brother kerry. lieven corthouts’ little heaven is a touchingportrait of 13 - year - old lydia, as she goes about her daily life in an ethiopian orphanage for children living with hiv .
reporting in crises three documentaries offer insight into the work of courageous journalists the world over who, despite the many risks they face, refuse to stay quiet. mexican - american filmmaker bernardo ruiz’s reportero follows veteran reporter sergio haro and his colleagues at zeta, a tijuana - based newsweekly, as they boldly ply their trade in what has become one of the most deadly places in the world to be a journalist. beate arnestad’s silenced voices is told as a personal encounter with exiled journalists from sri lanka who have been “silenced” and almost killed in their home country because they exposed war crimes, corruption and massacres of civilians. egyptian - american director mai iskander’s words of witness focuses on daringyoung cairo - based internet reporter heba afify as she takes to the streets to report on an egypt in turmoil .
in conjunction with this year’s film program, the festival will present the photo exhibit unreported stories, south african photographer brent stirton’s visual investigation into abuses against people living near the porgera gold mine of papua new guinea. stirton and human rights watch won a 2012 peabody award for their investigative work in the mine. the exhibit will be featured in the frieda and roy furman gallery at the walter reade theater for the duration of the festival .
all films are screened at the film society of lincoln center’s walter reade theater, 165 west 65th street, north side / upper level (between broadway and amsterdam ave. )
ticket information: ticket information for the 2012 human rights watch film festival can be found at urltoken or in person at the walter reade theater box office. hours: mon. - fri. opens at 12: 30pm, sat. / sun. opens 1 / 2 hr before first public screening; closes 15 minutes after the start of the last show. the box office closes at 6pm when there are no public screenings. for more information visit urltoken, urltoken or call 212 - 875 - 5600 during operating hours. experience the festival on the go with hrwff’s mobile site: visit urltoken from mobile devices to buy tickets, browse the film schedule, view trailers and listen to interviews with filmmakers .
program details benefit film & reception thursday, june 14, 6: 30pm post - screening panel discussion: featuring jo becker, advocacy director, children’s rights division, human rights watch and grace akallo, former child soldier and co - author of “girl soldier: a story of hope for northern uganda’s children. ” moderated by carroll bogert, deputy executive director for external relations, human rights watch .
nestor almendros award renowned cinematographer and filmmaker nestor almendros (1930–1992) was a founder of the human rights watch film festival, actively involved in the selection of films and the promotion of human rights filmmaking. even while deeply immersed in his own projects, he took the time to call the festival team to mention a strong documentary or promote a work - in - progress. believing in the power of human rights filmmaking, nestor devoted himself to becoming a mentor to many young filmmakers. it is in the festival’s loving memory of nestor and our desire to celebrate his vision that we proudly bestow this award to filmmakers for their exceptional commitment to human rights. the festival is delighted to present kirby dick and amy ziering—filmmakers of the invisible war—with our 2012 nestor almendros award for courage in filmmaking .
in the guarded forests of mt. elgon, in kenya’s rift valley, we journeyed to report on the struggle of a collective of widows waiting for justice and fighting the truth. the plight of these women, whose husbands were forcibly disappeared or were killed during the 2006 - 2008 clashes between the insurgent sabaot land defence force and the kenyan government, represents the heart of the story human rights abuse buried in mt. elgon. in october 2011, we sent our findings to members of the us senate, and in november, they passed a bill imposing conditions on military assistance to kenya until the government establishes thorough and credible investigations of alleged crimes by the kenyan military in mt. elgon in march 2008 .
by broadcasting these unreported stories to policymakers and the media, we became a loudspeaker for issues that may have gone ignored. armed with photographs, video, testimony and in - depth and long - term investigative work, we were able to shine a light on stories that matter and deserve to be reported.
salaam dunk is a 2011 american documentary film directed by david fine about an iraqi university 's women basketball program , spearheaded by a us-born instructor as coach . 
salaam dunk is a 2011 american documentary film directed by david fine about an iraqi university's women basketball program, spearheaded by a us-born instructor as coach.
salaam dunk is a 2011 american documentary film directed by david fine about an iraqi university's women basketball program, spearheaded by a us-born instructor as coach.