“The Sari Soldiers”
Human Rights Watch FF, NY, Nestor Almendros Prize
A FREE film by
Julie Bridgham
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
7:00 pm in MSU’s Procrastinator Theatre in the SUB
Filmed over three years during the most historic and pivotal time in Nepal’s modern history,
The Sari Soldiers is an extraordinary story of six women’s courageous efforts to shape Nepal’s
future in the midst of an escalating civil war against Maoist insurgents, and the King’s
crackdown on civil liberties. When Devi, mother of a 15-year-old girl, witnesses her niece
being tortured and murdered by the Royal Nepal Army, she speaks publicly about the atrocity.
The army abducts her daughter in retaliation, and Devi embarks on a three-year struggle to
uncover her daughter’s fate and see justice done. The Sari Soldiers follows her and five other
brave women, including Maoist Commander Kranti; Royal Nepal Army Officer Rajani; Krishna, a
monarchist from a rural community who leads a rebellion against the Maoists; Mandira, a human rights
lawyer; and Ram Kumari, a young student activist shaping the protests to reclaim democracy. The Sari
Soldiers intimately delves into the extraordinary journey of these women on opposing sides
of the conflict, through the democratic revolution that reshapes Julie Bridghamthe country’s future.
Winner of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival Award.
But amidst the grief and violence, voices are heard – children’s voices – singing strong,
without fear. Their bodies shake and stomp to the rhythms of their ancestors. They dance
about their homeland, they dance about their future, they dance to be children&elip;and they
dance to win. Across the country, Ugandan children are getting ready for the biggest
event of the year, the National Music Competition. Over 20,000 schools will compete,
but only one will go home the champion, and no one expects it to be Patongo &mdashas schools
in refugee camps don’t win awards.
“It gives new meaning to the words courage and resilience.”
– Stephen Holden,
The New York Times
“Intimate and engrossing, the film gives us six commitments and hopes.”
– Stanley Kauffman,
The New Republic
“War Dance”
A FREE film by Frieda Lee Mock
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
7:00 pm in MSU's Procrastinator Theatre in the SUB
2008 Academy Award Nominee – Best Documentary Feature
2007 Sundance Film Festival – Best Documentary Directing Award &
Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Nominee
Northern Uganda has been at war with a rebel force, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA),
for twenty years. The country’s children have been the greatest victims of the conflict.
The LRA has a chillingly effective process to fill its ranks — abducting innocent children.
Children — some as young as five — are ripped from their beds in front of their helpless parents.
Once abducted, the children are forced at gunpoint to viciously beat or kill neighbors, and
sometimes even their own parents. The boys become soldiers while the girls are forced into sexual slavery.
