Thursday, May 13

West Hollywood - DIRECTOR'S GUILD OF AMERICA

4:30PM
IN THE SHADOW OF THE PAGODAS US PREMIERE
preceded by ENTRENCHED ABUSE: FORCED LABOR IN BURMA and NO PLACE TO GO and BURMA REPORT: MAY 30TH INCIDENT

6:30PM
TRADING WOMEN LOS ANGELES PREMIERE
preceded by WHEN THE STORM CAME

7PM
HOME OF THE BRAVE LOS ANGELES PREMIERE

8:30PM
THE LADIES' ROOM
preceded by FOR A PLACE UNDER THE HEAVENS

9PM
PERSONS OF INTEREST preceded by THE RUSSELL TRIBUNAL US PREMIERE

IN THE SHADOW OF THE PAGODAS

Director: Irene Marty.
2004. Switzerland. 52 min. English, Burmese, Karen, and Shan, subtitled. US PREMIERE

From the bustling streets of Rangoon and the tranquility of Buddhist monasteries, Irene Marty takes us on a dangerous journey into Burma's jungle, where hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people flee from forced labor, murder, and torture at the hands of the ruling military junta. Defying the most potent weapon of the genocide - silence - Marty gives voice to Burma's ethnic minorities and political opposition, as they struggle for freedom and democratic rule.

PLAYS WITH No Place to Go, Entrenched Abuse AND Burma Report THURSDAY, MAY 13, 4:30PM AND FRIDAY, MAY 14, 8PM DIRECTOR'S GUILD OF AMERICA - Theatre 3

ENTRENCHED ABUSE: FORCED LABOR IN BURMA

Director: WITNESS and Burma Issues
2004. USA. 12 min. English, Sgaw Karen, Karenni and Burmese, subtitled. WEST COAST PREMIERE

The authoritarian military regime that rules Burma - the SPDC - forces hundreds of thousands of people to work against their will, and without pay, on the regime's development projects, as porters in the military, and in other forms of compulsory labor. The International Labor Organization (ILO) - the UN agency that monitors forced labor worldwide - has identified the SPDC regime as one of the world's worst perpetrators. The incidents of forced labor in this video show how - despite its claims to the contrary - the SPDC has continued to use forced labor. They were recorded during 2003 among three different ethnic groups - the Karen, Karenni and Burmans - and in different regions of Burma.

PLAYS WITH No Place to Go, Burma Report AND In the Shadow of the Pagodas THURSDAY, MAY 13, 4:30PM AND FRIDAY, MAY 14, 8PM DIRECTOR'S GUILD OF AMERICA - Theatre 3

NO PLACE TO GO: INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE IN BURMA

Director: WITNESS in association with Burma Issues
2002. USA. 14 min. English, Sgaw Karen and Burmese, subtitled.

Through the harrowing testimony of internally displaced persons in Karen State, and through footage of their plight, NO PLACE TO GO explores how the Burmese military government has systematically killed its own people - using forced labor, forced movement, arbitrary executions and massacres - in order to undermine the organization of a widespread Democratic opposition.

PLAYS WITH Entrenched Abuse, Burma Report AND In the Shadow of the Pagodas THURSDAY, MAY 13, 4:30PM AND FRIDAY, MAY 14, 8PM DIRECTOR'S GUILD OF AMERICA - Theatre 3

BURMA REPORT: MAY 30th INCIDENT

Director: Anonymous
2004. Thailand. 15 min. English and Burmese, subtitled.

In May 2003, the National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters were violently attacked during her political tour of Burma. Dubbed "The Depayin Massacre," the incident resulted in the arrest of NLD leaders and the deaths of at least 11 NLD supporters. Drawing on interviews of eyewitnesses to the attack, and footage smuggled from Burma showing mass popular support for the Nobel laureate during her public speeches, the video provides compelling testimony for piecing together the facts of the incident. It also paints a powerful picture of Aung San Suu Kyi's charisma and vision, which have simultaneously buttressed her calls for democracy and made her a formidable threat to the ruling junta, despite her spending nine of the last 14 years in house arrest.

PLAYS WITH No Place to Go, Entrenched Abuse AND In the Shadow of the Pagodas THURSDAY, MAY 13, 4:30PM AND FRIDAY, MAY 14, 8PM DIRECTOR'S GUILD OF AMERICA - Theatre 3

TRADING WOMEN

Director: David Feingold
2003. USA/Thailand/China/Burma/Laos. 77min. English.
LOS ANGELES PREMIERE

As with all clandestine industries, myths abound concerning the sex trade in Southeast Asia. Drawing on interviews with sex workers, brothel owners, politicians, trafficked girls, and anxious parents wondering what happened to their kidnapped children, TRADING WOMEN seeks to answer why so many highland girls are migrating to work in this industry. The reasons are varied and complex, but the girls are empowered by sharing their stories. This film is the culmination of a five-year research project, which dispels myths of the sex trade through a more comprehensive exploration of its roots.

PLAYS WITH When the Storm Came THURSDAY, MAY 13, 6:30PM DIRECTOR'S GUILD OF AMERICA - Theatre 3

WHEN THE STORM CAME

Director: Shilpi Gupta
2003. USA. 24min. English and Kashmiri, subtitled

The women of Kunnan Pushpora, in the foothills of the Himalayas cannot forget the horror of one night in 1991. Bringing to light a long-buried story of mass rape committed by India's security forces, director Shilpi Gupta thoughtfully interviews and films the men and women of the village, illuminating their faces and emotions, rather than relegating their scars to abstract figures. Co-winner of the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

PLAYS WITH Trading Women THURSDAY, MAY 13, 6:30PM DIRECTOR'S GUILD OF AMERICA - Theatre 3

HOME OF THE BRAVE

Director: Paola di Florio
2003. USA. 75min. English. LOS ANGELES PREMIERE

Civil Rights activist, Viola Liuzzo drove south to participate in the legendary march on Montgomery led by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1965. She never made it home. Liuzzo was pursued on the highway and shot in the head by four Ku Klux Klan members and a FBI informant. HOME OF THE BRAVE reclaims Liuzzo's story from the postscript of these turbulent times in recent American history. Why was the murder of the only white woman killed during the Civil Rights movement covered up? Why did J. Edgar Hoover run a smear campaign to dishonor her character? Our nation's history may have forgotten her, but Liuzzo's children have not. Decades after the murder, their mother's life and violent end are finally being talked about.

THURSDAY, MAY 13, 7PM DIRECTOR'S GUILD OF AMERICA - Theatre 2

THE LADIES' ROOM

Director: Mahnaz Afzali
2003. Iran. 55min. Farsi, subtitled. LOS ANGELES PREMIERE

A young girl speaks with frankness about her suicide attempts. A somewhat confused and high mother walks in carrying her two-week old screaming baby. In this space, jokes are exchanged, tears are shed and cigarette after cigarette is lit. This space is the women's washroom in a Tehran park. Acclaimed Iranian actress, Mahnaz Afzali picks up a camera and films the diverse traffic, including prostitutes, drug addicts, students, victims of abuse and the matriarch in the form of the washroom attendant. This is a meeting place where raw emotion, psychology, and personal history are displayed. THE LADIES' ROOM offers a small but powerful glimpse into the psyches of women who are rarely heard.

PLAYS WITH For a Place Under the Heavens THURSDAY, MAY 13, 8:30PM DIRECTOR'S GUILD OF AMERICA - Theatre 2

FOR A PLACE UNDER THE HEAVENS

Director: Sabiha Sumar
2003. Pakistan. 53min. English and Urdu, subtitled. LOS ANGELES PREMIERE

Beginning with the creation of Pakistan in 1947, acclaimed director Sabiha Sumar traces the relationship of Islam to the state in an effort to understand how women are coping with and surviving the increasing religiosity of civil and political life in their country. Juxtaposing interviews with Pakistani women who have chosen to veil themselves, even in the absence of any state directive to do so, with observations from her feminist colleagues who cling to hope for a more secular system, Sumar dramatically captures the tension between liberal and fundamentalist forces that are shaping life in contemporary Pakistan. Chilling footage of a mother encouraging her toddler to be a martyr when he grows up, home movies from Sumar's childhood and the filmmaker's cogent political analysis are lyrically combined to create a timely and compelling document - pulling together the strands of belief, reinterpretation and reform in Islam.

PLAYS WITH The Ladies' Room THURSDAY, MAY 13, 8:30PM DIRECTOR'S GUILD OF AMERICA - Theatre 2

THE RUSSELL TRIBUNAL

Director: Staffan Lamm
2003. Sweden. 10 min. English, Swedish, Vietnamese and French, subtitled. US PREMIERE

Stockholm, 1967: With participants including Jean-Paul Sartre, the Russell Tribunal investigates US war crimes in Vietnam. Victims of the war are called to witness. Today, from a distance of more than 35 years, the director reflects on his old footage from the tribunal, as well as some never been seen before.

PLAYS WITH Persons of Interest THURSDAY, MAY 13, 9PM DIRECTOR'S GUILD OF AMERICA - Theatre 3

PERSONS OF INTEREST

Directors: Alison Maclean & Tobias Perse
2003. USA. 63 min. English, Spanish and Arabic, subtitled.

Since September 11, 2001, the US Justice Department has detained an estimated 5,000 Arab and Muslim non-citizens, none of whom have been convicted of any crime related to the attacks of 9/11. In PERSONS OF INTEREST, several former detainees and their family members tell their stories of ethnic profiling, solitary confinement and deportation in intimate interviews with the filmmakers. By juxtaposing these interviews with footage of Attorney General John Ashcroft defending the tactic of blanket detention, PERSONS OF INTEREST makes the connection between questionable government policy and the real people who are the victims of it.

PLAYS WITH The Russell Tribunal THURSDAY, MAY 13, 9PM DIRECTOR'S GUILD OF AMERICA - Theatre 3