2009-2010 Human Rights Film Series:
Human Rights in the USA
In conjunction with the Human Rights in the USA Conference sponsored by the Human Rights Institute and UConn School of Law
Sponsored by the Human Rights Institute and the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center
Film Series Poster (144 kb, Adobe PDF file)
All films are free and open to the public.
Next Film: Ask Not (2008)
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
4:00 PM
Konover Auditorium
Thomas J. Dodd Research Center
"Ask Not" is a rare and compelling documentary film that explores the effects of the US military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay and lesbian soldiers and service members. The film exposes the tangled political battles that led to the discriminatory law and examines the societal shifts that have occurred since its passage in 1993. Current and veteran gay soldiers reveal how “don’t ask, don’t tell” affects them during their tours of duty, as they struggle to maintain a double life, uncertain of whom they can trust. The film also explores how gay veterans and youth organizers are turning to forms of personal activism to overturn the policy. From a national speaking tour of conservative universities to protests at military recruitment offices, these public events question how the U.S. military can claim to represent democracy and freedom while denying one segment of the population the right to serve.
Full Series Schedule:
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Film: Living Broke in Boom Times: Lessons from the Movement to End Poverty (2008)
Followed by a Q & A and reception with filmmaker Peter Kinoy and poverty rights activist Willie Baptist
"... a wonderful documentary, heart-rending in its depiction of homelessness and desperation, yet inspiring in what it shows about the magnificence of people fighting back, organizing, refusing to accept their situation, trying to build a national movement." -- Howard Zinn, Professor and author of A People's History of the United States
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Film: The Least of These (2009)
The Least of These explores one of the most controversial aspects of American immigration policy: family detention. As part of the Bush administration policy opened a former prison turned immigration facility to house children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum hearings or deportation proceedings. The film explores the government rationale for family detention, conditions at the facility, collateral damage, and the role (and limits) of community activism in bringing change, while demonstrating how core American rights and values - due process, presumption of innocence, upholding the family structure as the basic unit of civil society, and America as a refuge of last resort - are currently being denied to immigrants, and particularly children.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Film: Ask Not (2008)
This documentary examines the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" military policy which was resulted in the dishonorable discharge of gay and lesbian members of the armed forces. The film portrays the personal stories of Americans willing to risk their lives for a country that criminalizes the act of coming out. Current and veteran gay soldiers reveal how "Don't Ask Don't Tell" affects them during their tours of duty, as they struggle to maintain a double life.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Film: Trouble the Water (2008)
Trouble the Water revolves around the stories of Kimberly and Scott Roberts who captured the scene inside their attic as Hurricane Katrina raged outside their New Orleans home. Weaving together home video from the Roberts' camera, news coverage of events as they unfolded in real time and footage they shot of the couple over the course of two years, the film constructs a portrait of a community that had been abandoned long before Katrina hit, and a husband and wife surviving not only deadly floodwaters, armed soldiers and bungling bureaucrats, but also their own past. Trouble the Water follows Kimberly and Scott's journey through post- hurricane despair and chaos as they struggle to navigate the FEMA bureaucracy, resist eviction from temporary housing, cope with traumatic stress, and try to make a new start in Memphis.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Film: Sicko (2007)
The words "health care" and "comedy" aren't usually found in the same sentence, but in Academy Award winning filmmaker Michael Moore defies convention with Sicko. The film profiles several ordinary Americans whose lives have been disrupted, shattered, --and in some cases ended -- by health care catastrophe, and demonstrates that the crisis doesn't only affect the 47 million uninsured citizens, but also millions of others who dutifully pay their premiums and still become entangled in bureaucratic red tape.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Film: The Garden (2008)
Nominated for an Academy Award in 2008, The Garden is an engaging and powerful look at the famous political and social battle over the largest community garden in the U.S, located in south central Los Angeles. The film shows how the politics of power and greed (backroom deals, land developing, green politics, money) tragically intersect with working class families who rely on this communal garden for their livelihood. The Garden
exposes the fault lines in American society and raises crucial and challenging questions about liberty, equality, and justice for the poorest and most vulnerable among us.
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