The ACT Human Rights Film Festival Programming Committee has been busy reviewing films for next year’s lineup. Over the course of several months, the committee, comprised of film buffs and scholars, CSU faculty and students, watches and reviews films to curate the festival. Check out three films that we have reviewed and that tell raw stories of the human condition – Complicit, Mama Colonel, and Nowhere to Hide. You may be able to catch these films at the festival in April.
Complicit | 2017 | China | USA | 89 mins
Complicit follows the journey of Chinese factory migrant worker-turned-activist Yi Yeting, who takes his fight against the global electronic industry from his hospital bed to the international stage. While battling his own work-induced leukemia, Yi Yeting teaches himself labour law in order to prepare a legal challenge against his former employers. But the struggle to defend the lives of millions of Chinese people from becoming terminally ill due to working conditions necessitates confrontation with some of the world’s largest brands including Apple and Samsung.
Mama Colonel | 2017 | Congo | France | 72 mins
Colonel Honorine Manyole, commonly known as “Mama Colonel,” works for the Congolese police force and heads the unit for the protection of minors and the fight against sexual violence. Having worked for 15 years in Bukavu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she learns she is transferred to Kisangani. There, she finds herself faced with new challenges. Through the portrait of this extraordinarily brave and tenacious woman, who fights for justice, this film addresses the issue of violence towards women and children in the DRC and the difficulty of overcoming the past war.
Nowhere to Hide | 2017 | Norway | Iraq | Sweden | 86 mins
Nowhere to Hide is an immersive and uncompromising first-hand reflection of the resilience and fortitude of a nurse working and raising his children in Jalawla, Iraq. Immediately after US troops left Iraq in 2011, director Zaradasht Ahmed gave Nori Sharif a camera and taught him how to use it, asking him to capture the reality of life in his community and the hospital where he worked. For the next five years Nori filmed life around him, but the population— including the majority of the hospital staff—flees when the Iraqi army pulls out in 2013 because of militant activity. Sharif is one of the few who remain.