Spirit Aid in collaboration with Variant Magazine

19th-21st of September 2003
The UGC, 7 Renfrew Street, Glasgow, Scotland

Festival Day Tickets £5 / £2.50
free to asylum seekers

tel: 0141 333 9522

• FRIDAY 19th: LAUNCH

Friday 7.00pm–10.00pm, Cinema 18
Sri Lanka Programme

WHERE THE BUTTERFLIES ARE DANCING
Go Nonaka, 61mins, English subtitles.
Where The Butterflies are Dancing explores theatre as a weapon in the adversity of the ongoing civil conflict in Sri Lanka between the Tamils and the Sinalese.
A mixed ability and mixed religions Theatre Company under the direction of a German Director, rehearse and perform a production which relates to their experiences in the ongoing civil conflict.


• SATURDAY 20th: 12noon–10.00pm

Saturday 12noon–2.00pm, Cinema 18
Palestine & Israel Programme

BETWEEN THE LINES
Yifat Keidar, 58 mins, 2001, Hebrew with English subtitles.
A voyage into the unique world of Amira Hass. A reporter in the territories for Haaertz newspaper. Today she is the only Israeli who lives in Ramallah, within the Palestinian authority.
Hass is an obsessed journalist, pursuer of justice, a rebel, a political animal, an only child of a mother who survived the Holocaust, who grew up in a warrior and communist home.
CROSSING KALANDIA
Sobhi Al-Zobaidi, Israel, 52mins, Arab with English Subtitles.
Crossing Kalandia is a video journal kept by Sobhi Al-Zobaidi an independent Palestinian Film Maker in Ramallah during the year 2002. It documents the reality of life for ordinary Palestinians during the intifada and the war, as well as his daughter Kenzaís first year of life. Kenza born on 15th May, a day known as Nakba (Catastrophe Day). The film reveals the persistence and resilient efforts of the Palestinian people to lead normal lives in the West Bank.

Saturday 2.00pm–4.00pm, Cinema 18
Young People in Glasgow Programme

SHOOTERS
Shooters, is a Media Access Programme for young people set up and organised by Spirit Aid. Officially sponsored by West Sound Radio and Camelot, with sponsorship and support from VFG Hire Ltd, Hammerhead, Cardonald College, Glasgow Media Access Centre, the Glenvarigill Glasgow Porsche Centre and Arnold Clark Car Hire. Shooters is designed to build self-confidence and self-esteem among the young people who take part and provide them with training in basic video techniques.
This year, the project was opened to all young people from Drumchapel. Shooters worked alongside Drumchapel Opportunities and the Youth Forum to access young people from the area. These young people were helped to develop their ideas from issues they wished to address and commit to a programme to be shot on video.
The resulting five films covered three subjects — all linked with homelessness and the need for improvements in the environment of Drumchapel.
Up The Drum: A short journey around Drumchapel seen through the eyes of Kerri-Ann Docherty, a 13 year old schoolgirl, looking at the facilities, the people and the improvements that are happening within this housing scheme which is situated to the west of Glasgow.
No Signposts: A look at the problems that cause and create homelessness within Glasgow. This film involves interviews with outreach workers and officials from various agencies and organisations who deal with the rehabilitation of homeless people. This film meets people aged 16 to 60 years old coming from various backgrounds and walks of life, but yet, have all found themselves homeless through a variety of different reasons.
Why us? Adolescence and chaos seem to walk hand in hand but compounded with homelessness and disability can be a nightmare and extremely confusing. This is the story of Calan and Angela, two young people who want to stay together and are finding how difficult it is to convince the system to accommodate them.
Claire's Story: Claire is a young woman living in Drumchapel with her mother and younger sister, Amanda. This video diary, shot over a six week period in the summer of 2003, shows Claire and her family as they prepare to leave their old flat and move into a new refurbished apartment within the same area.
Lights, Camera, Action! Brother and sister team, Alexander and Elizabeth follow and document the crew as they endeavour to shoot their films.
Shooters intends to continue the work they have done over this summer, next year. The project will be open to young people within Glasgow. For more information, please contact Spirit Aid at 45 - 49 King Street, Glasgow G1 5RA. Tel: 0141 552 6111.
GOING GLOBAL
Going Global is a new resource for schools produced by Glasgow City Council and the Glasgow Film Theatre.
The pack consists of a 3 short animated films made by groups of young asylum seekers, refugees and local young people in three Glasgow schools—Castlemilk High School, All Saints Secondary School and St Paul's (Whiteinch) Primary School—with the support of D Fie Foe, a professional animation company. There is also a documentary filmed as the young people were making the films.
The young people were responsible for all aspects of the film making process. They developed the original ideas, produced all the art work, used a range of animation techniques, wrote the scripts, did the acting and dancing, wrote and performed the music and were fully involved in all the creative decisions. The result is three films which are all professional, entertaining, at times moving and a credit to the efforts of them all.
Culture United, the first film, made by young people from All Saints Secondary School looks at how sport, music, etc can be ways of finding mutual understanding between different cultures. The pupils performed all the music for this one.
A Mercurial Welcome, the second film, is by young people from Castlemilk High School. The time is the future, the place is outer space. A number of planets have been devastated by war, famine and disaster and people need to apply to live in the planet Mercury. This film shows applicants being questioned by Mercury's admissions panel who decide if they are allowed to enter. The reasons for their decisions are interesting. It also shows that once you get to the planet, your problems are not necessarily all solved— they all have to find a place to live.
Favourite Things, the third film, made by Primary 6 pupils at St Paul's (Whiteinch) Primary. A group of pupils talk about their favourite things like a mobile phone, Irish dancing, a pet baby elephant, the beach in Somalia and sunflowers in Afghanistan.
The Documentary was filmed as the three animated films were made. The young people talk about their lives, their experiences and their feelings about each other and about making the films. Some of them talk about the experiences that made their families seek asylum.
All schools in Glasgow have been issued with a free copy of the pack. Anyone else who is interested can buy a copy from the Glasgow Film Theatre—details below.
Cheques for £25 plus £2.50 postage and packing made payable to GFT Accounts Department should be sent along with your details to:
Glasgow Film Theatre
Accounts Department
12 Rose Street
Glasgow
G3 6RB
CAMCORDER GUERRILLAS
Faslane - The Very Big Blockade , 22nd April 2003
Short poetic documentary/coverage on the “Really Big Blockade” at Faslane Nuclear Submarine Base, on the banks of the River Clyde in April 2003. At least 160 people were arrested during the non-violent demonstration, which disrupted work at the base for eight hours.
Mayday (2003) is a film, which shows an activist view of Scotland’s biggest anti-capitalist May 1st celebration, the day before George Bush declared the end of major operations in Iraq. The film includes revealing footage of a spontaneous disruption of a shell petrol station, raising the question of links between oil and war.

Saturday 4.00pm – 6.30pm, Cinema 18
Sex Trafficking Programme

ANONYMOUSLY YOURS
Gayle Ferraro, 87 mins.
Sex Trafficking enslaves as many as 40 million women and girls worldwide. This daring expose filmed with great risk in the military dictatorship of Myanmar tells the story of 4 Burmese prostitutes and their struggle to rebuild their lives.
TRAFFICKING CINDERELLA
Mira Niagolova, 48 mins.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, there has been an alarming increase in the forced prostitution and the trafficking of women from Eastern Europe to the West and North America.
This investigative documentary journeys into the macabre world of the sex trafficking trade, which flourishes in the absence of regulations and lack of political will to curtail the problem.

Saturday 6.30pm – 8.00pm, Cinema 18
Roma & short Programme

WELCOME TO TIRANA
Holger Mohaupt , 4:57 min, 2003
Monochromatic impressions of unknown territory infused by a local song on the radio. A joyful journey from the main airport in Albania to the capital Tirana in one of the many stolen Mercedes.
CEIJA STOJKA—Portrait of a Romni
Karin Berger, 85mins
Karin Bergers documentary film is the careful Portrait of an extraordinary woman and at the same time an investigation into the (suffering) history of the Roma.

Saturday 8.00pm – 10.00pm, Cinema 18
War & The Media Programme

WE INTERRUPT THIS EMPIRE
whispered media, 80mins
On March 20th, 2003, a war begins... in San Francisco.
We Interrupt this Empire follows the anti-war movement in San Francisco.
Whispered Media Statement:
The corporate-owned media is increasingly producing news coverage that lacks substance and truth. Now is the time for the grassroots movements to reclaim our history and our vision and create our own media. To this end, Whispered Media was founded as a collective that promotes the use of video, and other media tools, in progressive grassroots movements. Whispered Media offers video witnessing, support and training, collects archival political footage, and produces video works about specific grassroots campaigns and organizations. Whispered Media is one cell in a rapidly growing grassroots media movement.
WAR vs PEACE
Laith Al-Juneidi, 13mins
War vs Peace is a short filmic-essay on the portrayal of war—in particular, the representation of war by media and television. This film criticises the media censorship which allows us variations on a theme whilst smothering the harsh realities of war from public view.
War vs Peace attempts to raise the debate about what the viewer should/should not see, criticising the media hypocrisy in its hidden representations of war.

• SUNDAY 21st: 12noon–10.00pm

Sunday 12noon – 2.00pm, Cinema 18
Mental Health & Social Care Programme

THOSE WHO ARE JESUS
Steven Eastwood, England, 56 mins,
Those who are Jesus is an inquiry into claims of mystical experience or divinity (commonly termed delusions of grandeur). Three individuals who have had religious revelation articulate their perspectives alongside the professionals they are determined to convince: Dr Peter Fenwick (Institute of psychiatry), The Very Rev'd Colin Slee (Bishop of Southwark), Professor Elleen Barker (Sociologist at LSE), Dr Trevor Turner (Psychiatrist, Homerton Hospital) and The Hearing Voice Network).
The Film has a broad appeal but particularly focuses on the discourses surrounding subjective belief systems. It addresses debates concerning diagnosis and treatment and will especially be of interest to workers in and users of the mental health system.
CARELESS
Fiona Reid, Scotland, 6 mins, 2003
Now 25 Ian Baker reflects on his experiences being brought up in care between the ages of 13 and 17 years old.
CEILING MAN
James Alcock, Scotland, 30mins
Ceiling Man reveals the growing relationship between a film maker and his subject over a six month period, charting the physical decline of a heroin addict who when infected by a shared needle poisons his bloodstream. The film maker is warmly invited into the life of Sandy the Street Piper / Street Artist, as he discusses his past, his present, his mental health and his philosophies on life.

Sunday 2.00pm – 4.00pm, Cinema 18
South America Programme

LOOKING IS FREE
Jak Milroy, Scoland, 6mins
In Cusco in Peru, children wander the streets selling postcards, paintings, sweets, dolls or shining shoes. They never beg, and the money they make goes towards their education, £6.00 a term. A young boy street trader asks for your attention as he tries to sell you his wares. Are you listening? “LOOKING IS FREE”
CHOROPAMPA THE PRICE OF GOLD
Ernesto Cabellos, Peru, 75 mins, Spanish with English subtitles.
A devastating mercury spill by the world’s richest goldmining corporation transforms a quiet peasant village in Peru’s Andean mountains into a hotbed of civil resistance. A courageous young mayor emerges to lead his people on a quest for healthcare and justice. But powerful interests conspire to thwart the villagers at every turn in this two year epic chronicle of the real price of gold.
SHOESHINE PRESIDENT
Gibby Zobel, 14mins, English Subtitles.
Lula a former shoeshine boy with little formal education wins a landslide victory to become the President of Brazil.
Lula makes an emotional speech to unprecedented crowds on the night of his victory after a 22 year struggle. It has been easy he says. The difficult part starts now. God give us the health and the courage to change the history of Brazil and make this a happier country in which our people can live with dignity.
This film asks ordinary and extraordinary Brazilians what they think.
LOS DESAPARECIDOS
Danny Mitchell, Scotland, 14 mins, English Subtitles.
Los Desaparecidos addresses the politics surrounding the disappeared in Mexico. It focuses on a leading human rights activist called Rosario Ibarra whose son was abducted by the government in 1975. Since then she has created an organisation which deals specifically with disappearances of political activists. She has also been involved with other campaigns in Mexico for justice and democracy

Sunday 4.00pm – 7.00pm, Cinema 18
Kurdish Programme

‘F’
Metyn Yegyn, 64min, 2001
To lie down to death for days... This documentary is a window opening to the ones who had been in the world’s longest death fast, their thoughts on life and its spell.
For this film interviews were made with prisoners who lived the 19th December operation and who went on hunger strike against F type prisons, prisoner’s parents, lawyers and doctors.
The film F is not only about the human rights problems in Turkey because isolation is the main problem of F type prisons, and these prisons are the typical example of 21st century life. Just think over our lives passing in cells like offices and houses, becoming all alike. So, isolation is not only Turkish government’s, prisoner’s problem but also the globalising world.
DEATH IN EXILE
Ayten Mutlu Saray, 27mins, French and Kurdish with English subtitles.
Khalil, a Palestinan refugee who grew up in Algeria, is in prison waiting to be deported. Memories of his homeland accompany him during this long wait. The story of the film is based on the real case of Khalil Abuzarifeh who died in Zurich on 3rd March 1999 while awaiting deportation from Switzerland.
SILENT DEATH
Hüseyin Karabey, Turkey 2001, 85mins, German, Italian and Spanish with English Subtitles.
There are approximately 71.000 prisoners in the Turkish prisons today. Among these, more than 10.000 are political prisoners.
The Turkish Ministry of Justice has recently constructed F-type prisons (known as the “isolation cell system”) in three locations in Turkey and is planning to construct eight more. These isolation cells will be used mainly for political prisoners. The Ministry of Justice is introducing the F-type prison as being compatible with European standards.
The documentary film The Silent Death aims to discuss and display European policies regarding prisons. Through the different interviews made with political detainees and former prisoners in Germany, Italy, Spain, North Ireland and the USA and with their families, we will try to show that the European prison system and the isolation cell system all around the world, is not the ideal system as propagated by the Turkish authorities. Interviews with researches working on this subject shows that the existing model in Europe is the outcome of a hundred-year-old system which has many deficiencies.
The film will try to depict the 30 years of isolation cell experience with the aim of pointing out the disparity between what is claimed and what is truly experienced, to the audience. The outcomes of the isolation system and its influence on human life will be told both by the victims and the witnesses.
The Kurdish programme is supported by the London Kurdish Film Festival, and is dedicated to the memory and family of Firsaat Dag, who was killed in Sighthill on Sunday 5 August 2001.

Sunday 7.00pm – 8.00pm, Cinema 18
Chechnya Programme

PRISONER OF THE CAUCASUS
Yury Khashchavatski, 52 mins.
The title and parts of the narration of this shocking and evocative film come from Leo Tolstoy’s story of Russian war in Chechnya.
150 years later, not much has changed. Masterfully edited from extensive and at times graphic video footage of several war cameramen, director Yury Khashchavatski shows the modern day carnage in Chechnya from both sides of the conflict.

Sunday 8.00pm – 10.00pm, Cinema 18
Afganistan Programme

CHILDREN OF THE RUBBLE
David Hayman and Jak Milroy, 60mins
David Hayman, Spirit Aid's Head of Operations, went to Afganistan earlier this year with $16,000 of aid in a money belt. Amidst the post war hell of that country he found a series of villages in the Hindu Kush mountains that had not seen a doctor in 24 years and the children were dying.
Children of the Rubble follows this month long mission, the highs and the lows, to put together a medical response unit of doctors, nurses, drivers and medicines and take them into bandit country of the Nahareen Valley.
David will introduce the film and follow it with a question and answer session.

• MONDAY 22nd: 6.00pm–10.00pm

Monday 6.00pm – 8.00pm, Cinema 17
Mixed Programme

WIRE BURNERS
David Scott, 30mins, Scotland.
Wireburners features the “midgie rakers” of Glasgow who rummage through everything from building sites to bins in search of their prize — wire. They trudge through the streets, dragging their booty towards the city's scrap merchants to exchange for hard cash. For all of them it's a way of life; for some it's a way of funding their addiction to drugs or alcohol. This documentary gives a precious insight into the lives of three midgie rakers who see a few skips and pieces of wire as a stepping stone to the future.
WIPE-OUT
Zuzana Piussi, 22mins, Slovakia, English Subtitles.
Piussi's documentary follows armed police making undercover raids in clubs and businesses in Slovakia.
SIMON JONES—KILLED BY CASUALISATION
Simon Jones Memorial Campaign, 25mins, England.
Simon Jones was killed on 24th of April, on his first day as a casual worker. He was sent by Brighton employment agency Personnel Selection to work at a South Coast dock owned by Euromin to do a highly dangerous and skilled job for which he had no training or experience. Within two hours of starting work Simon was dead, his head crushed by a crane grab another victim of our growing casual labour economy.
“No matter how many times I see it, this video remains one of the most powerful pieces of film-making I've ever seen” Libby Brooks, The Guardian.

Monday 8.00pm – 10.00pm, Cinema 17
Mixed Programme

BENJAMIN & HIS BROTHER
Arthur Howes, 88 mins.
Years of ethnic conflict and civil war in Sudan have created a generation of young men known as "The Lost Boys" who have spent more years in refugee camps than in their home communities.
This intimate film recounts the story of William and Benjamin Deng, brothers joined in a struggle of a seemingly never ending exile. The brothers are separated when one is accepted into a US re settlement programme while the other remains at a Kenyan Refugee camp.
WELCOME TO DOVER
Beth Armstrong, 26mins.
The Berishas, a family of Kosovan refugees, smuggled themselves in to Dover. Arriving in the back of a lorry to escape war and prejudice, they find themselves up against new forms of hostility.
Welcome to Dover follows their search for relatives missing in the NATO bombing and their struggle to assimilate. It is the story of a family pulling together to survive in a strange land and shows life as a refugee.
THE REAL VISION 20/20, LAND IS LIFE
Tony Gosling, 14 mins
The Real Vision 20/20 gives a voice to the farmers in the state of Andhra Pradesh who are in receipt of funds intended to aid and develop agriculture in India. These funds are provided by The Department of Trade and Industry under the name of Vision 20/20. This film documents the lives of Indian Farmers and the disastrous impact upon the rural population of the State of Andhra Pradesh.
The film raises questions in Britain about the moral integrity of our government’s support for this project.


(To compliment the film programmes we will have discussions and debates at the screenings with film makers, journalists and people who have experienced conflict and abuses of their human rights in their own or another country.)

Donwload Festival Information (PDF)

Background and General Information

Document 1 International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Document 1 is a collaboration between Spirit Aid and Variant magazine.
Spirit Aid is a Children's Charity and Human Rights Foundation who endeavour to help children at home and abroad. At home, children in underprivileged areas of the city, and abroad children who are victims of war, genocide, ethnic cleansing and poverty.
Variant is a charitable organisation who publish an international arts andculture magazine. The magazine provides in-depth coverage of art in the context of broader social, political and cultural issues.
Document 1 is Glasgow's first ever International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. The main focus for the first festival is to show work from the regions around the world where asylum seekers in Glasgow have come from. In doing so, the films will give asylum seekers a chance to see what is happening in their country of origin and give other residents of Glasgow an opportunity to see everyday life in such countries. These films, whilst explaining the conflicts which people have involuntarily had to flee, also show the richness of their societies and cultures. We will include the asylum seeker community and the wider Glasgow community in an exchange about their lives, break through the myths that people may have about each other, show films which also give positive portraits of different communities and provide an opportunity for us all to view our experiences in an international light. Document 1 will screen these films alongside other documentaries about human rights issues from around the world, including Eastern Europe, South America, USA, UK and Burma.
To compliment the film programmes we will have discussions and debates at the screenings with film makers, journalists and people who have experienced conflict and abuses of their human rights in their own or another country. Our aim is to screen a large and diverse selection of documentary film which will offer the viewer a broader understanding of issues not often spoken about, ignored, or not registered on any platform.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the film makers for their wonderful works. Below is a welcome from The Scottish Asylum Seekers Consortium one of the main supporters of Document 1.
Paula Larkin & Mona Rai, Coordinators

Scottish Asylum Seekers Consortium
It gives me great pleasure to welcome everyone to Glasgow' first International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. The Scottish Asylum Seekers Consortium, Media Sub Group has been charged by Scottish Refugee Integration Forum to take forward the media strategy as contained in their document. This need has arisen due to the misconceptions that has been portrayed in some parts of the media and elsewhere since asylum seekers arrived in Scotland. We are very pleased to be able to support this event and welcome the positive images portrayed in this film festival. The films you will see during this festival depict the many and varied situations effecting asylum seekers and refugees throughout the world. We hope you will enjoy these films and participate in the asylum debate.
Best Wishes Stephen Grant, Chair of the Media Sub Group

Contact Information

Festival Contacts: David Hayman, Paula Larkin, Mona Rai

http://www.variant.org.uk/Doc1/Doc1.html

Spirit Aid
45 King Street.
Glasgow
+44 (0)141 552 6111
http://www.spiritaid.org.uk

Film Festival Email: document1_filmfest@hotmail.com

Variant
1/2, 189b Maryhill Rd.
Glasgow
G20 7XJ
+44 (0)141 333 9522

http://www.variant.org.uk

variantmag@btinternet.com