The Search for Common Ground Film Festival. (Film: seeing the other sides).The Search for Common Ground Film Festival. www.sfcg.orgThe term reconciliation carries such a chord of optimism; it conjures images of issues resolved and friendships re-established. But it's usually wrenching work. It can also be painful, yet cathartic cathartic (kəthär`tĭk): see laxative. , to watch. A Washington, D.C.-based organization called Search for Common Ground wanted to demonstrate creative ways of resolving conflict, and they did so through a creative medium: film. The organization held its first film festival in October with eight powerful documentaries that address themes of conflict resolution and reconciliation. The films range in style, length, and structure, but their cumulative effect forces us to see all the angles of conflict. Not only do we watch others navigate the hard path of forgiveness, history, and truth, we have to wonder ourselves about the nature of reconciliation: What is it really? Where does it take place? The films move viewers beyond viewing to dialogue, one of the festival's goals. The films will travel for one year to universities and colleges throughout the country as part of Search for Common Ground's mission to promote peaceful, cooperative approaches to conflict resolution. In May, the European Centre for Common Ground in Brussels will host the film festival, after which the films will travel to European universities and international organizations. For more information and a listing of colleges that will host the film series, see www.sfcg.org. Long Night's Journey into Day: South Africa's Search for Truth and Reconciliation, directed by Frances Reid Frances Reid (born on November 9 1914 in Wichita Falls, Texas) is an American actress, who's known to millions of younger audiences as matriarch and widow Alice Horton on and Deborah Hoffman. The 94-minute documentary looks at four groups of people making their way through the truth and reconciliation process, including the family of Amy Biehl 'Amy Elizabeth Biehl''' (April 26, 1967–August 25, 1993) was an American college student at Stanford University and an Anti-Apartheid activist in South Africa. She studied at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town as part of the Fulbright Program. . The film won best documentary at the 2000 Sundance Festival. (Iris Film/Cinemax Reel Life, 2000) Just a Little Red Dot, directed by Mitra Sen. A fifth-grader from Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (srē läng`kə) [Sinhalese,=resplendent land], formerly Ceylon, ancient Taprobane, officially Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, island republic (2005 est. pop. moves to Canada and her classmates Classmates can refer to either:
Regret to Inform: A Journey in Search of Truth, directed by Barbara Sonneborn. Twenty years TWENTY YEARS. The lapse of twenty years raises a presumption of certain facts, and after such a time, the party against whom the presumption has been raised, will be required to prove a negative to establish his rights. 2. after the director's husband was killed in Vietnam, she traveled there to search for answers about the war. Sonneborn shows the devastation war creates on a personal level by weaving together stories of widows from the United States and Vietnam. (Sun Foundation Productions, 1998) Forbidden Marriages in the Holy Land, directed by Michel Khleifi. A Palestinian musician living with an Israeli musicologist mu·si·col·o·gy n. The historical and scientific study of music. mu  si·co·log and a Jewish
woman who converted to Islam to be with her husband are among the eight
couples Khleifi interviews in his 66-minute documentary about those who
chose love and not hate. (Sinibad Films, in association with Sourat
Films and the New Media program of the European Union European Union (EU), name given since the ratification (Nov., 1993) of the Treaty of European Union, or Maastricht Treaty, to theEuropean Community , 1995) Peace of Mind: Coexistence Through the Eyes of Palestinian and Israeli Teens, directed by Mark Landsman lands·man 1 n. One who lives and works on land. Noun 1. landsman - a person who lives and works on land landlubber, landman . A group of Palestinian and Israeli teen-agers are given video cameras to record a year in their lives. The result is a 56-minute documentary that offers a personal look at the challenges each of them face in their volatile land. (Global Action Project, 1999) Rain, directed by Ilan Yagoda. Yagoda, an Israeli filmmaker, interviews Arab villagers who were forced to leave their village in 1949 and the Jewish settlers who built Kibbutz kibbutz: see collective farm. kibbutz Israeli communal settlement in which all wealth is held in common and profits are reinvested in the settlement. The first kibbutz was founded in Palestine in 1909; most have since been agricultural. Megido on the same piece of land. A very sensitive telling. (Israel Film Service, 1998) Zegota, directed by Sy Rotter. Through archival footage and interviews, this 28-minute film tells the story of Zegota, an organization started by two Catholic woman to rescue Polish Jews and others escaping from Nazi control by provided hiding places, false identity documents, and financial help. (Documentaries International Film & Video Production, 1992) Prelude to Kosovo: War and Peace in Bosnia and Croatia, directed by John Michalczyk. This 52-minute film covers the history of the conflict and the ideologies that resulted in ethnic cleansing, through graphic footage and interviews with religious and political figures. (Boston College and the Boston Theological Institute For the 19th-century institution of the same name, see Boston University School of Theology Boston Theological Institute (BTI) is the largest theological consortium in the world, bringing together the resources of universities and divinity schools throughout the greater Boston , 1999) Molly Marsh, editor of CultureWatch, is an assistant editor of Sojourners. |
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