DITSHWANELO — The Botswana Centre for Human Rights
8th Annual Human Rights Film Festival Programme, Stardust Cinema – The Grand Palm
27 March – 3 April 2008, Tickets P25 per day

Thursday  27 March

7.00 – 7.30 p.m.

Film Festival Opening by:

Ms Viola Morgan, UNDP Resident Representative

Theme: Genocide

7.30 – 9.00 p.m.

Shake Hands with the Devil – The Journey of Romeo Dallaire. Canada (2004) 90 minutes. Director: Peter Raymond. Courtesy of White Pine Pictures.

An introduction of the film will be given by Mr Glenn Sheppy, Political Counsellor, High Commission of Canada.

In 100 days (between 6 April and 16 July 1994) about 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda. The victims, many hacked to death with machetes, were Tutsi and the moderate Hutus who supported them. Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire had been given the responsibility, by the United Nations, to ensure that peace was maintained in Rwanda. Unsupported by UN Headquarters and its Security Council, Dallaire and his handful of soldiers were incapable of stopping the genocide. This is his story as he shares his remarkable emotional pilgrimage back to Rwanda ten years after the genocide. Scarred by his experiences and reliving the horrors daily, Dallaire has more than once attempted suicide.

Winner 2007 Emmy Award Best Documentary; Audience Award, World Cinema Documentary – Sundance Film Festival 2005; Jury Award, Best Documentary, Philadelphia Film Festival 2005; Best Canadian Programme and Best Feature Length Documentary, Banff World Television 2005; Best Picture Editing in a Documentary Programme or Series, Gemini Awards 2005; Outstanding Team Achievement in a Documentary, Directors Guild of Canada 2005 and One of Canada’s Top Ten Films of 2004.

Friday 28 March

Theme: Globalisation and Human Rights

7.30 – 8.48 p.m.

Black Gold. UK/USA (2006) 78 minutes. Directors: Nick Francis and Marc Francis. Courtesy of Speak It Productions.

An introduction to the film will be given by Mr Berhane, an Ethiopian coffee seller.

Multinational coffee companies rule the shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate an industry worth over $80 billion making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil. However, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their fields. This paradox is most evident in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Third World producers and farmers have traditionally and consistently received only a tiny fraction of the value of their products in commodity markets. The interests of the 75 000 struggling coffee farmers of the Oromia Coffee Collective are shared as Tadesse Meskela travels the world trying to find buyers willing to pay a fair price.

Best Achievement in Production – British Independent Film Award 2007; Best Documentary – Libertas Film Festival 2007.

Before the screening of this film, between 6.30 p.m. – 7.30 p.m., every ticket holder will be served with a free cup of freshly prepared Ethiopian coffee.
Saturday 29 March

Theme: South Africa – Contemporary Challenges

7.00 – 7.38 p.m.

Through the Eye of A Needle – The ANC Succession battle in the Eastern Cape. South Africa (2007) 38 minutes. Directors: Ben Cashdan and Riaan Hendricks. Courtesy of BroadDaylightFilms.

To produce this film on the current leadership race in South Africa , the cast spent two (2) weeks  in the OR Tambo region of the Eastern Cape  (the former Transkei)  trying to understand the positions of both sides. They visited a community where recent protests over lack of service delivery took place, to record  views about the leadership question.  
Theme: Anti-Apartheid

7.45 – 8.20 p.m.

This Crazy Thing Called Grace. South Africa (1997) 40 minutes. Director: Craig Matthew. Courtesy of DOXA Productions.

The crazy world of Desmond Tutu through his own eyes. Clown or Saint – this Nobel Peace Prize winner has earned worldwide applause. The film pays tribute to the former Archbishop and takes a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ approach to his daily duties; his meditative moments at home, and his personal attempts to come to terms with the atrocities unearthed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Interspersed with coverage of the TRC hearings with archive footage to bring those testimonies alive, this film is a poignant narrative on the goals of the Commission and the man whose charisma and humanity helped make it happen.
Honourable mention at the 45th Annual Columbus International Film and Video Festival, 1997.

Theme: Cultural Rights and Copyright

8.30 – 9.25 p.m

A Lion’s Trail.  South Africa (2003) 55 minutes. Director: Francois Venter. Courtesy of Francoise Venter.

‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ is one of the most recognisable pop songs in the world. How many people realise that this ‘American’ hit tune was actually written by Solomon Linda, a Zulu musician who never earned a cent in royalties and died in poverty? The film tells the story of how the Zulu song “Mbube” was transcribed by American folk singer Pete Seeger into “Wimoweh”, finally gaining international recognition as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. Linda first composed “Mbube” in the 1920s. Apartheid denied South Africans copyright for their own work.  Almost all international rights on the song are held by Americans. Linda’s daughter remained poor in Soweto and began fighting copyright owners for their father’s share of the profits.
Emmy Award for Outstanding Cultural and Artistic programming, 2006; NTVA Stone Award 2003; Silver Dhow Award, 2003; Best Documentary – Portabello Film Festival, 200; Best Documentary- Milan African Film Festival 2003.

After the film, there will be a discussion, facilitated by representatives from the Attorney General’s Chambers, about copyright protection in Botswana.

Sunday 30 March

Theme: Environmental Rights

7.00 – 8.18 p.m.

A World Without Water. UK (2006) 78 minutes. Directors: Brian Woods and Deborah Shipley.  Courtesy of Brian Woods and Deborah Shipley.

Daily, 300,000 children die due to lack of water. Billions of people do not have access to safe water. Environmental change threatens to make this situation worse. However, control of the world’s water is falling into the hands of the rich and water may soon take the place of oil as the world’s most ‘tradeable’ commodity. The film explores the impact of the battle for water ownership on the lives of people living in Tanzania, Bolivia, India and the USA. It looks at how those living in water-rich countries hold the survival of the planet in their ‘well-washed hands’.
Best Documentary on Contemporary Issue – Grierson Awards; Prince Rainier III Special Prize, Golden Nymph Awards – Monte-Carlo TV Festival 2007.

After the film there will be a discussion, facilitated by a representative from Water Utilities Corporation, about whether the right to water is a human right in Botswana.

Monday 31 March

Theme: Ethnicity and Human Rights
Indigenous Peoples and land rights

7.00 –7.52 p.m.

Maasai Land: Restricted Area. Switzerland (2006) 52 minutes. Director: Kristin Sellfyan. Courtesy of dev.tv.

For many centuries, the Maasai people have been grazing their herds and living off the milk and the meat produced by their cattle. They were known as ‘The Lords of East Africa’. They were also traditionally lion hunters and renowned warriors. For the contemporary tourist, they are an embodiment of Kenya. However the traditional nomadic Maasai culture as depicted by the ‘postcard image’ is disappearing. With the arrival of the British colonialists in Kenya, the often fraudulent division of land led to the Maasai being chased from their traditional territory. Kenny Mtampash is fighting to change this situation. He is working to preserve the nomadic Maasai grazing culture.

People’s Choice Award – 7th Pastoralismes et Grand Espaces Film Festival, France 2006; Special Jury Award – 7th Pastoralismes et Grand Espaces Film Festival, France 2006; Prize of The Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications of the Slovak Republic, Ekotpfilm Festival 2006.
Theme: Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean Experiences in Botswana

8.00 – 8.50 p.m.

Our Song. Botswana (2007) 50 minutes. Director: Ernst Engels. Camelthorn Media for Development  Trust.  Courtesy of BOCISCOZ –The  Botswana Civil Society Coalition in Solidarity with Zimbabwe.

In recognition of the first anniversary of Operation Murambatsvina in 2005, regional solidarity was harnessed in 2006. In 2007, a cast of actors comprising Batswana and Zimbabweans produced this play after conducting fieldwork amongst Batswana and Zimbabweans living in Botswana. Showtime Productions worked with BOCISCOZ to produce Our Song.
 A Zimbabwe Experience

 9.00 – 9.07 p.m.

Give Us Peace. Zimbabwe (2007) 7 minutes. Director: Ingrid Sinclair. Courtesy of Zimmedia.

 The tender love between father and child portrayed through a passionate dance of trust and innocence, set against archive footage of the violence of Zimbabwe today. This is a short plea for peace in Zimbabwe, especially for children.

9.08 – 9.43 p.m.

Gukurahundi.  Zimbabwe (2007) 35 minutes. Director: Zenzele Ndebele. Courtesy of Zenzele Ndebele.

During the controversial military operation by Zimbabwe’s Fifth Brigade in Matebeleland and the Midlands provinces in the 1980s, codenamed Gukurahundi,  an estimated 20 000 people were killed.  The Ndebele community throughout southern Zimbabwe was terrorised because of the perceived threat they posed to President Mugabe. He later said that the crackdown was a “moment of madness”, but has refused to claim responsibility or offer apologies. He refused to allow compensation to be paid to the victims of the operation.
After the film there will be a discussion about the situation in Zimbabwe facilitated by BOCISCOZ – The Botswana Civil Society Coalition in Solidarity with Zimbabwe.

Tuesday 1 April

Theme: Anti-Apartheid and Human Rights

7.30 – 9.07 p.m.

Memories of Rain – Views from the Underground. Germany/South Africa (2003) 107 minutes. Directors: Angela Mai and Gisele Albrecht. Courtesy of Angela Mai and Gisele Albrecht.

Memories of Rain tells the story of Jenny C. and Kevin Q., two South Africans. She is white and he is black. They fought as commanders in the intelligence service of the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC) against the apartheid regime. The film tells the story of their personal experiences and of lives spent in Angola and the former German Democratic Republic. It also examines living underground inside South Africa.

Wednesday 2 April

Theme: Violence Against Women

7.00 – 7.53 p.m.

Fighting the Silence. The Netherlands (2007) 53 minutes. Director: Femke and Ilse van Velzen. Courtesy of Femke van Velzen.

During the seven year war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), more than 80,000 women and girls were raped. This film tells the story of ordinary women and men struggling to change their society from one which blames the victim to one which prosecutes rapists. Survivors talk of the brutality which they experienced. Husbands talk of the pressures which led them to abandon their wives. Fighting the Silence examines why rape continues to flourish in the DRC four years after war has been officially over.
Theme: Violence Against Youth during Apartheid

8.10 – 9.33 p.m.

The Guguletu Seven.  South Africa (2000) 83 minutes. Lindy Wilson. Courtesy of Lindy Wilson.

During apartheid in South Africa, seven young men, said to be ‘terrorists’ are shot dead in Guguletu, South Africa in 1986. A witness says he saw one of the men being shot with his hands held up in the act of surrendering. The unraveling of the truth of this event ten years later by investigators of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is the gripping and chilling journey of the film.

Thursday 3 April

Theme: The ‘War on Terror’

7.30 – 7.57 p.m.

Outlawed – Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances in the ‘War on Terror’. USA (2006) 27 minutes. WITNESS/Amnesty International USA. Courtesy of WITNESS.

Human Rights groups have found the US Government, with the complicity of numerous governments worldwide, to be engaged in the illegal practice of extraordinary rendition, secret detention, and torture. It is an unlawful practice in which numerous persons have been illegally detained and secretly flown to third countries where they have suffered additional human rights abuses, including torture and enforced disappearances. The film tells the stories of Khaled El-Masri and Binyam Mohamed, two men who have survived extraordinary rendition, secret detention and torture by the US Government working with other governments. Outlawed features the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, US President George W. Bush, Michael Scheuer, the chief architect of the rendition programme and the former head of the Osama Bin Ladin unit at the CIA and Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State.

8.00 – 9.35 p.m.

The Road To Guantanamo. UK (2006) 95 minutes. Directors: Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross. Courtesy of Revolution Films and The Works Media.

Part documentary, part dramatization, the film is a first-hand account of three British citizens who were held for two years without charge at the American military prison of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Known as the “Tipton Three”, in reference to their home town in Britain, the three were eventually returned to Britain and released. They were set out from Tipton for a wedding in Pakistan, crossed the Afghanistan border just as the US began its invasion, were captured by the Northern Alliance and eventually imprisoned at Camp X-Ray and later Camp Delta in Guantanamo.
Best Documentary – Independent Spirit Award 2007; Winner Signis Award 2006; Silver Berlin Bear for Best Director - Berlin International Film Festival 2006; Best British Documentary – British Independent Film Award 2006.