DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE
DIRECTOR: HUBERT SAUPER, SANDOR RIEDER
AUSTRALIA 2005

FRI, SEPT 16, 7 & 9:15 PM
SAT, SEPT 17, 7 & 9:15 PM
SUN, SEPT 18, 7 PM
Guild Theatre

In the 1960s, the Nile perch was introduced into Tanzania’s Lake Victoria. Rapacious and predatory, the fish all but wiped out the native stock and soon the very life of the lake was threatened. More than just another story of environmental havoc from an invasive species, DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE is a cautionary tale of the unforeseen consequences of human action and the devastating toll the emergence of a commercial fishing industry has taken on the local human population. Each day, tons of perch are filleted and shipped to European and Japanese markets. Russian pilots, East Asian businessmen, fish factory owners and prostitutes thrive in the lucrative fish-ranching industry. But the locals, who once lived off the lake, watch the fish jet off to a global market, there is nothing but rotting carcasses left behind for them to stave off hunger. Sauper and Rieder interviewed people from all facets of the local economy, including a factory owner who shows the filmmaker his toy fish that sings “Don’t worry, be happy.” But with famine gripping the lake community, this is clearly not their song. (107 mins.)

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MARDI GRAS: MADE IN CHINA
DIRECTOR: DAVID REDMOND
US 2004

THUR SEPT 22, 7 PM
Guild Theatre

MARDI GRAS: MADE IN CHINA juxtaposes two worlds—connecting on a human level what we take for granted and what lies behind perceived reality. As drunken, bead-draped revelers swarm the streets in New Orleans, Redmond follows the bead trail to the factory in China for a revealing look at their production—an instructive lesson in global economics and the gap between east and west. The strictly-managed, teenage factory-workers and partying hedonists vicariously encounter each other through the medium of images when the filmmaker projects his factory footage on the walls of Bourbon Street and passes out photographs to the workers in the factory. Redmond’s clever film is not a strident polemic, but an effective consciousness-raising work, by turns funny and heartbreaking. As we come to know the hopes, dreams and working conditions endured for something others simple throw away we cannot help but reflect. (75 mins.)

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NO MORE TEARS SISTER
DIRECTOR: HELENE KLODAWSKY
CANADA 2004

THUR SEPT 29, 7 PM
Guild Theatre

A story of love, revolution, and betrayal, NO MORE TEARS explores the price of truth in times of war. Exploring the violent ethnic conflict that has enveloped Sri Lanka for decades, Klodawsky gently renders the courageous and vibrant life of renowned human rights activist Dr. Rajani Thiranagama. Wartime mother, university professor, wife, activist, and symbol of hope, Rajani was assassinated in 1989 at the age of 35. Fifteen years after Rajani’s death, her older sister Nirmala, a former Tamil militant and political prisoner, journeys back to Sri Lanka to break her long silence about Rajani’s passionate life and her brutal slaying. Through the reflections of family members and fellow activists forced underground, rare archival footage and intimate correspondence, the story of a revolutionary women and her dangerous pursuit of justice comes vividly to life. (79 mins.)

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STREET FIGHT
DIRECTOR: MARSHALL CURRY
US 2005

THUR OCT 6, 7 PM
Guild Theatre

STREET FIGHT chronicles the bare-knuckles race for Mayor of Newark, N.J. between Cory Booker, a 32-year-old Rhodes Scholar/Yale Law School graduate, and Sharpe James, the four-term incumbent and undisputed champion of New Jersey politics. Fought in Newark’s neighborhoods and housing projects, the battle pits Booker against an old style political machine that uses any means necessary to crush its opponents: city workers who do not support the mayor are demoted; “disloyal” businesses are targeted by code enforcement; a campaigner is detained and accused of terrorism; and disks of voter data are burglarized in the night. Even the filmmaker is dragged into the slugfest, and by Election Day, the climate becomes so heated that the Federal government is forced to send in observers to monitor events. The battle sheds important light on American questions about democracy, power and race as it tells a gripping story of an election not won by spin-doctors and media consultants, but by victory in the streets. (83 mins.)

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STATE OF FEAR
DIRECTOR: PAMELA YATES
US/PERU 2005

THUR OCT 13, 7 PM
Guild Theatre

How can an open society balance demands for security with democracy? STATE OF FEAR dramatizes the human and societal costs a democracy faces when it embarks on a “war” against terror, one potentially without end and all too easily exploited by leaders seeking to maintain personal political power. Yates blends personal testimony, history and archival footage to tell the story of escalating violence in Peru and how the fear of terror undermined the government and created a virtual dictatorship that replaced the rule of law. As terrorist attacks by Shining Path insurgents provoked military occupation of the countryside, military justice replaced civil authority. As widespread abuses by the Peruvian Army went unpunished, terrorism continued to spread. Over the years, nearly 70,000 civilians eventually died in the fighting. While the film follow events in Perú, the experience serves as a cautionary tale for other democratic nations confronted by terrorism. (94 mins.)

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SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL: THE JOURNEY OF ROMEO DALLAIRE
DIRECTOR: PETER RAYMONT
CANADA 2004

FRI OCT 21, 7 PM
SAT OCT 22, 7 PM
Guild Theatre

In 1994 one man was given the task by the United Nations to ensure that peace was maintained in Rwanda: Canadian General Romeo Dallaire. In 100 nightmarish days more than 800,000 men, women, and children were brutally murdered. The victims, many horrifically hacked to death with machetes, were Tutsi and moderate Hutus who supported them. Dallaire was thrown into a country he barely understood, leading ill equipped, untrained troops who did not want to be there. Unsupported by U.N. headquarters or the moral suasion of the United States, Dallaire and his handful of soldiers were incapable of stopping the killing. The experience led to Dallaire’s own life tragedy as he dealt with the psychological fallout of witnessing a genocide he was powerless to stop. Based on his best-selling book of the same title, filmmaker Peter Raymont followed Dallaire during his first return trip to Rwanda in April 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the killing fields that still haunt him. (97 mins.)

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PRIVATE
DIRECTOR: SAVERIO COSTANZO
ITALY 2003

THUR OCT 27, 7 PM
Guild Theatre

Winner of the Golden Leopard for Best Film at the Locarno Film Festival, Costanzo’s film approaches the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of one Palestinian household—a well educated, middle-class family who own a modern, spacious home in the countryside. The family members are divided about what they should do in the face of escalating tensions. Worried about the safety of her sons and daughters, mother Samia wants to leave. Her husband, Mohammed, insists that they should hold their ground and deal with the situation as it develops. Soon, domestic arguments give way to a group of Israeli soldiers who suddenly occupy the house as an observation post—turning the family into prisoners, while they divide the house into three areas: one for the Israelis, one for the Palestinian family, and a common space to be shared. Humiliated at being rendered powerless in their own home, the elder teenage children start to vent their anger at their parents and take matters into their own hands in a tension-filled battle of wits. (94 mins.)

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OCCUPATION: DREAMLAND
DIRECTORS: GARRETT SCOTT, IAN OLDS
US 2005

SUN OCT 30, 7 PM
Guild Theatre

OCCUPATION: DREAMLAND offers a rare and intimate window into the daily life of one group of U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq to “keep peace” less than one year after President Bush announced mission accomplished. The film follows one squad in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne deployed in the doomed Iraqi city of Falluja during the winter of 2004. Featuring a series of remarkably candid interviews with the squad’s soldiers, the film brings a first-hand view of the moral and operational complexities inherent in American warfare in the 21st century. As low-intensity conflict proliferates, distrust between the Iraqi civilians in Falluja and the U.S. soldiers increase, leading to greater confusion, skepticism and disaster on all sides.

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