Foyle Film Festival’s Intercultural & Anti Racism Programme 2012
This year the Foyle Film Festival’s Intercultural & Anti Racism Programme will take place over ten days from Wednesday 21-Friday 30 March. For the seventh consecutive year, this important annual event offers primary, post-primary schools, colleges, universities, community groups, and the general public, a programme of international films, documentaries, presentations, workshops, and outreach screenings, exploring the themes and issues involved. For the first time the Intercultural & Anti-racism Festival will deliver outreach events in Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast, the Alley Arts Centre in Strabane, the Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny, as well as film clubs in Newry and Newcastle.
This annual event is aimed at raising awareness around issues such as racism, discrimination and harassment – including racist bullying. It seeks to educate children, young people, and the wider public, to accept, value, and embrace diversity in all its forms – whether race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, the poor, migrants, minorities, those with physical disabilities – as well as encouraging awareness of local and global issues like war, the environment, and human rights abuses.
Highlights of this year’s event include
talks by human rights activist Peter Tatchell, to be delivered in Derry and in Belfast. Peter has been campaigning for human rights for over 40 years, on issues of democracy, civil liberties, social equality, environmental protection, peace and global justice. From 1971, he was a leading activist in the Gay Liberation Front in London; staging the first ever gay rights protest in a communist country, East Germany, in 1973.
Other highlights include screenings of the film
The Lady which is the extraordinary story of Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Anna Roberts, Executive Director of Burma Campaign UK, will introduce this screening and take part in a Q&A afterwards. Also included in this year’s programme is the innovative documentary
The First Movie, made by Belfast born Mark Cousins. Mark gave kids in Iraq cameras so that they could record their day-to-day lives in a war zone. The result is magical! While in
As We Forgive two Rwandan women come face to face with the men who slaughtered their families during the 1994 genocide. We celebrate the 2012 London Olympics with a Preview Screening of
Town Of Runners featuring the Ethiopian rural town of Bekoji – home to the current Olympic and World Champions. The films follows three children as they move from school track to national competition and from childhood to adulthood. Inspiration also abounds in Benda Bilili with a group of street musicians from the Congo who have been hailed the new Buena Vista Social Club. While the award-winning
God Grew Tired Of Us explores the unbeatable spirit of three “Lost Boys” from Sudan who built productive and rewarding new lives for themselves in America.
Emmanuel’s Gift celebrates the remarkable Emmanuel Ofosu from Ghana who was born with a deformed leg yet rode a bicycle across the country in order to eradicate the negative perception of the disabled.
We are delighted to announce that
Mrs Doreen Lawrence will help launch the Foyle Film Festival’s Intercultural & Anti-Racism Programme on Wednesday 21 March. Mrs Lawrence has dedicated the last 18 years of her life fighting to secure justice for her murdered son Stephen, and other victims of racially motivated crime. On Tuesday 3 January this year Gary Dobson and David Norris were found guilty of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. Mrs Doreen Lawrence will also take part in an educational talk aimed at post-primary schools, colleges, universities, and the general public.
Speaking ahead of this year’s event, Festival Director Bernie McLaughlin confirmed “I am delighted that in this the 25th year of the Foyle Film Festival the Intercultural & Anti-Racism Programme is bigger and better than ever with outreach events in Belfast, Strabane, and Letterkenny. We are delighted to welcome the Brunswick Moviebowl as one of our sponsors, and also to acknowledge the support of the Equality Commission for this year’s event. Thanks is also due to NI Screen for their continued support. We are incredibly lucky this year to be able to announce Mrs Doreen Lawrence and Mr Peter Tatchell as special guests, and I believe there is something for everyone in this year’s extended programme.”
For further information contact the festival office: 028 71373456
www.foylefilmfestival.org | www.nerve-centre.org.uk