2nd & 3rd August 2008 ; Human Rights film festival

HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL

COIMBATORE
02.08.2008 & 03.08.2008 5 pm to 8.30 pm
Ashwin Hospital Auditorium

Jointly presented by Konangal Film Society,
PUCL Coimbatore and BREAKTHROUGH New Delhi

HUMAN RIGHTS IN FRAMES
Six award winning documentary / short films

Independent Intervention



Director : Tonje Hessen Schei
Iraq/Norway/USA - 75 mins
Independent Intervention is an award-winning documentary about the US Media coverage of the war in Iraq. Focusing on the human costs of war, it contrasts the mass media's coverage of the invasion of Iraq with independent reports of the brutal realities on the ground. Following a Norwegian filmmaker in the United States who questions how the US media covers the war in Iraq, the film brings awareness to the disparity between the war the American people see through the corporate controlled media and the realities on the ground in Iraq. Independent Intervention explores how the growing media democracy movement in the US works to challenge the mass media.

It’s Always Late For Freedom



Director: Mehrdad Oskouei
Iran – 58mins
The film depicts the life of three teenager boys in Tehran House of Correction. They are the innocent victims of the serious social problems such as addiction, poverty and divorce, which the Iranian society is faced with.

The Women's Kingdom



Director: Xiaoli Zhou
China/USA 22.14 mins
Keepers of one of the last matriarchal societies in the world, Mosuo women live beyond the strictures of mainstream Chinese culture. This short documentary offers a rare glimpse into a society virtually unheard of 10 years ago and now often misrepresented in the media. Mosuo women control their own finances and do not marry or live with partners; they practice what they call "walking marriage." While tourism has brought wealth and 21st century conveniences to this remote area, it has also introduced difficult challenges to the culture—from pollution and the establishment of brothels, to mainstream ideas about women, beauty, and family. This finely wrought documentary is a sensitive portrayal of extraordinary women struggling to hold on to their extraordinary society.

I Want to Be a Pilot



Director: Diego Quemada Diaz
Kenya/Mexico/Spain 12 mins
Deep in the slums of East Africa, a twelve-year-old has only one dream: to be able to fly. This moving film is about a poverty stricken boy in one of the poorest parts of Kenya who looks up towards the heavens and dreams of being an airline pilot. Omondi is a young orphan trapped in the East African slum of Kiberia. In this dramatic short, the director, Diego Quemada-Diaz, spotlights his wish of piloting the plane that will take him away from his bleak life of poverty.

LEILA KHALED HIJACKER


Director: Lina Makboul Sweden | 2005
Arabic & Swedish with English subtitles | 58 mins
Sitting in the departure lounge at the Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome she looked like a stylish lady. No one would have guessed what she was about to do. She had bought the white dress a couple of days earlier in the exclusive shop by the Spanish steps to match her handbag and her white sun hat. She held her handbag tight. It was only a couple of minutes before the departure of flight TWA 840. She had just met her fellow hijacker, Salim, for the first time a couple of hours earlier. They had first class tickets. The gun hurt her hip. She had taped it inside her panties. It was August 29, 1969 and TWA flight 840 had just taken off. The destination was Tel Aviv, Israel. A short while later she left her seat, threatened the crew with hand grenades and entered the cockpit. She took hold of the microphone announcing, "Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please, kindly fasten your seat belts. This is your new Captain speaking. The Che Guevara commando unit of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine..." Twenty-four year old Leila Khaled had just completed her first hijacking and became the first woman ever to hijack an airplane. One year later, she did it again. Leila Khaled Hijacker tells the story of who she is and what made her become a freedom fighter to some and a terrorist to others.

The Hands of Che Guevara



Director: Peter De Kock
The Netherlands 62 mins
The documentary is a search for the severed and missing hands of Che Guevara. The search reveals a number of remarkable people: men and women who were prepared to risk their lives to recover two hands. Through their testimonies and anecdotes a story unfolds—a tale so bizarre and secret that it was banished to the shadow world of history. By stringing together the small, subjective stories of each person involved, slowly a larger, ‘objective’ history becomes visible.
Although some stories have been spectacularly embellished, they form a human memory-chain till the present time.







Click here to Learn more about Human Rights ....

Click here to learn about People's Union for Civil liberties

Click here for . . Human Rights Act 1993

27th July 2008 ; Screening of Sling Blade

SLING BLADE
A film by Billy Bob Thornton,
Year 1996
Country : USA
Run time : 135 minutes
English with English sub titles
27th July 2008 ; 5.45 pm
Ashwin Hospital Auditorium

``Sling Blade'' begins with a remarkable monologue delivered straight to the camera. A man with a raspy voice, an overshot jaw and a lot of pain in his eyes says he reckons we might like to hear about his story, and so he tells it. His name is Karl Childers, he is retarded, and he has been in a state facility since childhood, when he found his mother with her lover and killed them both. But now, he says, ``I reckon I got no reason to kill no one. Uh, huh.'' Karl is talking to a reporter about his release from the institution. They reckon he has been cured. They are probably right. He is not a killer, would not kill without good and proper reason, and now understands how, as a child, he misinterpreted the situation. As he talks, we are struck by his forceful presence; he is retarded, yes, but he is complex and observant, and has spent a lot of time thinking about what he should and shouldn't do.
``Sling Blade.'' The movie is a work of great originality and fascination by Billy Bob Thornton, who wrote it, directed it and plays Karl Childers. He says that the character ``came to him'' one morning while he was shaving, and he started talking to himself in the mirror, in Karl's voice.

Thornton is a former country musician turned screenwriter (he wrote the remarkable ``One False Move'' and ``A Family Thing''). He plays Karl as a man of limited intelligence but great seriousness, who reasons as well as he can, and feels deeply. There is pain, humor, irony and sweetness in the character, and a voice and manner so distinctive, he is the most memorable movie character seen in a long time.

The movie's ultimate destination is not hard to guess, but we feel a certain satisfaction when it arrives there. And by then we have come to know Karl with a real understanding and fondness. He is a character unlike any other in the movies, an original, and in creating him, Thornton has made a place for himself among the best new filmmakers. As an actor, he creates a difficult character and finds exactly the right way to play him.
(Source : http://rogerebert.suntimes.com )

Billy Bob Thornton

Billy Bob Thornton (born August 4, 1955) is an American, Academy Award-winning screenwriter, actor and occasional director, playwright, and singer. Thornton was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas.he attended Henderson State University, in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. In the late 1980s, Thornton settled in Los Angeles, to pursue his career as an actor, with future writing partner Tom Epperson Thornton initially had a difficult time succeeding as an actor, and worked in telemarketing, offshore wind farming, and fast-food management between auditioning for acting jobs. He also played drums and sang with South African rock band Jack Hammer. While Thornton worked as a waiter for an industry event, he served film director Billy Wilder and struck up a conversation with Wilder, who advised Thornton to consider a career as a screenwriter.

Thornton first came to semi-prominence as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire with John Ritter and Markie Post. His role as the villain in 1992's One False Move, which he also co wrote, brought him to the attention of critics. He also had small roles in the early 1990s films Indecent Proposal, On Deadly Ground, Bound By Honor, Grey Knight, and Tombstone.

Thornton went on to write, direct and star in the independent film Sling Blade, which was released in 1996. The film, an expansion of a short film titled Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade, introduced the story of Karl Childers, a mentally handicapped man imprisoned for a gruesome and seemingly inexplicable murder. Sling Blade garnered international acclaim. Thornton's screenplay earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Writers Guild of America Award, and an Edgar Award, while his performance received Oscar and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Actor.

Billy Bob Thornton has directed 4 movies and acted in about 60 films.

Orson Welles Film Festival; Thank you all

We thank all cinema lovers who attended Orson Welles Film Festival held at Coimbatore Cosmopolitan club on 20th July 2008

We thank Mr.Baskaran of Hollywood DVD Shoppe for supporting the event and Mr.G.D.Gopalakrishnan for all the help.

We also record our grateful thanks to our member M.Anand (Film distributor) for providing us with funds for a brand new screen.

It’s the greatest railroad train a boy ever had.
—Orson Welles, after coming to Hollywood in 1939

May we be accursed if we ever forget for one second that he alone with Griffith—one in silent days, one sound—was able to start up that marvelous little electric train. All of us, always, will owe him everything.

—Jean-Luc Godard on Welles

20th July 2008 ; Orson Welles Film Festival

Orson Welles Film Festival

Two masterpieces from one of the greatest film maker of our times

20th July 2008 ; 10 am to 6 pm
Coimbatore Cosmopolitan Club
Race course
Call : 94430 39630

http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.com/

Orson Welles

Hollywood Rebel & Founding Member of The Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers

Though little appreciated in his time, Orson Welles is today one of classic Hollywood's most acclaimed cinematic visionaries Always an outsider to the studio system which dominated filmmaking at the time however, Welles never condescended to play by Hollywood's rules and his arduous four-decade career was pocked with moments of brilliance, excess and waste.

George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an Academy Award-winning American director, writer, actor and producer for film, stage, radio and television. Welles first gained wide notoriety for his October 30, 1938, radio broadcast of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. Adapted to sound like a contemporary news broadcast, it caused a number of listeners to panic. In the mid-1930s, his New York theatre adaptations of an all-black voodoo Macbeth and a contemporary allegorical Julius Caesar became legendary. Welles was also an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years. During this period he became a serious political activist and commentator through journalism, radio and public appearances closely associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1941, he co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in Citizen Kane, often chosen in polls of film critics as the greatest film ever made. And in 1941, at 26, he achieved his greatest ambition through formation of his own Mercury Productions, Inc. The rest of his career was often obstructed by lack of funds, incompetent studio interference and other unfortunate occurrences, both during exile in Europe and brief returns to Hollywood. Despite these difficulties Othello won the 1952 Grand Prix du Festival International du Film at the Cannes Film Festival and Touch of Evil won the top prize at the Brussels World Fair, while Welles himself considered The Trial and Chimes at Midnight to be the best of his efforts.

Although Welles remained on the margins of the major studios as a director/producer, his larger-than-life personality made him a bankable actor. In his later years he struggled against a Hollywood system that refused to finance his independent film projects, making a living largely through acting, commercials, and voice-over work. Welles received a 1975 American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement award, the third person to do so after John Ford and James Cagney. Critical appreciation for Welles has increased since his death. He is now widely acknowledged as one of the most important dramatic artists of the 20th century: in 2002 he was voted as the greatest film director of all time in the British Film Institute's poll of Top Ten Directors.

Source : www.cobbles.com / Wikipedia

Citizen Kane (1941)

Run time : 119 minutes

"It is the epitome of filmmaking, a masterpiece for which Welles, one of the greatest practitioners of the cinematic art, will be forever remembered."

The fresh, sophisticated, and classic masterpiece, Citizen Kane (1941), is probably the world's most famous and highly-rated film, with its many remarkable scenes and performances, cinematic and narrative techniques and experimental innovations (in photography, editing, and sound). Its director, star, and producer were all the same genius individual - Orson Welles (in his film debut at age 25!), who collaborated with Herman J. Mankiewicz on the script (and also with an uncredited John Houseman), and with Gregg Toland as his talented cinematographer Toland's camera work on Karl Freund's expressionistic horror film Mad Love (1935) exerted a profound influence on this film.

More importantly, the innovative, bold film is an acknowledged milestone in the development of cinematic technique. It uses film as an art form to energetically communicate and display a non-static view of life.

Its complex and pessimistic theme of a spiritually-failed man is told from several, unreliable perspectives and points-of-view (also metaphorically communicated by the jigsaw puzzle) by several different characters (the associates and friends of the deceased) - providing a sometimes contradictory, non-sequential, and enigmatic portrait. The film tells the thought-provoking, tragic epic story of a 'rags-to-riches' child who inherited a fortune, was taken away from his humble surroundings and his father and mother, was raised by a banker, and became a fabulously wealthy, arrogant, and energetic newspaperman. He made his reputation as the generous, idealistic champion of the underprivileged, and set his egotistical mind on a political career, until those political dreams were shattered after the revelation of an ill-advised 'love-nest' affair with a singer. Kane's life was corrupted and ultimately self-destructed by a lust to fulfill the American dream of success, fame, wealth, power and immortality. After two failed marriages and a transformation into a morose, grotesque, and tyrannical monster, his final days were spent alone, morose, and unhappy before his death in a reclusive refuge of his own making - an ominous castle filled with innumerable possessions to compensate for his life's emptiness.

The discovery and revelation of the mystery of the life of the multi-millionaire publishing tycoon is determined through a reporter's search for the meaning of his single, cryptic dying word: "Rosebud" - in part, the film's plot enabling device - or McGuffin (MacGuffin). However, no-one was present to hear him utter the elusive last word. The reporter looks for clues to the word's identity by researching the newspaper publisher's life, through interviews with several of Kane's former friends and colleagues. Was it a favorite pet or nickname of a lost love? Or the name of a racehorse? At film's end, the identity of "Rosebud" is revealed, but only to the film audience.

Source: http://www.filmsite.org

Touch of Evil (1958)

Run time : 95 min

Touch of Evil (1958) is a great American film noir crime thriller, dark mystery, and cult classic - another technical masterpiece from writer-director-actor Orson Welles. It was Orson Welles' fifth Hollywood film - and it was his last American film. Touch of Evil was the last great film noir during the so-called 'classic' era of noirs, from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. The movie opens with a famous three-minute, thirty second continuous tracking shot that film critics generally consider to be one of the greatest long shots in cinematic history..

The best approach for anyone seeing the film for the first time: to set aside the labyrinthine plot, and simply admire what is on the screen. The movie begins with one of the most famous shots ever made, following a car with a bomb in its trunk for three minutes and 20 seconds. And it has other virtuoso camera movements, including an unbroken interrogation in a cramped room, and one that begins in the street and follows the characters through a lobby and into an elevator. The British critic Damian Cannon writes of its ``spatial choreography,'' in which ``every position and movement latches together into a cogent whole.''

Welles and his cinematographer, Russell Metty, were not simply showing off. The destinies of all of the main characters are tangled from beginning to end, and the photography makes that point by trapping them in the same shots, or tying them together through cuts that match and resonate. The story moves not in a straight line, but as a series of loops and coils.

The story takes place in Los Robles, a seedy Mexican-American border town (``border towns bring out the worst in a country''). It's a place of bars, strip clubs and brothels, where music spills onto the street from every club. In the opening shot, we see a bomb placed in the trunk of a car, and then the camera cranes up and follows the car down a strip of seamy storefronts, before gliding down to eye level to pick up a strolling couple. They are newlyweds, Mike and Susan Vargas (Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh); he's a Mexican drug enforcement official.

At a border checkpoint, they're eventually joined by the doomed car, which has been delayed by traffic and a herd of goats. Mike and Susan are completing the check when there's an offscreen explosion--and then finally a cut, to the burning car lifting in the air. Everyone awaits the arrival of Sheriff Hank Quinlan (Welles), a massive, sweaty, rumbling figure who looms over the camera. (Welles was not that big when he made the picture, and used padding and camera angles to exaggerate his bulk.) Quinlan takes charge, ``intuiting'' that the explosion was caused by dynamite. Vargas, a bystander, finds himself drawn into the investigation, to Quinlan's intense displeasure; the movie becomes a competition between the two men, leading to the sheriff's efforts to frame Vargas and his bride on drug and murder charges.

It was regarded as a rebellious, unorthodox, bizarre, and outrageously exaggerated film, affronting respectable 1950's sensibilities, with controversial themes including racism, betrayal of friends, sexual ambiguity, frameups, drugs, and police corruption of power.

Thanks to http://rogerebert.suntimes.com / www.filmsite.org

4/4

N/A

13th July 2008: Roamal Poalnski's - The Pianist

The Pianist

A Film by Roman Polanski
Year 2002
Run time : 150 minutes
English with English subtitles.
13^th July 2008 : 5.45 pm
Ashwin Auditorium

Crafted without a whiff of melodrama, this motion picture takes a steady, unflinching look at the plight of Jews in Warsaw during the years when Poland was occupied by the Nazis. For director Roman Polanski, this represents his most effective film in nearly three decades. Not since 1974's Chinatown has Polanski reached such dramatic heights.

There are no concentration camp scenes. Instead of taking us into the depths of Auschwitz, the film leaves us on the streets of Warsaw, where life and death was as uncertain a prospect as it was in the camps. In addition, Polanski does not flinch from showing the naked horrors perpetrated by Nazis on Jews. There is no attempt to sugar-coat this bitter pill – we see frequent gunshots to the head, torture, and the effects of starvation. The tone and style of the film are documentary-like - Polanski observes from a detached perspective, detailing atrocities without manipulating his audience. The result is bleak and powerful, and may overcome more sensitive viewers.

The Pianist opens in 1939 Warsaw, shortly after Poland's defeat to Germany. The film's protagonist is celebrated Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), who, along with his family, is forced to watch as the restrictions against Jews become increasingly more odious. Initially, Jews are forbidden from eating in certain establishments, walking in public parks, or sitting on public benches. Soon, they must wear distinguishing armbands, bow to Nazis passed in the streets, and walk in the gutters. Eventually, all Jews in Warsaw – approximately 500,000 –are moved into a ghetto, where whole families are crammed into single small rooms. After the Nazis begin implementing their "Final Solution," most of the Jews in Warsaw are shipped to the concentration camps to be exterminated.

Recognizing that The Pianist is a true story adds another layer to its impact. However, it is Polanski's mastery that makes this movie unforgettable. While The Pianist has a strong, clear narrative, the director uses music and images to emblazon Wladyslaw's struggle on our memories.

Roman Polanski

Roman Raymond Polanski (born August 18, 1933) is an Academy Award-winning film director, writer, actor and producer. After beginning his career in Poland, Polanski became a celebrated arthouse filmmaker, and Hollywood director of such films as Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974). Polanski is considered one of the world’s great film directors.

1939, Poland was invaded and occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union, in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet Pact. The Polański family was a target of Nazi persecution and forced into the Kraków Ghetto, along with thousands of other Polish Jews. Roman Polański's mother was subsequently gassed in the Auschwitz concentration camp. His father barely survived the Austrian concentration camp Mauthausen-Gusen. Polański himself escaped the Kraków Ghetto.

He was educated at the Polish film school in Łódź, Poland, from which he graduated in 1959. Polański speaks six languages: Native Polish language, Russian, English, French, Spanish, and Italian.

He is also known for his tumultuous personal life. He lived in German-occupied Poland during WWII and in 1969, his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by the Manson Family. In 1977 he was involved in an American sex scandal, he fled to France where he has lived a rather reclusive life with his wife the gifted and skilled actress Emmanuelle Seigner and their two children.

He has continued to direct films from Europe, including Frantic (1988), Death and the Maiden (1994), The Ninth Gate, the Academy Award-winning and Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or-winning The Pianist (2002), and Oliver Twist (2005).

Polanski is admired by many other filmmakers all over the world for his genius as a director.