ReelPolitik: Understanding the World Through Film

PSA time:

This unique festival features films that address issues of global concern. ReelPolitik showcases outstanding political films—both contemporary and historical--that deserve wide circulation, and genres include feature, documentary, animation, as well as experimental film.

Screenings are accompanied by in-depth introductions and panel discussions with scholars from the University of Toronto, and elsewhere. Topics range from the various international political contexts addressed by the films, to the nature of politically engaged film-making. ReelPolitik promotes public education on global issues.

ReelPolitik promotes public education on global issues.

The screenings will be held at the Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility, in the Munk Centre South House of the University of Toronto, from Feb. 5-7. The films:

• War/Dance

For the past 20 years, northern Uganda has been at war with a rebel force, the Lord’s Resistance Army (L.R.A.), and the country’s children have been the greatest victims of the conflict. Villages and refugee camps are raided by the L.R.A. and children abducted and indoctrinated as new soldiers.

One school in a refugee camp, Patongo Primary School is getting ready for the biggest event of the year—the National Music Competition. Over 20,000 schools compete, but only one will go home the champion and no one expects it to be Patongo. Schools in refugee camps don’t win awards.

The documentary follows three students of Patongo as they compete against wealthier schools from the south in the nation’s capital, Kampala. Patongo’s students—most of whom have never left the camp—need everything, from school uniforms to musical instruments. Despite the odds, they endlessly practice their performances, driven by heart, talent, and the need to rebuild their lives.



• Persepolis

Persepolis is the poignant, true story of a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Viewed through the eyes of outspoken nine-year-old Marjane, we see the changes that occur as fundamentalists take power—forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. As bombs fall around Tehran in the Iran/Iraq war, the daily fear that permeates life in Iran is palpable. After several close encounters with the country’s “social guardians”, Marjane’s parents make the difficult decision to send her to school in Austria at age 14. Vulnerable and alone in a strange land, she eventually finds herself horribly homesick. After high school, she returns to Iran and continues to speak out against the hypocrisy she witnesses.

At age 24, she realizes that while she is deeply Iranian, she cannot live in Iran. She makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her homeland, optimistic about her future, shaped indelibly by her past.



• Familia Lugones

Familia Lugones reviews four generations of the Lugones family living through the poignant and complex history of Argentina in the twentieth century. The family saga begins with the poet, Leopold, during the intellectual Uriburu coup, continues with his son, Polo, the inventor of the baton, followed by his granddaughter, Pirie, disappeared, and ends with her son Alexander. The film examines emotions and the philosophy of many life experiences including success, happiness, and torture.


• Losers and Winners

In the centre of the Germany’s Ruhr Valley, the famous “heartbeat of steel” has gone silent. After only eight years in operation, this ultramodern coke (processed coal) plant has been shut down and is slowly being dismantled. Piece by piece, the factory is being broken down and moved to China. The documentary follows the collision that occurs between cultures, as 400 Chinese workers are supervised by the last 30 German workers in the Shutdown Department to move the gigantic industrial plant overseas.

A question emerges in the process: Who is ultimately the winner and who is the loser when jobs move from one part of the world to another?

Check the site out for details and showtime. The general admission is $10. I would have loved to see War/Dance, but I'm otherwise occupied on Thursday night. If anyone reading this makes it out, let me know how it was.

Thanks to DH for the link and invite.