Moving pictures The Human Rights Watch Film Festival comes to SPACE BY IAN PAIGE
	The Lost Boys of Sudan A documentary does its job best when it offers up a full glimpse of a specific facet of this world, leaving the audience that much wiser for its time. Far from reality TV, here is verité offered up on celluloid. The standout in the Human Rights Watch Film Festival’s generous helping of humanitarian media is Lost Boys of Sudan, directed by Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk. The film introduces the audience to several young Sudanese men staying in a refugee camp in Kenya. When they were boys, their village was attacked by Muslim raiders. The disaster leaves them orphaned and running from Sudan’s grim civil war between the Muslim North and Christian and animist South. The cameras eventually follow Peter and Santino, two compelling Dinka tribesmen. The documentary highlights their tribulations in a year of adapting to the bizarre world of consumerist America, once they learn of their inclusion in our country’s refugee asylum program. There is no heavy-handed message here. Instead of shoving a single thesis down our throats, the film provides an enriching experience removed from pro- or anti-American dogma. The events unraveled for the camera show an entirely human drama that is sometimes difficult to watch but always captivating. The human ability to adapt is one of the film’s major currents. In his native land, observes Santino, "There is no time. There is no money." In a matter of months, the Lost Boys leave behind their village life and start working assembly-line jobs, driving cars, meeting church groups, and entering high school. The action for Santino and Peter takes place in Houston and Kansas City, adding to the surreal relativity of this human experiment. Peter leaves his small pocket of Sudanese friends in Houston and makes his way to Kansas City. He lies about his age so he can enter high school as a junior. In the afternoon, he goes to basketball tryouts, attempting to make good on a life-long dream of professional playing. Here is a symbol of the whole system of enculturation. Peter has natural skill, but his fellow aspiring athletes "have been doing it longer. They know the rules." Although the coach displays compassion, Peter does not make the team. Santino stays in Houston and attempts to get a driver’s license. In line, he meets a fellow immigrant that assures him he will turn out just fine and that "life is a test." Santino fails his driver’s test, but drives away (in his unregistered car he’s been driving for months) in order to fight another battle another day. You get the feeling these boys will pass, for better or worse. It is easy to forget that the Lost Boys are just that, and like most boys they want to be accepted in whatever way they can. Through the eyes of these bright souls filled with hope for "a heaven on earth," American viewers will glean glimpses of just how bizarre this capitalist utopia is. A year into the program, the Lost Boys reunite to share their stories from their respective States. "Shit! $500 is too much. In Nebraska, I pay less for a two-bedroom." Suddenly, these incongruous natives are sounding a little more American. We begin to see just how fucked up America might be when the boys ask each other if they would stay here in the US or might rather spend some more time in the refugee camps of Kenya. The directors choose a casual cinema verité style for the film. The cinematographic result will remind some of The Real World, but there’s no drivel to be found here. The editing is flawless, taking up the Herculean task of sorting through a year of footage to trace the stories of the two characters in a cogent fashion. The result is a coherent presentation of someone’s unique life with universal implications. A must-see for Portlanders in particular, Lost Boys will hit closest to home of all the Human Rights Watch Film Festival’s selections. Our city is host to a growing number of Sudanese and although many Mainers will consider themselves inviting and open-minded, it is easy to forget we do a live in a city and it’s even easier to keep your blinders on as you walk through the streets. Lost Boys of Sudan holds its own in this cadre of rebellious films. Unlike the others, however, its excellence is derived from its far-reaching humanity. This isn’t about making choices between left and right policies or petitioning governments. Here we have a truly human movie that forces us to recognize that we are all similarly subject to our circumstances. Instead of arousing action through anger, this story speaks to compassion and empathy. The audience member will most likely concede that this tactic raises the most hope for the propagation of human rights everywhere. — IP Lost Boys of Sudan shows at SPACE, in Portland, Sunday, Nov. 14, at 6:30 p.m. Call (207) 828-5600.

The goal is to get those eyes to stop staring at the sidewalk. For those progressive souls for whom election results are not only demoralizing but also downright debilitating, there is an urgent need to stoke the passion and refuel the fire. To the rescue comes SPACE, dishing out the medicine by hosting the 2004 Human Rights Watch Traveling International Film Festival, starting Sunday, November 14, with a movie or two each night all week. Activist-types will be wearing new buttons and printing out new leaflets in no time.

Looking down the barrel of four more years with the politicians who brought you PATRIOT Act I, Human Rights Watch is gritting its teeth and getting ready to put forth more effort than ever before. The international organization is a conglomerate of lawyers, journalists, and academics who join together with regional experts and volunteers for the purpose of investigating human rights abuses all over the world. Their findings are published and disseminated through a variety of media, with the intention of spreading awareness and causing embarrassment for those governments responsible in the eyes of their constituents. One variety of this enterprise is the film festival quickly approaching our city.

A festival of this nature is designed to inform and inspire action. If the presentation is well executed and entertaining, all the better. All of the films featured succeed in the former criteria and a few stand out as exceptionally exemplifying the latter.

The most thrilling of the featured documentaries takes place in Montreal, at Concordia University. Discordia charts events on this microcosmic campus beginning with a controversial visit from former Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu. The large bodies of Palestinians and Israeli students start butting heads. Tensions boil over when Palestinian sympathizers attempt to stop Netanyahu’s address. A clash with the police turns into a full-scale riot complete with broken windows. Directors Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal meticulously scrutinize the aftermath.

Discordia succeeds with both its entertainment value and its relevance to anyone even remotely concerned with activism. From the title sequence to the credits, the film won’t let you turn away from its relentless pace. We watch developing youth realize that community life in a modern, heterogeneous world involves some serious difference of opinion. One key player in the drama is Samer. This angry-but-eloquent young man refuses to forget his Palestinian heritage and passionately argues his case for his parents’ land lost in 1967. Cut to Aaron, VP of the student council, Jew and Palestinian supporter, in a heated debate with a leader of a Jewish student group who is outraged that his people are being harassed while they hand out leaflets supporting the Israeli cause.

You can see we have a problem here. Exploring the arguments throughout the film turns out to be way more exciting than tussles with the police and breaking windows.

The possibility of overloading the audience with the many facets of the debate over free speech and cultural integrity lurks around the corner, but Addelman and Mallal avoid this pitfall by focusing on the personal stakes in this campus drama. The audience becomes familiar with the personalities of Samer and Aaron. The film gets the job done by applying this human angle to CNN’s portrayal of an abstract Middle Eastern conflict happening "somewhere over there."

The other aspect in which Discordia succeeds is in its delivery of inspiration to act. The university campus is not unlike our small city, and these kids don’t just talk, they do. Watching their determination, sophomoric or otherwise, reminds you that in the face of opposition, individuals make a marked difference in forming public opinion. Get those individuals on the same page and you have yourself a powerful force that can really get things done. If watching the movie on Friday isn’t enough to get you talking on your own, there’s a Q-and-A session with Ben Addelman after the screening.

Feeling better? There are plenty of other mind-blowing treats all week. Another documentary of remarkable depth is Katy Chevigny’s and Kirsten Johnston’s Deadline. This well-crafted exploration of the capital punishment system focuses on the surprise decision of Illinois Republican Governor George Ryan to hold clemency hearings for all condemned inmates in 2002. This mandate forced a decrepit justice system to look at its shortcomings and shine the spotlight back on emotionally charged cases thought to have disappeared forever in the darkness of a death row cell. Chevigny and Johnston captivate the audience with a measured and thorough examination of the proceedings.

There is no doubt this one’s a tearjerker, but the film necessarily addresses emotions buried deep in the American psyche as we try to wrap our collective head around this complicated issue. Deadline is a shining example of documentary work.

Persons of Interest is the most poorly crafted of the films, yet it still succeeds in spreading the message about human-rights violations, these happening right here inside our borders. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, more than 5000 people, primarily of South Asian or Middle Eastern origin, were arrested, secretly detained, and placed in solitary confinement by the US Justice Department on the grounds of national security. A roughshod interview style highlights impassioned anecdotes from the survivors of this grave abuse. This is rapid-fire info, intended to scare and to expedite action. As a film unto itself, the material would be better presented as an installation piece, cycling through these testimonials. You can achieve this effect yourself by making sure you stop in at SPACE during the screening time and catching part of the movie. Chances are you’ll find yourself sucked in until the credits roll anyway.

Saints and Sinners, by Abigail Honor, observes a devoutly Catholic same-sex couple determined to marry in a Catholic church. The Catholic Church hierarchy is of course adamantly against a sanctified wedding. Regardless, the two men begin preparations for what promises to be a very big show. Even family supporters begin to drop off like flies when the two audaciously seek to be the first same-sex wedding announcement in the New York Times. Again, the festival offers an example of filmmakers departing from an abstract political issue and turning to a personal story. It’s hard to throw out an accusation of rhetoric when you’re watching people try to live their lives and express themselves.

This is no time to sit at the end of the bar night after night lamenting the could’ve-been liberalism of our age. Okay, maybe you can do it for a little while, but take some time out this week and get yourself informed about some specific things to get pissed off about. Everyone needs an excuse to be righteous, why not make yours valid? Remember, the more "we" make ourselves and each other aware of what the hell is going on, the more "they" can’t get away with it. Going to a movie seems like a pretty easy way to get things rolling.

Ian Paige can be reached at red studio@yahoo.com

See the full Human Rights Watch Film Festival Schedule in "Film Listings."