Ramin Bahrani, director and writer of Chop Shop was in Queens, New York, last night to preview the film. Chop Shop was shot primarily in the Iron Triangle, a twenty block section of Queens. The film opens February 27th in NYC and plays the Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival on March 3rd.
After the preview, Bahrani along with the film’s young star Alejando Planco answered a Q&A moderated by Liva Bloom. You can read excerpt from that Q&A at The Film Panel Notetaker.
Hana Makhmalbaf’s feature film Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame is in the running for “Best Film” at the 2nd Annual Asian Film Awards.
The Hong Kong Film Festival launched the Asian Film Awards last year. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Hong Kong on March 17th.
The film will also be screening at this year Berlinale, one of four Iranian films to be shown. A main theme of this year’s festival will be the multitude of problems of children across the world.
“Never before, have there been these many movies about the fate of children,” said festival director Dieter Kosslick.
The Berlin Film Festival takes place February 7 to 17, 2008 in Berlin. More than 5,000 films were sent to the Berlinale and over 4,000 journalists have been accredited for the top film event in Germany.
Taxi to the Dark Side has been shortlisted for this year’s Academy Awards. The announcement was made this morning by The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis and actress Kathy Bates.
Taxi to the Dark Side is nominated in the “Documentary Feature” category. Others films nominated in the category include: “No End in Sight,” “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience,” “Sicko,” and “War/Dance.”
Oscar nominees are chosen in most categories by specific branches of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, such as actors, writers and directors. The academy’s full membership of about 5,800 was eligible to vote for best-picture nominations and can cast ballots for the winners in all categories at the Oscar ceremony itself.
The Oscars will be broadcast live on February 24th. For a complete list of this year’s nominees, click here.
Taxi to the Dark Side screens March 3, 2008, 7:30 PM, at Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario, part of the 5th Annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Director Alex Gibney will be in attendance.
Taxi to the Dark Side is co-presented with HotDocs.
Opening Film and New Documentary Highlight Abuses in Afghanistan
(Toronto, January 14, 2008) – Human Rights Watch’s 5th Annual Film Festival in Toronto will open February 28, 2008 at the Isabel Bader Theatre with Iranian director Hana Makhmalbaf’s masterful debut film Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame, a study of the effects of years of war on the children of Afghanistan.
The festival, co-presented by Cinematheque Ontario, will run from February 29 to March 5 at Jackman Hall, the Art Gallery of Ontario. Seven new films from six countries will be screened, including Taxi to the Dark Side, which documents the death of a taxi driver in a US military prison in Afghanistan.
“The Human Rights Watch Film Festival has become an important Toronto platform to showcase films and introduce directors who focus on human rights issues around the world,” said Helga Stephenson, the festival chair. “For the first time, children this year figure predominantly in several of the films, and this will highlight the impact of violence and war on young lives.”
The opening night film (preceded by a reception), Hana Makhmalbaf’s powerful Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame, is about a powerful little girl trying to go to school in rural Afghanistan. The festival continues with Ramin Bahrani’s Chop Shop, featuring a young boy surviving on the streets of Queens in New York City; Tahani Rached’s These Girls chronicles the lives of the rowdy and engaging street girls in Cairo as they try to live life to the fullest and Sam Lawlor and Lindsey Pollock’s We’ll Never Meet Childhood Again introduces us to “Ceausescu’s babies”, Romania’s HIV orphans and the heroic families who took them into their homes and their hearts.
Alex Gibney’s powerful Taxi to the Dark Side is an indictment of the US use of torture in Iraq, Guantanamo and secret prisons in other nations. Osvalde Lewat-Hallade’s elegant and accomplished A Love During The War examines the effects of the widespread use of rape as a weapon during the Civil War in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Jawad Rhalib’s El Ejido, The Law of Profit explores the deplorable working and living conditions of the 80,000 Moroccan fruit and vegetable workers in the south of Spain.
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is one of the world’s largest research and advocacy organizations focusing on human rights. It conducts fact-finding investigations into human rights abuses in more than 70 countries around the world and publishes those findings in hundreds of reports each year. By generating press through reporting and advocacy, Human Rights Watch seeks to shame abusive governments, change policies and practices, and inform the public about important human rights issues.
The Toronto Committee
The Human Rights Watch Toronto Committee is one of a network of Human Rights Watch Committees in Europe and North America. The committee strengthens Human Rights Watch and its global defense of essential liberties by contributing financially, attracting potential supporters, and promoting the organization’s message.
Cinematheque Ontario, a division of the Toronto International Film Festival Group (TIFFG) is a year-round screening programme dedicated to presenting transformative world cinema through thoughtfully curated retrospectives, filmmaker monographs, and international programme tours. Cinematheque Ontario presents an ambitious selection of more than 400 films annually, including acclaimed director’s retrospectives, national and regional cinema spotlights, thematic programmes, and exclusive limited runs. Each year, nearly 50,000 tickets are sold for a diverse showcase of classic and contemporary Canadian and international cinema, including many new and rare archival prints. For more information, visit cinemathequeontario.ca.
All Cinematheque Ontario screenings are held at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Jackman Hall, 317 Dundas St. West (McCaul St. entrance), Toronto. Regular tickets are $5.90 for members and $10.14 for non-members. Limited Runs and Special Presentations are $7.08 for members and $11.56 for non-members. Prices do not include GST, building fund fee or service charges.
Members’ advance tickets are on sale now. Non-members may purchase tickets for any screening starting January 15. Films playing at Cinematheque Ontario that have not been rated by the Ontario Film Review Board are restricted to individuals 18 years of age or older.
To purchase tickets for Human Rights Watch’s 5th Annual Film Festival in Toronto, please go to cinemathequeontario.ca, or the Toronto International Film Festival Group Box Office, located at Manulife Centre, 55 Bloor Street West (street level, north entrance, open Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.), or call 1-416-968-FILM or 1-877-968-FILM.
To purchase tickets for the opening and closing reception, please call the Human Rights Watch office at 1-416-322-8448. The opening screening and reception will be held at the Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles St. West, Toronto.
Cinematheque Ontario thanks its supporters Bell, Ontario Media Development Corporation, Canada Council for the Arts, City of Toronto Economic Development Office, Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council.
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For more information on Toronto’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival and/or press information, please contact:
Cinematheque Ontario/Toronto International Film Festival Group Communications Department:
Tel: 1-416-934-3200
E-mail: proffice@tiffg.ca
For Human Rights Watch:
Jasmine Herlt: +1-416-322-8448; or jasmine.herlt@hrw.org
Karin Lippert: +1-416-923-4707; or klippert26@aol.com
January 18, 2008
Tehran, Iran
To The Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival:
I was very happy to hear that you are screening my film Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame on the Opening Night of a film festival that carries the title “Human Rights.” I am also disappointed I cannot join you on such a courageous occasion.
This December marks the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, all over the world, human rights are still being violated by human beings themselves. I have asked myself for many years now: Who is doing the violating?
Recently, I found an answer to this mystery: I, you, he, she, we, they.
Despite having witnessed all the violent wars, fascism, jails, torture, genocide and poverty in the world, it continues. If we keep silent, we, too, are all participants in the violation of human rights.
Bakhtay, the little girl in the film, might not be aware of the fact that it is almost 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted.
In this unfair world, filled with inequality and injustice, and all alone on her own two tiny feet, Bakhtay wanders through the mountains and deserts of her country in search of something missing: that something is called Human Rights.
Thank you,
Hana Makhmalbaf
