Sunday-October 21-Voorhees Hall #105-7PM $10; $9; $8
Best of the 2012 New Jersey International Film Festival - Part 4
#whilewewatch - Kevin Breslin (Rockaway Beach, New York)
A gripping and timely doc about the Occupy Wall Street movement that emerged from Zuccotti Park in New York City to galvanize the world. It is the story of how people from every walk of life came together in the sun and rain, day and night, fueled only with energy and hope, to demand an end to corporate corruption and the lack of accountability in our financial, banking, and political systems. #whilewewatch covers the movement as it unfolded and expanded, tracking the activists as they refuse to concede to pressures from the police and city government, and as they strategize their next move in the struggle for social and economic reform. This is the inside story of what true democracy looks like. 2011; 40 min.
Cultures of Resistance – Iara Lee (San Francisco, Califiornia)
Weaving a global tapestry, Cultures of Resistance explores how art and creativity can become instruments in the battle for peace and justice. In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq War, director Iara Lee embarked on a journey to better understand a world increasingly embroiled in conflict and heading, as she saw it, toward self-destruction. Travelling over five continents, she began to document creative responses and acts of resistance against political oppression and violence. From Iran, where graffiti and rap became tools in fighting government repression; to Burma, where monks acting in the tradition of Gandhi take on a dictatorship; to Brazil, where musicians reach out to slum kids and transform guns into guitars; and to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, where photography, music, and film give a voice to those rarely heard. The film also features: Medellín poets for peace, Capoeira masters from Brazil, Niger Delta militants, Iranian graffiti artists, women’s movement leaders in Rwanda, Lebanon’s refugee filmmakers, U.S. political activists, indigenous Kayapó activists from the Xingu River, Israeli dissidents, and many more. 2011; 73 min. Co-sponsored by the Rutgers University Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs (GAIA Centers)
