Writers Conference: Film Festival

Revolution is in the air or at least on the screen at this year’s UND Writers Conference Film Festival, March 26-28th.  This year’s visiting authors have selected six films for screening at the annual film festival taking place at the UND Memorial Union Lecture Bowl.  The conference theme is “Revolution,” and the writers have chosen films which highlight rebellion and revolution around the globe.  All films are free and open to the public.

Wednesday, March 26th - 2 p.m. Battle of Algiers, selected by Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie writes, “I would suggest Gillo Pontecorvo’s great masterpiece The Battle of Algiers. Just because it’s possibly the best political film ever made and talks about a time when secular leftist politics, not Islamic radicalism, was the vehicle of Middle Eastern aspirations…”  In French and Arabic, with English subtitles.  Run time 121 minutes.
 
Wednesday, March 26th, 6pm The Year of Living Dangerously, selected by Peter Kuper

Peter Kuper writes:  “My pick is The Year Of Living Dangerously.  It captures the invigorating and unsettling experience of being an outsider in a foreign country (that happens to have an exploding revolution underway.) It also demonstrates the collision between personal entanglement and journalistic integrity with a dash of hot passion, which is always a plus.”  Directed by Peter Weir, cast includes Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt.  115 minutes.

Thursday, March 27th, 2 p.m. Catch a Fire was selected in connection with Alexandra Fuller’s visit. 

Ms. Fuller grew up in what was formerly known as Rhodesia and is the author of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight:  An African Childhood.
Catch a Fire (U.S., 2006) is based on events in Apartheid-era South Africa when Patrick Chamusso, a black man, is accused of terrorist acts and tortured by the government.  Once he is released he becomes a fighter for the African National Congress.  Directed by Phillip Noyce, starring Tim Robbins.  Rated PG-13.  97 min.

Thursday, March 27th, 6 p.m., Amores Perros, selected by author Junot Diaz

Junot Diaz writes, “There is no other contemporary film (in my opinion) that so incisively movingly and heartbreakingly captures the extraordinary history and extraordinary contradictions that haunt Latin America.  And at a structural level it’s a flat-out badass mother of a flick.  Nothing like it.  It’s ambitions and themes and its double-gaze (present/past) had an enormous impact on my novel Oscar Wao, as did its brutal beauty.”  Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.  In Spanish with English subtitles.  Rated R. 153 mins.

Friday, March 28th, 2 p.m.  The Greatest Silence:  Rape in the Congo, selected by Alice Fulton

This “is an important and timely film,” writes Alice Fulton.  She points out that “The director’s website describes it as follows:  ‘Since 1998 a brutal war has been raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over four million people have died….Tens of thousands of women and girls have been systematically kidnapped, raped, mutilated and tortured…. The world knows nothing of these women.  Their stories have never been told.’ Director Lisa F. Jackson spent 2006 in the Congo’s war zones documenting their tragic plight.  Her film bears witness to violence grounded in vast inequities of power; it exemplifies courage and resistance under the most harrowing circumstances.”  Documentary.  In French and Swahili. English subtitles. 76 minutes.

Friday, March 28th, 6 p.m. Lumumba, selected by author Russell Banks

This film documents the rise to power and assassination of the former leader of the independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba.  Russell Banks writes, “it’s a film that portrays Africans from an African point of view, with African actors (except for the American and Belgian characters), written and directed by a Haitian raised in Congo and educated in France and Germany. It’s a truly global production, in the best possible way. There is World Music, and increasingly World Literature and this film is a sign that there is World Cinema.”

Additional synopses and info http://www.undwritersconference.org/wc-filmfestival.html.  For information, please call (701) 777-2787

-Kathy Coudle King, Sr. Lecturer - English & Women Studies, University of North Dakota