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The 5th human rights film festival, a platform for discussing human rights through film, will be held at Ewha Womans University from Oct 27 to Nov 1. In spite of the formidable obstacles faced during the 1st and 2nd film festival, we will continue with the our 5th festival to feature 29 outstanding domestic and foreign human rights films.

Che-Guevara on 35mm

For the first time, we will attempt to show the 35mm film of Che-Guevara's Diary in Bolivia instead of on video as in usual film festivals. This documentary reflecting partisan struggles will be the opening movie, and is scheduled to be screened at Ewha square on Oct 27th.

Critique on the Hysteria of America.

If we must select remarkable films from this years festival, it would be A Salt on Earth and A Crime for Penalty. A Salt on Earth, a documentary of a Mexican coal mine worker blacklisted during the McCarthy era can be regarded similar to Night before Strike is considered a great product of American independent films in Korea. A Crime for Penalty, which criticizes America's hysteria against Communism allows us to ponder over and over againg the meaning of A Salt on Earth. Both films will be shown outside at Ewha square on the 28th.

Various Forums, including Human Rights for Homosexuals

For this year, we will screen Voting Against and for Article 9 (also shown at the 3rd film festival), which concerns the issue of homosexuality and in particular of Hong Suk-chun's recent coming out. We hope to have a forum to debate the issue of homosexuality. In addition, we will show Kaho Orawi, which deals with an American air force base in Hawaii, A Peaceful Time about Mae-Hyang-Li and Struggling against American Air Force Base in Okinawa. And we will also show Duckdater, a film that addresses the media. Afterwards, we will have further discussions concerning these topics.

Special Guests:

Two foreign film directors have been invited as special guests for the Seoul Human Rights Film Festival this year. Kevin McKienan, who is the director of Good Kurds Bad Kurds: No Friends But the Mountains has interviewed the Kurds for 9 years to make this documentary film. NATO and Turkey had been restricting the Kurds constantly. Mr. McKienan won the 'Best Documentary Award' with this film at the Atlanta Film Festival earlier this year. He has also won the 'Human Rights Award' at The Santa Barbara Film Festival. The other guest is Sayed Kaado. He directed Solos from Baghdad, which is about the suffering of Iraqis due to nine years of economic sanctions. Mr. Kaado is also planning to have a discussion with the audience. Unfortunately, there is a problem of whether the authorities will give him a visa for Korea.

Korean Films:

A 'Human Rights Award,' which started in 1999, will be given to one of the nine Korean films. The award was established to encourage filmmaking concerning human rights issues. The 'Committee on Human Rights' of the 'Korean Bar Association' will sponsor the funding for the award again this year. Out of the nine nominees for final selections, April 9 and Parallel Lines are included. The first movie reinterprets the People's Revolution Party, and the other is about the struggle for reinstatement of the women who were fired from the dining facility of Hyundai Motors.

Breaking the Bank

You also have the chance to see what happened in Seattle, Washington and Prague. The movie Breaking the Bank, produced by Deep Dish TV, is a docu-film all about the fight against neo-liberalism, the World Bank, and the IMF. The Deep Dish is an independent TV production corporation in the USA.

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The 5th Human Rights Film Festival

Host: The SARANGBANG: Group for Human Rights
The General Students' Association of EWHA Womans University
Time: 27 Oct (Fri) - 1 Nov (Wed)
Place: Auditorium of the law college (main shows), EWHA Plaza (outdoors)
Sponsor: UNICEF, Korea Committee
Contact: 02-741-2407 / 741-5363 (Yoo, Hye-Jung / Kim, Jung-Ah)

Please Make Your Contributions:

- 10,000Won: Pamphlets with movie reviews
- 20,000Won: Receive video: Collection of Cartoons on Human Rights for Kids
-100,000Won and more: Receive three of the following four videos (you choose): Salt of the Earth/ Cartoons for Children's Rights/ Parallel Lines/ New Clothes for the Emperor.