United Nations Traveling Film Festival returns to Carroll University

Carroll University will present the eighth annual Waukesha United Nations Association Traveling Film Festival (UNAFF) from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10, 2013, featuring 19 award-winning documentaries from around the world. This year’s theme is Human Dignity.

The event is sponsored by Carroll University and its Student Senate, with additional support from the Plowshare Center and the United Nations Association chapter of Waukesha. Admission is free and open to the public. Free parking will be available in designated Carroll lots for festival attendees.

Conceived in 1998 at Stanford University by film critic and educator Jasmina Bojic in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UNAFF screens documentaries by international filmmakers dealing with topics such as human rights, environmental themes, women’s issues, children, refugee protection, homelessness, racism, disease control, universal education, war and peace. By bringing together filmmakers, the academic community and the general public, UNAFF offers a unique opportunity for creative exchange and education among groups and individuals often separated by geography, ethnicity and economic constraints.

The films, chosen by the official UNAFF jury members from among more than 670 submissions, come from such diverse cultures as Columbia, Ghana, India, Iran, South Africa, and the United States. The films address vital issues, including global trafficking of women, torture, ethical production of chocolate, global warming, interracial marriage, the role of gay people within Christian leadership, and the recuperation of American Indian languages. The festival will close with a showing of the Academy Award-winning documentary “Inocente.”

Stackner Ballroom, Campus Center
9-11 a.m.
Smoke Songs
Members of a Navajo Indian Nation punk rock band share a common cause in human rights. Their music addresses government oppression, relocation of indigenous people, and genocide.

We Still Live Here
The story traces the efforts of Jessie Little Doe, a Wampanoag Indian woman whose visions have led her people to recover their language 100 years after the last fluent speaker died.

11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Surviving Progress
As pressure on the world's resources accelerates and the financial elite bankrupt nations, can our globally entwined civilization escape a final, catastrophic progress trap?

1-3 p.m.
Through Her Eyes
A Jordanian woman narrates her inspiring story of survival after being shot in the name of honor and then left disabled.

Going Up the Stairs
An illiterate, 50-year-old Iranian woman becomes an expressive painter unexpectedly. Her chance at a Paris exhibit of her work depends on her conservative husband’s permission.

3-5 p.m.
Bidder 70
A young man sacrifices his future and faces federal imprisonment to safeguard thousands of acres of pristine Utah land surrounding three major national parks against drilling and land destruction.

Weathering Change
Environmental and contraceptive rights come together as women in Ethiopia, Nepal and Peru struggle to care for their families and adapt to climate changes.

MacAllister Boardroom, Campus Center
9-11 a.m.
Unravel
The film tracks the “world’s least wanted clothes” to India, where workers recycle them for yarn, as well as form ideas about the West and its disposable culture.

Nothing Like Chocolate
In the rain forests of Grenada, a chocolatier uses solar power, employee shareholding, and antique equipment to combat an industry entrenched in child labor and corporate greed.

11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Ten Quintillion
Through a bugs-eye view, see the fascinating beauty of a tiny garden come alive.

Axis of Light
Eight leading artists discover the beauty and mystery of the Middle East, as they explore the meaning of their life, identity, sexuality, the isolation of women and the fragility of home.

1-3 p.m.
Captive Radio
A unique radio program enables family members to communicate with loved ones held hostage by rebel groups in Colombia.

Beneath the Blindfold
The film follows four torture survivors as they struggle to rebuild their lives and adds an important perspective to the U.S. on government-sanctioned torture.

3-5 p.m.
Escape
Women unite to combat female genital mutilation and child marriage in Kenya.

Irene Sedler: In the Name of Their Mothers
Portrait of a young Catholic woman who organized a network of women in the Polish resistance, who rescued over 2,500 children scheduled for deportation to the Nazi death camps.

Dorothy Goff Frisch Recital Hall, Shattuck Music Center
5-7 p.m.
The Loving Story
Go behind the scenes of the legal challenges and the emotional turmoil of Richard and Mildred Loving, whose marriage led to the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended state laws against interracial marriage.

7-9 pm.
Love Free or Die
Portrait of Gene Robinson, the first openly partnered gay man to become a bishop in the Episcopal Church. The film follows worldwide debates over acceptance of homosexuality in Christian traditions.

9-11 p.m.
Difficult Love
Portraits of women who love women in a democratic South Africa, still marked by intolerance.

Inocente
Academy Award-winning story of a young homeless woman’s triumph in life and in art.

For more information on the festival, contact John Garrison at jgarriso@carrrollu.edu or 262.524.7256 or Deirdre Keenan at dkeenan@carrollu.edu or 262.524.7254. To learn more about UNAFF, visit www.unaff.org.