Facets Multimedia
1517 W. Fullerton Ave.
Chicago IL 60614
800.331.6197

Sales hours:
    9am-5pm, Mon.-Fri.

Rental hours:
    10am-10pm, Mon.-Sat.,
    12pm-10pm, Sun. & holidays

• Current Schedule
• Films Coming in July
• Films Coming in August

    Archives:

• 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
• 2012
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
• 2011
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
• 2010
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
• 2009
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
• 2008
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
• 2007
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
• 2006
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
• 2005
  • June 2005
  • May 2005
  • April 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005
  • January 2005

CHARLES COLEMAN
Film Programmer for Facets Cinémathèque

Read his feature in the Chicago Reader

May 2007

The Facets Cinémathèque is located at 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. in Chicago. For more information on films playing in the Cinémathèque, please call 773-281-4114. To order advance tickets online, visit the TicketWeb website by clicking here.

The 5th Annual
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL

Human Rights Watch is widely recognized for their in-depth investigations, informed policy recommendations, and ability to generate intense pressure to confront human rights abusers and defend basic freedoms. Through vigilant monitoring and advocacy in over seventy countries, we are dedicated to advancing the protection and promotion of human rights for all. Since its inception, The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival has embodied the power of film to make a difference. Courageous and committed filmmakers produce impressive documentary and feature films, which stimulate passionate conversations about human rights and inspire new generations of human rights activists. In collaboration with the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, The Facets Cinémathèque is very proud to present The 5th Annual Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival, which showcases the heroic stories of activists and survivors from all over the world. The works featured help to put a human face on threats to individual freedom and dignity, and celebrate the power of the human spirit and intellect to prevail. We seek to empower everyone with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a very real difference.

---

Opening Night Benefit Screening and Reception
at the Museum of Contemporary Art
220 E. Chicago Avenue

WAR/DANCE

In Northern Uganda, the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group that abducts children and turns them into mindless soldiers, has killed Rose's parents, Nancy's father, and made Dominic into an assassin. All three children now live in Patongo, a large refugee camp where they attend a one-room school and practice for the annual National Music Competition held in Kampala, where schools from across the country vie for awards. Husband-and-wife documentary team Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine let the children tell their stories of horror, record their rehearsals, and follow them on their first trip to Kampala, where the three show with pride, joy and exuberance what talent and heart can achieve.

Directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, U.S.A., 2007, 105 mins.

View trailer        

Showtime:
Wed., May 9 at 5:30 pm

5:30 pm   Doors open
6:00 pm   Welcome and screening of War/Dance
7:50 pm   Discussion and Q&A led by Elizabeth Evenson, Leonard H.
                Sandler Fellow, Africa Division, Human Rights Watch
8:15 pm   Reception, Puck's at the MCA

Tickets
For this Opening Night Benefit, tickets must be purchased in advance. Please visit www.hrw.org/chicago or call at 312-573-2450.

Individual Benefit tickets:
$250 (Director)
$150 (Screenwriter)
$75 (Cinematographer)

Blocks of tickets
$5,000 (Auteur) for 10 tickets with preferred seating
$3,000 (Executive Producer) for 10 tickets with preferred seating
$1,500 (Producer) for 5 tickets with preferred seating

---

WINTER IN BAGHDAD
(INVIERNO EN BAGDAD)

"Well-done, very sobering documentary"
  -Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

"If there were any justice, this would be compulsory viewing "
  -Time Out Chicago

Recommended! "Intimate and revealing"
  -Chicago Reader

Directed by one of Spain's most respected and awarded documentary film makers, Winter in Baghdad is a chilling documentary whose main characters are children who smile, play, work and try to go on with their lives. This is an impressive and moving film, shot before and after the invasion of Iraq, which integrates the political with the personal stories of this conflict in this forbidding environment.

Directed by Javier Corcuera, Spain, 2005, BetaSP, 78 mins. In Arabic with English subtitles.

Chicago Reader    

Showtimes:
Fri., May 11 at 7 pm
Thurs., May 17 at 9 pm

---

THE CAMDEN 28

"Well-composed and interesting"
  -Time Out Chicago

Recommended! "A powerful tale of conscience, betrayal, and forgiveness"
  -Chicago Reader

How far would you go to stop a war? In 1971, twenty-eight men and women in Camden, New Jersey, carried out a powerful act of civil disobedience against United States involvement in the Vietnam War. One of their most dramatic tactics was breaking into draft board offices to destroy government records that identified young men available for military service. Thirty-five years later, key participants openly discuss the tremendous personal costs of their actions. Directed by Anthony Giacchino, U.S.A., 2006, BetaSP, 82 mins.

Official site     Director interview     View trailer    

Showtimes:
Fri., May 11 at 9 pm
Mon., May 14 at 8:45 pm

---

Double feature:

ROSITA

In 2003, news spreads throughout Central America that a nine-year-old Nicaraguan girl has become pregnant as the result of a rape. Rosarita is the only child of illiterate campesinos working in Costa Rica as coffee pickers at the time of the assault. Fearing for their daughter's life and mental health, her parents are determined to obtain an (illegal) abortion for their child. Despite the odds, Rosa's parents move forward only to be forced into battle with two governments, the medical establishment and the Catholic Church.

Directed by Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater, 2005, BetaSP, 55 mins. In English and Spanish with English subtitles

Official site     Time Out Chicago    


with:

PUNAM

This is the story of the nine-year-old Punam Matang: head of family, caregiver, and homemaker. She cooks, washes, feeds, and launders before setting off for school with her younger siblings. Their mother had died in childbirth and father works long hours to pay for his children's school. And yet they are fortunate, since some of Punam's friends work in stone quarries and brick-making factories for survival. This sensitively made film is a powerful tale of despair, misplaced childhood, and hope.

Directed by Lucian Muntean & Nataša Stankovic, Serbia, 2005, BetaSP, 28 mins. In Nepali and Tamang with English subtitles.

Showtime:
Sat., May 12 at 1 pm

---

SOURCE

Azerbaijan, the site of the world's first oil well, is once again becoming a focus for foreign investors eager to exploit the country's vast oil reserves. Source traces the pipeline from our commuter highways back to this surreal and sinister landscape on which our way of life depends, where cows graze on polluted land and children play in toxic waste. With three quarters of the population living under the poverty line, the country's post-Soviet government is promising oil will return Azerbaijan into a real country, a prosperous and flourishing "New Kuwait". But between big oil companies like British Petroleum and the corrupt government lining their pockets, what does this mean for ordinary people of Azerbaijan? Is this "liquid gold" more of a curse than a blessing for this troubled country?

Directed by Martin Marecek & Martin Skalskyý, Czech Republic, 2005, BetaSP, 75 mins. In Czech, Russian, English and Azerbaijani with English subtitles.

Official site (in Czech)    

Showtimes:
Sat., May 12 at 3 pm
Wed., May 16 at 7 pm

---

RAIN IN A DRY LAND

In 2004, thirteen thousand Somali Bantu refugees realized their dream of coming to America. They are now living in fifty cities across the country, becoming the largest African group from a single community to settle in the United States at one time. The film chronicles two years in the lives of two extended Somali Bantu families as they leave behind a 200-year legacy of oppression in Africa.

Directed by Anne Makepeace, U.S.A./Kenya, 2006, BetaSP, 83 mins. In English, Mai Mai and Somali with English subtitles.

Official site     View trailer     Variety    

Showtimes:
Sat., May 12 at 5 pm
Tues., May 15 at 9 pm

---

SIERRA LEONE'S REFUGEE ALL STARS

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars tells the remarkable and ultimately life-affirming story of a group of six Sierra Leonean musicians who come together to form a band while living as refugees in the Republic of Guinea. Forced from their homes in Sierra Leone, the members of the band represent the thousands of stories that exist among the survivors of the Sierra Leonean civil war. Following the group over the course of three years, we see the band travel amongst Guinean refugee camps and back to war-ravaged Freetown as part of the UNHCR's "go-and-see" program. Through the uplifting music and emotional stories of these six characters, we begin to understand the brutal realities of a war so often dismissed by the mass media and are witness to the ability of individuals to sustain hope and create art in a landscape dominated by rage and loss.

Directed by Zach Niles and Banker White, Guinea/Sierra Leone/U.S.A, 2005, BetaSP, 80 mins. In English and Krio with English subtitles.

Official site    

Showtimes:
Sat., May 12 at 7 pm
Thu., May 17 at 7 pm

---

DREAMING LHASA

Karma, a Tibetan filmmaker from New York, goes to Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama's exile headquarters in northern India, to make a documentary about former political prisoners who have escaped from Tibet. She wants to reconnect with her roots but is also escaping a deteriorating relationship back home. One of Karma's interviewees is Dhondup, an enigmatic ex-monk who has just escaped from Tibet. He confides to her that his real reason for coming to India is to fulfill his dying mother's last wish, by delivering a charm box to a long-missing resistance fighter. Karma finds herself unwittingly falling in love with Dhondup even as she is shares the passion of his quest, which becomes a journey into Tibet's fractured past and a voyage of self-discovery.

Directed by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, 2005, India/UK, BetaSP, 90 mins. In English and Tibetan with English subtitles.

Showtime:
Sat., May 12 at 9 pm

---

SWITCH OFF
(APAGA Y VÀMONOS)

The Pehuenche-Mapuche people live above the Bíobío River, in Ralco valley, Chile. In 2004, Spain's largest hydroelectric company constructed the world's third largest dam. This dam flooded the valley and forced whole villages to higher ground. Despite protections for indigenous people enshrined in the Chilean constitution, the government has not enforced their rights against the wealthy Spanish multinational. Protestors have found themselves arrested under Pinochet's anti-terrorist laws, facing anonymous witnesses whose identities are concealed from even the court.

Directed by Manel Mayol, 2005, BetaSP, 87 mins. In Spanish and Mapudungun with English subtitles.

           

Showtime:
Sun., May 13 at 7 pm

---

CONVERSATIONS ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON

A poet, Keniloe (Tony Kgoroge), is trying to make sense of the world and spends each Sunday at a park. It is here that he meets Fatima (Fatima Hersi), a Somali refugee who explains the tragic circumstances that led her to seek shelter in South Africa. When Keniloe finds that Fatima has disappeared, he begins searching for her on the streets of Johannesburg and encounters other displaced people from all over the world who have found a haven in the city. With a small budget, and great spontaneity, filmmaker Matabane ingeniously incorporates Keniloe's interviews with real refugees into his fictional story.

Directed by Khalo Matabane, South Africa, 2005, BetaSP, 80 mins. In English, French, Zulu and Swahili with English subtitles.

Variety     Chicago Reader    

Showtime:
Sun., May 13 at 1 pm

---

KZ

On the banks of the river Danube lies the picturesque town of Mauthausen, which attracts busloads of tourists and schoolchildren every day. But this is also a place where thousands of people from over thirty nations were tortured and murdered. It is the site of the former KZ -- in German, short for concentration camp.

Directed by Rex Bloomstein, U.K., 2005, BetaSP, 88 mins. In English and German with English subtitles.

Official site     BBC     BBC: Director interview     View trailer    

Showtimes:
Sun., May 13 at 3 pm
Wed., May 16 at 9 pm

---

MEN ON THE EDGE

On the border between Gaza and Israel lies an isolated and abandoned beach where, against all odds, Israeli and Palestinian fishermen lived and fished together from 1999 to 2003. The Palestinians were teaching the Israelis ancient fishing techniques transmitted from one generation to the next and the Israelis, by their presence, were enabling the Palestinians to continue to fish in Israeli waters. The film intimately documents these four crucial years in the lives of this group of men from warring cultures, who are brought together by their shared work and the natural threats they face each day in the open sea. Ultimately it is not the harshness of nature that is the greatest obstacle to their work, but the pressures of politics and the fighting surrounding their enclave. Directed by Avner Faingulernt and Macabit Abramzon, Israel, 2005, BetaSP, 90 mins. In Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles.

Showtime:
Sun., May 13 at 5 pm

---

Double feature:

TOTAL DENIAL

This is the inspiring story of villagers from the jungles of Burma whose quest for justice eventually leads them to bring suit in a US court against two oil giants for human rights abuse. For five years producer/director Milena Kaneva collected accounts from Burmese villagers of forced labor, relocation of villages, rape and murder associated with construction of the Yadana pipeline, resulting in a landmark lawsuit.

Directed by Milena Kaneva, Bulgaria/Italy, 2006, BetaSP, 65 mins. In English, Karen and Burmese with English subtitles.

Official site     Austin Chronicle    


with:

THE FOREST FOR THE TREES

The Forest for the Trees is an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at an unlikely team of young activists and old lefties who come together to battle the U.S. government over alleged FBI and Police retaliation against an environmental activist. Filmmaker Bernadine Mellis is the daughter of legendary civil rights lawyer Dennis Cunningham, who started his career representing the Black Panthers and the Attica Brothers. Judi Bari was a leader in Earth First. Her car was bombed in 1990, and she was arrested as a terrorist on charges that were later dropped. Convinced it was a ploy by the FBI to discredit her and Earth First, Judi decided to sue. Mellis is there at strategy meetings, offering us access into the life of the extraordinary Judi Bari, and a piece of U.S. history that is disturbingly resonant.

Directed by Bernadine Mellis, U.S.A, 2006, BetaSP, 53 mins.

Official site     Judi Bari        

Showtime:
Mon., May 14 at 6:30 pm

---

AMU

Amu begins with the everyday dilemmas of a young Indian-American, Kaju, returning to the "foreignness" of her homeland. The film gathers a potent political charge as Kaju begins to realizes how her own privileged life in America was born out of communal violence in India, particularly the massacre of four thousand Sikhs after Prime Minister Gandhi was assassinated by Sikh bodyguards in 1984. Writer-director Shonali Bose was a student in Delhi during those days, and wrote down the stories of survivors she met in relief camps, giving Amu's flashback scenes the impact of first-hand experience. The film makes a strong case that the massacres were not spontaneous, and depicts corrupt politicians and police who went unpunished. Kaju's questions produce difficult answers that force her to face the truth of India's history and her own.

Directed by Shonali Bose, India, 2006, BetaSP, 106 mins. In English, Bengali, Hindi, and Punjabi with English subtitles.

Official site     YouTube trailer     Chicago Reader    

Showtime:
Tues., May 15 at 7 pm

---

Tickets: