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United States Institute of Peace Joins Silverdocs Film Festival

Start: Monday, June 21, 2010 at 5:00am / End: Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 6:00pm

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For the first time, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is participating in the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival. The two organizations have teamed up to present a thematic strand of six films that explore the human side of conflict. The strand is called "Peacebuilding on Screen."

For the first time, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is participating in the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival. The two organizations have teamed up to present a thematic strand of six films that explore the human side of conflict. The strand is called "Peacebuilding on Screen."

The film festival runs from June 21-27. There will be panel discussions following each film. Learn more about the films and discussions.

The six films in the "Peacebuilding on Screen" strand and post-screening panel discussions with USIP experts include:

  • BUDRUS
    Israel/Palestinian Territories/USA, 2009, 82 minutes (Director: Julia Bacha)

    This rousing film about one Palestinian village and its unlikely hero—humble family man turned activist Ayed Morrar—reveals the power of ordinary people to peaceably fight for extraordinary change.
  • FOUND
    Canada, 2009, 6 minutes (Director: Paramita Nath)

    For Laotian-Canadian poet Souvankham Thammavongsa, a discarded scrapbook sheds light on a harsh infancy in Southeast Asia emphasizing how family memory is often an aggregation of disparate pieces. The film will preceed both screenings of GRACE, MILLY, LUCY...CHILD SOLDIERS.
  • GRACE, MILLY, LUCY...CHILD SOLDIERS
    Canada, 2010, 73 minutes (Director: Raymonde Provencher)

    Grace Akallo is one of many northern Ugandan women attempting to live a normal adulthood after being forced as children to fight for the Lord's Resistance Army, a notoriously brutal rebel group. Akallo and several others have become activists, striving to help female ex-rebels find a voice in the world, acceptance at home and forgiveness from one another.

    Post-screening discussion
    Friday, June 25 | 1:45 pm
    • Raymond Provencher
      Filmmaker
    • Raymond Gilpin
      Associate Vice President, Sustainable Economies Center of Innovation
    • John Prendergast
      Co-founder of the ENOUGH Project and former USIP executive fellow
    • Grace Akallo
      Film subject
    • Kathleen Kuehnast, Moderator
      Gender Adviser, Gender and Peacebuilding Initiative Center of Innovation
  • LA ISLA—ARCHIVES OF A TRAGEDY
    Germany/Guatemala, 2010, 85 minutes (Director: Uli Stelzner)

    Guatemala’s violent history of repression at the hands of extremist political regimes is laid bare following the discovery of a vast archive of secret police documents. As a team of dedicated forensic specialists sort through the files, the voices of the disappeared challenge the culture of impunity that plagued the nation.

    Post-screening discussion
    Thursday, June 24 | 1:45 pm
    • Uli Stelzner
      Filmmaker
    • Tani Adams
      Former USIP senior fellow and research director at the Institute of Learning for Social Reconciliation (Guatemala)
    • Ambassador Francisco Villagrán de León
      Embassy of Guatemala
    • Tom Gjelten, Moderator
      NPR senior correspondent
  • MY SO CALLED ENEMY
    USA, 2010, 87 minutes (Director: Lisa Gossels)

    Filmed over a seven-year period, the film follows a group of teenage Israeli and Palestinian girls committed to mutual understanding and a just solution to the conflict that continues to rage in their homeland.

    Post-screening discussion
    Wednesday, June 23 | 7:15 pm
  • WAR DON DON
    Sierra Leone, 2010, 85 minutes (Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen)

    Is Issa Sesay a war criminal guilty of crimes against humanity? Or a reluctant fighter who protected civilians and played a crucial role in forging peace in Sierra Leone? A trial in the United Nations’ “special court” in the heart of Freetown attempts to reveal the answer to this question.

    Post-screening discussion
    Tuesday, June 22 | 4:15 pm
    • Stephen Rapp
      U.S. ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues and former chief prosecutor, Special Court for Sierra Leone
    • Alpha Sesay
      Trial Monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative
    • Roy Gutman, Moderator
      Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former USIP Senior Fellow

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