Click here to listen to the interview. Clarkston, GA has been the most diverse square mile in America, and that was the original focus of REFUGE, the documentary Din Blankenship and Erin Levin Bernhardt had planned to make. For several decades it has been where refugees from all over the world have been settled by… Read More »
THE CAVE — Feras Fayyad Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. When I spoke with Feras Fayyad on 0ctober 7, 2019, I started with whether or not the Syrian filmmaker had had any trouble getting into the United States. An irony in retrospect considering the difficulties he is currently encountering entering the United States (sign the petition to allow… Read More »
CRIES FROM SYRIA — Evgeny Afineevsky Interiview
CRIES FROM SYRIA had already made its HBO debut when I spoke with Evgeny Afineevsky on March 16, 2017. He was in San Francisco, though, to do a Q&A after a screening here. Afineevsky is a garrulous, upbeat man, quick with a smile and a hug, but when he talks about the dangers of American… Read More »
THEO WHO LIVED — David Schisgall Interview
THEO WHO LIVED is a story of the remarkable empathy its subject, American journalist Theo Padnos, found for the captors who tortured him after being kidnapped in Syria in 2012. David Schisgall’s sensitive, heart-wrenching documentary about Theo, like Theo himself, finds the humanity in everyone. Preferring to see people as individuals rather than stereotypes, it’s… Read More »
FIRE AT SEA (Fuocoammare) — Gianfranco Rosi Interview
Gianfranco Rosi had intended to make a 10-minute film about the refugees who find themselves on the island of Lampedusa, but once there, he quickly decided that the complexity of the situation demanded more. Hence FIRE AT SEA, short-listed for an Oscar™ and otherwise garnering praise for its sensitive, incisive look at how refugees and… Read More »
Sandra Bagaria Unveils A GAY GIRL IN DAMASCUS: THE AMINA PROFILE
Sandra Bagaria was not raised to be a victim, and so when her online with a woman blogger named Amina half a world away took an emotionally wrenching turn, the last thing she wanted to do was walk away.
The E-TEAM Talks
Human Rights Watch could want no better documentary about their work about their Emergency Teams than E-TEAM, which follows two of those team, one in Libya, one in Syria, bearing witness to human rights abuse. The Syrian team, Anna Neistat and Ole Solvang traveled to San Francisco along with filmmakers Ross Kauffman and Katy Chevigny… Read More »