Birmingham ends 18 Oct
On Tuesday 16 October, we will be showing a double bill looking at Women’s Rights at the Library Theatre. Beginning at 6pm with Full Cover Girl, a documentary about two Iraqi women who are both campaigning for political inclusion and women’s rights, though they have opposing ideologies. This will be followed at 8pm by the Oscar-Winningshort film Saving Face, a powerful expose of Pakistani women who are victims of brutal acid attacks, leaving them without recourse to justice and aid – until recently. This screening is in partnership with Islamic Help.
Thursday 18 October concludes the Festival with an African double bill at the Library Theatre. At 6pm, we ask Robert Mugabe… What Happened?, an insightful documentary into the notorious President of Zimbabwe. Our final screening at 8.15pm is a Special Preview of Call Me Kuchu, an immensely powerful new documentary about David Kato and other Ugandan activists who are campaigning for Gay Rights, though they are opposed by an openly hostile media and threats of violence and even death. This screening is in partnership with Shout Film Festival.
Full details and ticket prices below.
Tuesday 16 October 6pm, Library Theatre
Full Cover Girl (E)
Dir: Folke Rydén Sweden 2008 52mins
Peace, prosperity, and the implementation of Sharia law is the dream of Jinan al-Ubaidy, an influential member of Iraq’s parliament. Abir al-Sahlani, a political activist, stands in bitter opposition to her platform seeing it as a return to the subordination of women to men. Filmed on location in war-torn Baghdad, this documentary exposes the deteriorating state of women’s rights as fundamentalist Islamic ideals and sectarian struggles bury the secular principles that had empowered Iraqi women for decades. This tragic conflict is set against a background in which women—targeted by extremists for not wearing hijab, for working outside the home, for driving a car, for having an education—are being killed by the thousands.
Tickets £3 Full Price/£2 Concessions
In partnership with Islamic Help
Tuesday 16 October 8pm, Library Theatre
Saving Face (E)
Dir: Daniel Junge & Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy USA/Pakistan 2012
52mins English & Urdu with subtitles
Every year in Pakistan, more and more women are becoming victims of horrifying acid attacks, leaving them disfigured and traumatised. Dr Mohammad Jawat, who successfully operated on model Katie Piper, is taken to Islamabad to meet the victims and see if he is able to help them. Zakia and Rukhsana, whose husbands both scarred them for life, are offered the chance to regain their dignity. In addition, the matter is being taken to parliament to seek justice for the victims.
Tickets £3 Full Price/£2 Concessions
A post-screening discussion will be led by Islamic Help’s Director of International Development, Kamran Fazil, who will be joined by John Morrison, chair of ASTI (Acid Survivors Trust International) and Monira Rahman of ASF (Acid Survivors Foundation) Bangladesh
Winner: Academy Award Best Documentary (Short Subject) 2012
‘It has the impact of an epic… takes a realistic, level-headed view’ – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
BIRMINGHAM PREMIERE
Thursday 18 October 6pm, Library Theatre
Robert Mugabe… What Happened? (15)
Dir: Simon Bright UK/France/South Africa 1hr 24mins
This insightful documentary charts the Shakespearean rise and fall of the man who led his country from apartheid to liberation to economic success and then into ruin. Mugabe was damned as a terrorist, then knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and is still in power more than 30 years later. The film explores what happened through interviews with some of his closest comrades. It assembles a unique collection of southern African archive to powerfully evoke each of the decades of Mugabe’s reign. This is a complex and compelling view of Zimbabwe the country and Mugabe the man.
With a post-screening discussion on the film by Dr Maxim Bolt, Lecturer in Anthropology & Africa at CWAS (Centre for West African Studies), University of Birmingham
In partnership with Shout Film Festival
SPECIAL PREVIEW
Thursday 18 October 8.15pm, Library Theatre
Call Me Kuchu (E)
Dir: Katherine Fairfax Wright & Malika Zouhali-Worrall
USA/Uganda 2011 1hr 30mins
A powerful and profoundly moving documentary about the brave LGBTI activists in Uganda in their struggle for equality. A new bill threatening to make homosexuality an offence punishable by death is brought before the Ugandan parliament. Fighting to oppose it, Gay Rights activists led by the indomitable David Kato face intense homophobia, legal discrimination, arrest, exposure by the press, harassment by the established church, violence and death.
Followed by a post-screening discussion, including David Viney, Health & Wellbeing Manager of Birmingham LGBT
‘I am conscious that the hardest work is done by local activists like those you will see in this film. To them I want to say: You are an inspiration to me… I am proud to join in this great human rights cause’ – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
‘An urgent story, intelligently and poignantly rendered, honouring the life and courageous example of an everyday hero while exposing shocking human rights violations’ – The Teddy Jury, Berlin International Film Festival 2012
Ticket Prices
Birmingham Library Theatre
Chamberlain Square, next to Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham B3 3HQ
Full Cover Girl & Saving Face
Tickets £3 Full Price, £2 Concessions per film
Available on the door on the night
Robert Mugabe… What Happened? & Call Me Kuchu
Tickets £4.50 Full Price, £3.50 Concessions
Special double bill ticket price: £8 Full Price, £6 Concessions
Available on the door on the night
Winner: Best Film Education Programme 2011, Film Society of the Year 2010 & Best Film Programming 2010
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