Tag Archives: documentary film

The Hunting Ground, Film Screening

Posted on by
Reply

the-hunting-ground-poster-405x600

The Title IX Coalition and The Graduate Employee Union/United Auto Workers Union will host a discussion and screening of the film The Hunting Ground, the ground breaking documentary that demonstrates the prevalence of sexual violence on college campuses and the lack of meaningful administrative response to victim-survivors.

The film engages with the Title IX struggles and the national movement across college campuses, which includes the University of Connecticut.  After the film, a discussion will follow with students and faculty who have been part of the legal filings and ongoing social justice movements at UCONN.

 

 

THE HUNTING GROUND

THURSDAY, APRIL 9TH, 2015 AT 5:30PM 

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT, STORRS

SCHOOL OF NURSING, RM. WW16

(http://classrooms.uconn.edu/carolyn-ladd-widmer-wing-16/)

2014-2015 Human Rights Film Series: Come Hell or High Water

Posted on by
Reply

89f65881-95da-4ba0-80dc-25ee3640b277 Wednesday February 11th, 2015

4:00pm-6:00pm

Storrs Campus

Konover Auditorium, Dodd Center

Admission is FREE

    Come Hell or High Water (2014)

This film follows the painful but inspiring journey of Derrick Evans, a Boston teacher who moves home to coastal Mississippi when the graves of his ancestors are bulldozed to make way for the sprawling city of Gulfport. Over the course of a decade, Derrick and his neighbor stand up to powerful corporate interests and politicians and face ordeals that include Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil disaster in their struggle for self-determination and environmental justice.

TRAILER

Human Rights Institute Film Series: October 2014

Posted on by
Reply

blood rising

The first installment of the HRI Films Series will begin Wednesday, October 1st with the screening of Blood Rising: Daughters of Mexico. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmaker Mark McLoughlin and other invited speakers.  Airing at 3:30-6:00pm in Konover Auditorium, Dodd Research Center.

2013-2014 Human Rights Film Series

Posted on by
Reply

granito

The first installation of the 2013-2014 Human Rights Film Series is upon us.  On Wednesday September 11, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator will be shown in the Konovar Auditorium at the Dodd Research Center from 4-7pm.  This award winning documentary (often promoted on this blog) provides rich context for the recently scrutinized trial of Guatemalan General Rios Montt.  The film will be followed by a discussion with expert forensic anthropologist Dr. Victoria Sanford of the Lehman Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies.

Details can be found on Events Calender

 

 

 

 

 

Rios Montt does the Pinochet

Posted on by
Reply

montt

10 May 2013:

Over thirty years after the Scorched Earth campaign by the military and death squads in Guatemala, General Efrain Rios Montt is convicted of genocide committed against the Mayan’s of the Ixil region.  Like the notorious Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, Montt (86 years old) was brought to trial late in life – however, the distinction of having been forced into the courtroom, despite legal defense attempting to waylay the inevitable, is what stands between the two notorious figureheads.  Montt’s sentence of 80 years in prison stands as a penalty for the crime versus a punishment he can withstand.  This precedent setting national conviction will serve as a warning to both heads of state and top ranking military officials that impunity, even in the most stratified of countries, can be challenged.        

Filmmakers Pamela Yates and Paco de Onis (When the Mountains Tremble and Granito) were on hand for both the filming of the trial as well as witnessing their own footage used as evidence in the closing remarks against Montt.  A great collection of daily summaries from the trial can be seen in their ongoing film series Dictator in the Docket.  Though the conviction has happened, the greivances still exist for the crimes committed in Guatemala.  With this piece of history, a social dialogue can begin to unpack the roots of an extermination campaign against indigenous peoples and their corresponding position in society today.

2012-2013 Human Rights Film Series

Posted on by
Reply

The next film series event organized by the Human Rights Institute will be held on April 10th, 2013 and will be showing Women Behind Bars. The film will be shown at 4pm in Konover Auditorium in the Dodd Center.

For more information follow the link to the film series calender http://web2.uconn.edu/wdlcalendar/index.php/occurrence/129894

 

Guatemalan Criminal Tribunal Begins

Posted on by
Reply

logbook

From the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission:

“In Guatemala today, Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez are going to trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for massacres committed against indigenous civilians in Guatemala’s Ixil triangle. This historic case is the first time that a former head of state is being tried for genocide in a domestic court. It is crucial for the nation’s healing process, and will be a key step in ending impunity for the atrocities committed during the war.”

The trial of these major military leaders is an important attempt by human rights defenders and victims to bring those still able to stand trial to justice.  The crimes commited against those who lost life and loved ones to the Guatemalan state’s coordinated terror campaign form a seminal era in Cold War history.  The targeted killing of indigenous peoples across Central America in the name of fighting communism on the US’s dime lays bare the implications of imperialism, indigeneity and land use in a stratified third world country of the 1980s.

Follow the trial monitoring blog organized by the Open Society Justice Initiative!  To access video resources relating to Guatemala’s indigenous struggle, two important films are available in Babbidge library: When the Mountains Tremble, and Granito: How to Nail a Dictator. For a comprehensive archival collection, the Guatemalan Documentation Project coordinated by the National Security Archive contains key documents that will be utilized in the trial.