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Kevin Martin El I his Film Festival has taken place here in is the fifth year in which the Human Rights Watch International Manhattan; each time, its occurrence has provoked and inspired, more each year than the previous. The 1994 presentation covered the work of over 70 video and/or film makers, whose varying subjects evoke such horror and sad futility at the problems of societies all over the globe (including the good ol' USA), that it often seems that evil in humankind is a relentless, resistant disease. A shattering glance into the very harrowing struggle of Tibetan monks and nuns as they deal with the Chinese occupation of their land (immediately upon invasion of Tibet in 1950, the Chinese destroyed at least 6,000 monasteries), Satya: A Prayer for The Enemy gives a rare and fascinating close-up of the Buddhists' religious discipline and the conflicts that the nuns have had to confront, and in some miraculous way, even succeed (in a limited sense) in overcoming the efforts of the Chinese assault on the Tibetan customs and national identity. Directed with a sharp sensitivity by Ellen Bruno, we meet nuns of raw courage, as they endure religious oppression in their own land, closed to the world. Their survival thus far in the face of such odds speaks volumes of the nuns' effective use of non-violence for social change. ( 27 minutes. USA) Director Garry Lane has skillfully reenacted in Tlie Stream the true story of a woman's forced flight, on foot, from her Bosnian home. In the course of very tragic circumstances during her journey, this woman must make a very terrifying choice; who of her family (two small children and a *»r- mother-in-law) will live and die. Shot in sharp black and white and acted with subtle precision. (13 minutes, Germany) No one who has read a newspaper on world affairs during the last 25 years can ignore the fact that sectarian violence is a way of life in Northern Ireland; a modern political hell-on-earth rivalry which feeds on its own insolubility, the "troubles" as this struggle is generally called, seem eternal. Suddenly, however, as these notes are being prepared, the IRA in Belfast has called for a ceasefire. Tlie Fourth Green Field by Margaret Bruen captures the long historical strife between Protestants and Catholics. Using original footage, Bruen presents the Irish civil rights movement which in large measure was inspired by the outspoken leaders in the US. The death of 13 protesters of the now notorious "Bloody Sunday", and its international negative publicity for 10 Downing Street, was just the beginning of this modern smoldering crisis. Giving testimony on camera about the current painful effects on British legislation. - including the detention of "suspects" without being charged and without the presence of counsel -, Hie Fourth Green Field concludes with a call to action and not merely arms, and true to its explanation in the program notes, makes offer of "specific suggestions to the public for bringing about real change in Northern Ireland". (96 minutes, UK/USA) Chronicle qfThe Uprising in Warsaw Ghetto. According to Marek Edelman, by Jolanta Dylewska is no less haunting than the commercially successfull Schindler's List and perhaps more horrifying for its understated matter-of-fact quality, due in large part to the very powerful and simple on-camera narra tion by Marek Edelman, who recalls his experience of 50 years ago as a young Jewheld inside the Warsaw ghetto, built and supervised by the Nazi SS as a part of their mass extermination program. Using old Nazi films from the ghetto itself and intercut with Edelman s recollections, this documentary offers a reminder of some of the darkest moments of the Nazi reign of terror. Despite overwhelming risks to his own safety, Edelman (an active member of the Jewish political party BUND) was nothing but courageous in using his position as an hospital messenger to help hundreds of would-be murder victims to escape from the yard. underground, of their imprisonment. With the most haunting dirge-like music done on strings that I have ever experienced in a showing of a documentary film anywhere, Chronicle demonstrates a natural, luminous quality of man's exhortation to man: never forget. (80 minutes, Poland) Done by John Akomfrah of Britain, a member of the very enterprizing group known as The Black Audio Film Collective, Seven Songs for Malcolm X is scathingly fresh in a way. It very finely explores Malcolm X's own personal, political evolution as a champion for social change. There are interviews with his widow, brother, and friends who recall with deep honesty the Malcolm they knew. In a sense this documentary is far more revealing of the man and his feelings than Spike Lee's tiresome commercial effort ot the same man. Lee also appears and gives an intelligent insight into Malcolm X's memory reflecting about what he meant to people and u hat he wished for others. (55 minutes. UK) B NUMÉRO <strong>46</strong>-<strong>47</strong> • VICE VERSA 21
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