The 7th annual Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival closed Saturday night with Presumed Guilty, a powerful documentary about the judiciary process in Mexico and one young man’s fight to prove his innocence amid systemic corruption and entrenched mediocrity. Mary Jo Leddy, Director of Romero House and Adjunct Professor, Regis College, University of Toronto delivered the opening address.
Prior to the screening, the Toronto Network hosted a cocktail reception at Moose Factory, a unique private gallery and studio owned by artist Charlie Pachter. Speakers included Dan Guttman (Chair of the Toronto Network) and Samer Muscati, a researcher with Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa division.
This year’s festival was the largest to date with 10 films screened. Cudos to programmers Helga Stephenson and Alex Rogalski for putting together such a powerful and nuanced schedule.
The festival also saw over 300 post-secondary students from Humber, Ryerson, the University of Toronto and York University attend. Please stay tuned for special student screenings in the coming months.
If you’d like to lend your support to Human Rights Watch Canada, contact Jasmine Herlt at 416-322-8448 or e-mail herltj@hrw.org.
Tonight’s film, Presumed Guilty, will be introduced by Mary Jo Leddy, Director of Romero House and Adjunct Professor, Regis College, University of Toronto. She is pictured above at Romero House with Governor General Michaëlle Jean.
Ms. Leddy was founding editor of Catholic New Times, an independent national Catholic newspaper. She has written several books and is a frequent radio and TV commentator. An active member of the Ontario Sanctuary Coalition and PEN Canada, she has also lectured on human rights and peace both nationally and internationally. Ms. Leddy is a recipient of the Order of Canada. Presumed Guilty narrates the story of José Antonio Zúñiga Rodriguez, who was mistakenly accused of murder and condemned to 20 years in jail for being poor and in the wrong place at the wrong time. His case would have been one of many unfortunate stories, but lawyers Roberto Hernández and Layda Negrete decided to get involved and publicize the injustice. Hernández and Negrete uncover a frustrating, labyrinthine legal system defended by mediocre civil servants and corrupt police officers. At a time when there is a strong push for the death penalty in Mexico, Presumed Guilty is important not only as a document of the system’s flaws, but as a vehicle for change. Presumed Guilty is the closing film of the 7th Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival. A very few tickets are still available to the Closing Night Reception (which includes a ticket to the film.) Please call the Human Rights Watch Canada office at 416-322-8448, if you would like to purchase tickets.
Tonight’s film, Back Home, Tomorrow, focuses on two children who confront changed lives in very different circumstances after becoming victims of war-torn environments. Yagoub has fled Darfur to the Mayo refugee camp in Khartoum, Sudan, where he waits for a heart operation to save his life. Seven-year-old Murtaza has lost his left hand to a land mine in Afghanistan. In heart-rending detail, directors Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Paolo Santolini follow Murtaza and Yagoub from their initial admission into hospitals in Kabul and Khartoum, respectively, to their release months later. Back Home Tomorrow will be introduced by Canadian documentary filmmaker Shelley Saywell. Shelley has won numerous international awards including an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism and been short-listed for the Academy Awards. At home, her work has garnered three Hot Docs! and three Gemini Awards. Her films include A Child’s Century of War: Travels to three contemporary war zones to look at how war has increasingly affected children. Shelley has personally been honoured with UNESCO’s Gandhi Silver Medal for promoting the culture of peace.
You can read an interview with the directors in this week’s Tandem News. Back Home, Tomorrow screens at 7 PM at Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario. For more information or to purchase tickets, please call the TIFFG Box Office at 416-968-FILM or toll-free 1-877-968-FILM. Tickets can also be purchased online at tiff.net/cinematheque or in person at the door.
Interview with Backyard lead actress Ana de la Reguera and supporting actor Joaquin Cosio for Terra TV (Mexico). Based on true events, Backyard is a drama that focuses on the hundreds of unsolved murders of women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
The film has two main story lines; one follows Blanca Bravo (Ana de la Reguera), a police detective newly transferred to the city who is soon overwhelmed with cases; the other finds Juanita (Asur Zagada), who moves to the city from the country and joins her cousin working in the maquiladoras, or multinational manufacturing plants set up to take advantage of the cheap labour pool. While Juanita takes advantage of her new-found freedom in the city, Bravo struggles against the indifference of a city and government more often that not resigned to the situation, and inevitably the lives of the two women intersect. People like Bravo and radio host Peralta (Joaquin Cosio) try to effect change, but find themselves in an impossible situation and are challenged to stop anything without sacrificing their own morals in the process. Backyard screens at 9:15 PM tonight at Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario. For more information or to purchase tickets, please call the TIFFG Box Office at 416-968-FILM or toll-free 1-877-968-FILM. Tickets can also be purchased online at tiff.net/cinematheque or in person at the theatre.
Brad MacIntosh, Vice Chair of SAFER (Social Aid for the Elimination of Rape) and a researcher at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital introduces tonight’s film, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo.
Dr. MacIntosh has been working since 2006 to end sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) through the purchase and donation of supplies to Panzi Hospital in South Kivu province not far from the Rwanda border. The hospital is the only one in the region that performs fistula repair operations, a unfortunate aftermath of violent sexual assaults.
Lisa F. Jackson’s film documents the uncountable casualties of the brutal war that has been raging in the DRC : the many tens of thousands of women and girls who have been systematically kidnapped, raped, mutilated and tortured by soldiers from both foreign militias and the Congolese army. Jackson spent 2006 in the war zones of eastern DRC documenting the tragic plight of women and girls in that country’s intractable conflict. She was afforded privileged access to not only the grotesque realities of life in Congo (including interviews with self-confessed rapists) but also to examples of resiliency, resistance, courage and grace. The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo received a “Special Jury Award” at The 2008 Sundance Film Festival. The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo follows a screening of the documentary film, Tapologo, at 9 PM at Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario. For more information or to purchase tickets, please call the TIFFG Box Office at 416-968-FILM or toll-free 1-877-968-FILM. Tickets can also be purchased online at tiff.net/cinematheque or in person at the theatre.
