Fifteen years ago a woman named Fran Stone started a film festival at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC in honor of the great anthropologist Margaret Mead.
Just one afternoon at this marvelous event allowed me to travel to Kenya, Syria, the Netherlands and Dharamsala, India within the space of three hours. You can see films and stories you won't see anywhere else.
Jiska Rickels film "In Procedure" should be mandatory screening for anyone who believes we should block the entrance of Syrain refugees to this country. We are privileged to witness Hassan go through the endless machinations to transcend the bureaucracy of Dutch immigration in order to be given asylum. He lives in a tiny room at a former prison while waiting and receives desperate texts and phone messages from his wife and daughter back in Hama which is being bombed by allied and insurgent forces. The daughter is sick with Hodgkins lymphoma and has no access to treatment. At one point we see the family, including small boys, on a boat at night headed for Turkey and my heart sinks. What if they drown?
Equally compelling is "Gunrunners" a film about two former Kenyan cattle rustlers who struggle with the choice to give up their guns and criminal lifestyle. The do so only to face the perils of political life and international marathon running.
A worthwhile way to spend an autumn afternoon.
Just one afternoon at this marvelous event allowed me to travel to Kenya, Syria, the Netherlands and Dharamsala, India within the space of three hours. You can see films and stories you won't see anywhere else.
Jiska Rickels film "In Procedure" should be mandatory screening for anyone who believes we should block the entrance of Syrain refugees to this country. We are privileged to witness Hassan go through the endless machinations to transcend the bureaucracy of Dutch immigration in order to be given asylum. He lives in a tiny room at a former prison while waiting and receives desperate texts and phone messages from his wife and daughter back in Hama which is being bombed by allied and insurgent forces. The daughter is sick with Hodgkins lymphoma and has no access to treatment. At one point we see the family, including small boys, on a boat at night headed for Turkey and my heart sinks. What if they drown?
Equally compelling is "Gunrunners" a film about two former Kenyan cattle rustlers who struggle with the choice to give up their guns and criminal lifestyle. The do so only to face the perils of political life and international marathon running.
A worthwhile way to spend an autumn afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please tell me what good thing you encountered today.