Social & External
Himself
A German Documentary about the “village of friendship” that was created by American Veteran George Mizo to help the Vietnamese kids suffering from the Vietnam War.
Peter LeDonne and Steve Kalafer chronicle the extraordinary life of Immaculée Ilibagiza, a young African woman who escaped genocide in Rwanda and ultimately found refuge in the United States. Seeking shelter with an Episcopalian minister, Immaculée hid from her attackers inside a bathroom for three long months but stayed centered through prayer and faith.
Four young people from Tanzania and Cameroon complete a year of weltwärts voluntary service in Germany. For each of them, it is their first visit in Europe. The film follows the volunteers throughout their year of service, it expresses different expectations, enthusiasm, goals and challenges. The volunteers describe subjectively their personal experiences as well as their view of Germany. The documentary is a thoughtful and exciting vision of the exchange program seen by four young people.
Blood Road follows the journey of ultra-endurance mountain bike athlete Rebecca Rusch and her Vietnamese riding partner, Huyen Nguyen, as they pedal 1,200 miles along the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail through the dense jungles of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Their goal: to reach the site where Rebecca’s father, a U.S. Air Force pilot, was shot down in Laos more than 40 years earlier.
Over the period of 25 years the director met General Võ Nguyên Giáp, a legendary hero of Vietnam’s independence wars, a number of times. She was the first American who entered the home of the “Red Napoleon”. The fruit of this friendship is a film, personal and politically involved at the same time. Travelling across the country and talking to important figures as well as ordinary people, the director finds out more about her roots and offers the audience a unique perspective on Vietnam’s present and past.
Bookended by call-to-action quotes from Margaret Mead and Mahatma Gandhi, this inspiring documentary follows three extraordinary women -- in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mali, and Vietnam -- as they lead day-to-day battles against ignorance, poverty, oppression, and ethnic strife.
Kibbutz volunteering began in an eclipse. The idealistic and rebellious 1960s generation was charmed by the old communist ideology as it came to life in the Israeli Kibbutz. The 1967 Six-Day War attracted a wave of support for Israel that the Kibbutz Movement saw as a miracle. When travel agencies started selling “Kibbutz Volunteering” packages, it was clear that volunteering also became a profitable business. The Kibbutz found itself facing unfamiliar phenomenon – drugs, alcohol and marriage with non-Jewish volunteers.
The aftermath of the Rwandan genocide: A student theatre troupe tours Rwanda with a comedy about the genocide, a gang of killers gets rough justice at the local genocide court, and a prosecutor investigates a priest for the murder of five Tutsi children. Meanwhile, in neighbouring Tanzania, two of the genocide's leaders face the United Nations tribunal in snappy suits, defended by a panoply of French lawyers.
Using archival footage, cabinet conversation recordings, and an interview of the 85-year-old Robert McNamara, The Fog of War depicts his life, from working as a WWII whiz-kid military officer, to being the Ford Motor Company's president, to managing the Vietnam War as defense secretary for presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
Six months after a tsunami hit South Asia on December 26, 2004, Muslim-American and Sri Lankan-born Dr. M. Rahmi Mowjood led a team of American doctors and medical students on a relief trip. While mentoring medical students and aiding injured villagers, Dr. Mowjood also finds a way to ask someone to become a member of his own family.
For the last twelve years, Marisela and Ely, along with the volunteer group The Águilas del Desierto have roamed the US-Mexico desert. Their goal: to seek, find and return to their families the bodies of migrants who died while crossing on foot. This all-consuming calling takes a crushing toll on them, but how could they stop? Spare My Bones, Coyote! follows their work, dedication, and difficult lives they have chosen to live.
To provide for his young family, a food vendor searches for customers in the ancient city of Hue from sunset until the early morning. An insight into the the life of a banh bao vendor. Hoa, 42; a farmer by day who has been selling banh bao on Hue’s streets for 12 years. Hoa cycles from his country home to Hue every afternoon to sell a barrel load of the Vietnamese dumplings and provide for his young family.
A Hmong guide's daily life in the mountains of Sapa, North Vietnam.
Leading this story is 22-year-old Pippa Biddle, who after a series of voluntourism experiences over six years posted a critical blog. It went viral with over 15 million hits, and instantly launched her as the poster child against privileged young white women volunteering overseas. Volunteers Unleashed shows that going overseas with good intentions does not guarantee good will be done. Inspired by his daughter Jennica's life-changing experience as a volunteer in Tanzania in 2012, Vancouver filmmaker Brad Quenville (The Dolphin Dealer, Ice Pilots, Pyros, Highway Thru Hell) went back to Africa with his daughter and DOP Kyle Sandilands to shoot and develop the documentary.
What is a socially acceptable conversation when your family's killer sits down to dinner? 'Unforgiven' explores the interactions between murderers, rapists, thieves and their victims in this documentary exploring the power of restorative justice, forgiveness and reconciliation 20 years after the Rwandan Genocide.
This is a documentary about the Diesel Electric Preservation Group, a group of volunteers from the West Somerset
Coexist tells the emotional stories of women who survived the Rwandan genocide in 1994. They continue to cope with the loss of their families as the killers who created this trauma return from jail back to the villages where they once lived. Faced with these perpetrators on a daily basis, the victims must decide whether they can forgive them or not. Their decisions are unfathomable to many, and speak to a humanity that has survived the worst violence imaginable.
