2001 Film Series

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Orfeu
Orfeu has as its charismatic star Toni Garrido, who plays a samba composer-performer superstar who could easily move himself and his parents (Zeze Motta and Milton Goncalves) to a safer area but chooses to remain in the shantytown community know as Morro da Carioca (Carioca Hill) in Rio de Janeiro. He hopes to present a role model, specifically to offer a contrast to his lifelong friend Lucinho (Murilo Benicio), a drug dealer and gang leader. Carnaval looms, and the beautiful Euridice (Patricia Franca), who has just lost her widowed father, arrives to stay awhile with her aunt, only to fall in love with Orfeu and become caught in the growing tension between Orfeu and Lucinho.

Screening followed by a discussion with Professor Chip Gidney, Co-Chair, Black Cultural Studies Seminar; Advisory Board Member, Africa and the New World

Invisible Revolution
Peterson's extraordinary access to skinheads, gutter punks, and mainstream kids drops the viewer into the front lines of a powerful, passionate and very raw youth subculture. She documents not only the young people involved in the pro-white movement, but also the counter-movement that demonstrates against and often clashes with them: Anti-Racist Action (ARA). After a decade of going unheard, these voices create a stirring and unique look at urgent and timely issues that can be conveyed only by actually viewing the physical confrontations between the two groups as they collide in a war of ideas.

Screening followed by a discussion with filmmaker Beverly Peterson.

Peace of Mind: Coexistence Through the Eyes of Palestinian and Israeli Teens
In the summer of 1997, Palestinian and Israeli teens met at an Israeli-Arab summer camp in Maine run by the Seeds of Peace organization, whose mission is to foster understanding, relationships, and ideas for conflict resolution
Seven of the teenagers agreed to keep video diaries and to try to maintain the bonds they established in the U.S. once they returned home. The video diaries demonstrate how hard it is for the teenagers to keep friendships alive with people from "the other side." That some of them remain friends is both cause for hope and a testament to the young peoples' strength, determination and commitment.

Followed by a discussion with Seeds of Peace Founder and Executive Director John Wallach.

Long Night's Journey Into Day: South Africa's Search for Truth and Reconciliation
Long Night's Journey Into Day reveals a South Africa trying to forge a lasting peace after 40 years of government by the most notorious system of racial segregation since Nazi Germany. The documentary studies South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up by the post-apartheid, democratic government to consider amnesty for perpetrators of crimes committed under apartheid's reign.

Long Night's Journey into Day received the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.