Intercultural Film Festival

An international documentary film festival will be an important part the four-day intercultural program of the SIETAR Global Congress in Granada, Spain, October 22-26.  Participants in the congress can look forward to lively discussions of the films after each showing, with the director or a main character featuring in the film.

Among the films shown were:

Marc Isaac’s All White in Barking, his 2007 documentary about a white working-class community east of London whose ethnic make-up is in a state of rapid flux.  Interviews with residents, both shocking and humorous, paint a timely portrait of an increasingly multicultural Britain.
Amnesty International Award for Best Film, 2008

The documentary A Way Out of the War on Terror portrays Alastair Crooke, founder of Conflicts Forum. This former special Mid_East advisor to the European Union High Representative, Javier Solana, uses his experience and network to try to move the West and political Islam to engage in dialogue.Working against the political current of ‘we don’t talk to terrorists’ he organizes informal meetings between influential Western leaders and leaders of political islamist movements. Crooke envisions dialogue as a radical strategy to end the stalemate of the War on Terror: ‘Open the channels of communications, yes, even though the bombs are going off.’ He sees the incapacity to distinguish between different Islamist movements as the biggest threat to Western security. In this documentary Crooke organizes a meeting with experts in Islamist politics, leaders of the Islamist movements Hamas and Hezbollah and the British political heavy weight Michael Ancram. With interviews with among others Michael Ancram, Alastair Crooke and Usama Hamdan, one of the political leaders of Hamas.

In the summer of 2006, Jerusalem was to host, for the first time in history, the World Pride events, which were to culminate in a traditional gay pride parade for the first time in the city’s history. Director Nitzan Giladi decided to follow the preparations of this event and came up in 2007 with this hair raising documentary Jerusalem Is Proud To Present which captures the homophobic hate campaign launched by fundamentalist religious groups. The planned events stirred turmoil in the politically complex city, with Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders banding together in an uncompromising battle against what they said would “defile the holy city”. On the other side stood the activists of the Open House, Jerusalem’s LGBT community center, who planned the events. Steadfast in the face of the heated and violent anti-gay sentiment, they had to deal with threats to much more than just their right to march….
This amazing document has been honoured with  5 awards.

Illegal immigration is not only a problem for our society. Not only does the illegal immigrant suffer from social uprooting but also the most difficult part of this situation: the family division. The short documentary Mimoune was born of the desire to bring together, even if it was only through a camera, a family that since long ago wishes so.

Focusing on the popular women’s talk show Kalam Nawaem (”Sweet Talk” or “Women’s Talk”), this lively documentary entitled Satellite Queens; Behind the Scenes of a Prime Time Arab Talk Show, explores how Arab satellite TV influences lifestyles and public opinion in the Middle East.  Discussing hot issues like homosexuality, terrorism, and masturbation, Lebanese Rania, Egyptian Fawzia, Palestinian Farah, and Saudi Muna are the controversial stars of a record-breaking television format. Who are these charming women breaking new ground? How do they use the power of media to change their world? And what happens when their conversations are heard in Arab living rooms? Satellite Queens is an intimate look at the making of Arab public opinion.

Elizabeth Jones' documentary The Headmaster and the Headscarves follows the conflict that erupted in a Paris school when a group of girls defied the law banning religious symbols by continuing to wear veils - risking expulsion in the process. However, events took a far more dramatic turn when terrorists kidnapped two journalists in a bid to force the repeal of the legislation. Filmed in an observational style, The Headmaster and the Headscarves opens a window on the feelings and lives of young French Muslims, who have lived on the margins of French society hitherto. It also captures the anguish of teachers, Muslim associations, and schoolgirls and their parents, as they grapple with rules which are inflaming the very tensions they were designed to calm.