Nepali Ambassador to the U.S. gives Award of Appreciation to Robert Koenig and Brandon Kohrt

Dec. 06, 2009 was celebrated as the International Human Rights Day by Human Rights Organization of Nepalese in America in Towson, MD. His Excellency Ambassador to the United States of America, Dr. Shankar Sharma was the chief guest of honor. Robert Koenig and Brandon Kohrt were special guests of the event and discussed issues related to their work to further human rights and child advocacy in Nepal and the United States.

Photos by Bishwa Raj Thapa. Dec. 06, 2009
The Nepali Ambassador to the U.S., Dr Shankar Sharma, giving an Award of Appreciation to Robert Koenig for his Extraordinary Contribution and Dedication to the Nepali Community.

The Nepali Ambassador to the U.S., Dr Shankar Sharma, and Kiran Pantha of HURON- USA giving an Award of Appreciation to Dr. Brandon Kohrt for his Extraordinary Contribution and Dedication to the Nepali Community.

Robert Koenig and Dr. Brandon Kohrt discussing a child soldier's story that was featured in the film "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army".

Posing with Famous Nepali Folk Singer Prem Raja Mahat.

Robert Koenig, His Excellency Ambassador Dr. Shankar Sharma, and Dr. Brandon Kohrt

"Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" to be screened at the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine

What:
Children & Armed Conflict: Risk, Resilience & Mental Health

When:
Tuesday December 8th at 12pm

Where:
National Academy of Sciences
Institute of Medicine
2100 Constitution Avenue NW Washington, DC US


Conference Information:
This is an international and multidisciplinary conference addressing the developmental and mental health needs of children in conflict-affected settings.

The conference highlights the complex interaction between risk factors, psychopathology and mental health with resilience as an important moderator.
Traumas associated with armed conflict, deprivations, displacement, and related losses increase children’s risk of developing mental health difficulties. However, children have great potential for resilience. The international community has the responsibility to foster their strengths and help them outgrow the impact of war.

Screening Information:
“Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army” will be presented by the filmmakers Robert Koenig & Brandon Kohrt on Tuesday December 8th, 2009 at 12:00 - 12:45pm. The film will be presented during the second part of the conference that focuses on characterization and experiences with children traumatized by armed conflict, including a special section on child soldiers.

Other Information:
The specific goals and objectives of the conference are:

- Provide a forum for dialogue and interaction
- Consider the current evidence base for programming
- Highlight issues of concern
- Discuss and develop specific initiatives of mutual interest

Venue and Date:
The conference convenes December 7-9, 2009 in the Auditorium of the Institute of Medicine - National Academy of Sciences at 2100 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20418.

Audience:
This conference interests a broad audience including: academics, children’s advocates, human rights, and post-conflict development groups/organizations, government officials, military personnel, mental health professionals, researchers and policy makers.

Registration Fee:
A $75.00 registration fee will be charged to cover cost of food, materials and administration.

For more information go to the Children & Armed Conflict: Risk, Resilience & Mental Health conference brochure or the registration page online.

Brandon Kohrt Creates Award-Winning Film

From Emory University's Department of Anthropology Newsletter

Brandon Kohrt received his PhD from Emory Anthropology and his MD from Emory’s School of Medicine in 2009. During his fieldwork in Nepal, Brandon collaborated with filmmaker Bob Koenig to create an award-winning documentary film, Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army. Brandon shares some thoughts on his work in Nepal and the creation of the film below.

"As anthropologists, we often find that our work is relevant to a range of audiences and has implications for social justice issues. One of the challenges is to find ways to bring these issues to the attention of broader public audiences. During my dissertation research, I faced exactly this challenge. After a few months of fieldwork in Nepal, I learned that there were large numbers of child soldiers being sent home from the Maoist Army after the conclusion of the People’s War in 2006. I had not even known that child soldiers existed in Nepal. I had thought of child conscription as predominantly a human rights violation in African conflicts. However, the mental health and psychosocial care of former child soldiers quickly became central to my research and intervention work.

The former child soldiers revealed how their experiences and major concerns were often different from the stereotyped image of child soldiers in other conflicts. Asha, a girl from a Dalit Hindu caste in southern Nepal, described how she became associated with the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) -- “I was born into a poor family.” She pointed to a few pounds of cornmeal and then the one goat outside her thatched hut, “We just have this much, nothing more. I was a very good student [but] my parents told me: ‘We have no money so you have to leave school and take care of your brothers and sister.’” With few economic resources, Asha’s mother decided to pay for her brothers’ schooling rather than “waste money on a girl’s education.”

With no hope to pursue an education in her village, Asha was drawn to the Maoists women’s brigades traveling through her village. They promised girls an education and the opportunity to live in a Maoist society where men and women are treated equally. “I was 13 years old when I joined the Maoists,” Asha told me. The Maoist Army was comprised of many young women like Asha, the majority of whom joined voluntarily. For Asha and other girl soldiers, the most difficult part of being a soldier came after the war was over when they returned home. Former child soldiers, especially girl soldiers, returned to communities where they were feared, stigmatized, and vulnerable to myriad abuses.

While doing this work, it became important to find a way to tell the story of child soldiers in Nepal to reveal the complexity of the situation behind why children became soldiers and the difficulties they face even after the war is over. I had the opportunity to do just this thanks to independent filmmaker Bob Koenig, who wanted to transform the research into a documentary and bring the story of child soldiers to broader public audiences. Bob and I spent over a year collaborating on the documentary Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army. The documentary focuses on Asha and the lives of other child soldiers when they returned home after the war ended in 2006."



Brandon Kohrt is currently completing his residency with the Department of Psychiatry at Emory and serves as Mental Health and Research Technical Advisor with the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Nepal, a Nepali NGO engaged in psychosocial care of survivors of war and other human rights violations. Returned has played at numerous festivals and won awards including Best Child Advocacy Documentary at the Artivist Film Festival in Los Angeles, Best Student Documentary from the Society for Visual Anthropology, and Best Documentary Short at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival. Returned will be shown this fall by Emory’s Anthropology Department and is also available at the Woodruff Library. For more information and to watch a trailer, see the film’s website.

Returned is an "Official Selection" of the Document International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival

"Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army" a documentary film directed by Robert Koenig is an "Official Selection" of the Document International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival

"Returned" will show on Sunday, October 25 2009 in CCA 5 at 7:45 PM and 8.45 PM.

Document 7:
21–25 October 2009
Document International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival is proud to announce a dynamic programme of events and screenings for Document 7—CCA & GFT, Glasgow, 21st–25th Oct 2009.

With over 60 outstanding national and international documentaries that look at human rights in its broadest sense—as personal stories with a global punch—you’ll find films here that are both accessible and thought-provoking, engaging and challenging, and then be able to debate them with the filmmakers and invited speakers.

These films cover ground often ignored or overlooked by the mainstream media—films that show how real people are affected by the great events of our age, on their own turf, and how they deal with that—films in which people refuse to be defined simply as victims of circumstance.

Welcome to Document 7...

For more information please visit the Document International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival at: http://www.docfilmfest.org.uk

"Returned" (1 hr version) is now listed on IMDB

Robert Koenig's The new one hour version of "Returned" (2009) is now listed on IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base). Please go to the our IMDB page and rate the film or add your thoughts to the user comment area.

"Child Soldiers after War" by Koenig and Kohrt published in Anthropology News

Click to see the full article. . .

Child Soldiers after War

Brandon Kohrt
Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Nepal

Robert Koenig
Adventure Production Pictures

“I was 13 years old when I joined the Maoists,” said Asha, a girl from a Dalit “untouchable” Hindu caste in southern Nepal, describing how she became associated with the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA). “I was born into a poor family.” She pointed to a few pounds of cornmeal and then the one goat outside her thatched hut, “We just have this much, nothing more.” Asha continued, “I was a very good student [but] after I took my exams for fifth grade my parents told me: ‘We have no money so you have to leave school and take care of your brothers and sister.’” With few economic resources, Asha’s mother decided to pay for her brothers’ schooling rather than “waste money on a girl’s education.”

After Asha left school, Maoist women frequently visited her home and encouraged her to join the Party. They told her that women and men were equal in the Maoist party and promised her an opportunity to continue her studies if she joined a women’s division of the PLA. A few months later, Asha attended a Maoist cultural program and was impressed by the rhetoric: “Both sons and daughters should be treated equally, the Maoist leaders said. Husbands and wives should work together, too… From that day, I didn’t want to go back to my house.” Believing that the Maoists where her only option for a future beyond domestic servitude, Asha left home to join the armed struggle. During her time with the Maoists, she states that she was well treated and the leaders encouraged her interest in art, enlisting her talents in painting propaganda signs. She only encountered one battle, but saw a number of comrades killed.

Asha returned home for a brief visit after more than a year in the PLA, and her mother immediately married her to a man from a distant community to prevent her from returning to the Maoists. She was 14 and he was 22. Asha describes her marriage as endless abuse and suffering. She was raped throughout the marriage by her husband and beaten by her in-laws. After two years of this abuse, Asha attempted suicide. Her father-in-law found her hanging from the ceiling. He cut her down, handed her the noose, and said, “Go to your mother’s home and kill yourself.” Asha now lives once again with her mother. She wept concluding her life story, “Maybe if I hadn’t joined the Maoists, my parents wouldn’t have forced me to marry, and I wouldn’t have had such a life of suffering. At 13 years old, what do you know? You just don’t understand.”

The exploitation of children by militaries and other groups around the globe is a gross human rights violation that bears lifelong consequences for children and communities. Despite increasing attention to the plight of child soldiers through powerful first-hand accounts, such as Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone, fictionalized depictions continue to dominate the public imagination, with important ramifications for the types of intervention and funding made available to support former child soldiers. In fictionalized accounts, life before becoming a child soldier is idyllic and the return home is seen as the panacea for all of the child’s problems. However, as Asha’s story illustrates, the return home can be far more painful than the experiences of war. An ethnographic approach to recording the experiences of child soldiers reveals these complexities.

Through anthropological research in conjunction with Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Nepal and ethnographic filmmaking, we have begun to understand the complex processes that make children vulnerable to recruitment and why the return home is so difficult. In Nepal, the recruitment of children into the Maoist army occurs against a backdrop of state-sponsored human rights violations, gender- and caste-based discrimination rooted in conservative interpretations of Hinduism, extreme poverty, and lack of education or other opportunities. Many see the Maoists as an escape from this, especially women. “After joining the movement women are taught to read and write,” explains Maoist party leader Chairman Prachanda, now Prime Minister of Nepal. “When they fight…they understand the value of freedom.”

We have found that approximately half of child soldiers in Nepal say that they voluntarily joined the Maoist army, often to escape harsh conditions at home. Thus, for some children, their last choice would be returning to a community which they originally fled. Although Asha was in constant danger with the PLA, they offered her a sense of empowerment, a way out of domestic slavery, freedom from a rigid caste system, and an opportunity to learn from women leaders. For Asha, even gun battles were better than what she faced back home. Sadly, her story is not unique. Dalit boys also describe returning home to caste-based oppression after an environment of reported caste equality in the PLA.

Anthropological engagement with the lives of child soldiers is not simply an academic issue, it is crucial to help inform interventions. Anthropological research can address both sociopolitical issues that make children vulnerable to recruitment and post-war community responses to former child soldiers. A simple but important intervention in Nepal has been to support enrollment of girls in school. If Asha’s mother had supported her daughter’s educational pursuits, this may have reduced the chances of her joining the Maoists. Although financial support is part of making this happen, changing attitudes toward girls’ education is also crucial. Fortunately, there is a growing community of anthropologists engaged in research and intervention for child soldiers and other children affected by war, and intervention is focusing increasingly on reintegration as a crucial factor in wellbeing. Ultimately, a more complete anthropological view of the lives of children across the globe will uncover the vulnerability to becoming a soldier and can go a long way to prevent other girls from suffering Asha’s fate.

Brandon Kohrt is a medical doctor and anthropologist who has studied mental health and political violence in Nepal since 1996. He is a technical advisor to Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Nepal, guiding research and intervention programs for former child soldiers.

Robert Koenig is an Emmy Award nominated producer and writer. He produced the documentary Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army, which has won awards from the Society for Visual Anthropology as well as the 2008 Artivist Award for Child Advocacy. This essay includes excerpts from that film. For more information on Returned visit www.nepaldocumentary.com or www.der.org/films/returned.html.

"Returned" to be screened at McGill University in in Montreal

Thursday April 30, 2009

Child, Family, & Community Mental Health in Cultural Context Conference at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec will screen "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" followed by a panel discussion with Ilse Derluyn, Brandon Kohrt, Anneke Rummens, Charles Watters and film producer/director Robert Koenig will also be present.

16:00 – 16:30
Child Soldiers: Comparison of Mental
Health Between Former Child Soldiers and
Never-Conscripted Children in Nepal
Brandon Kohrt
Emory University

16:30 – 18:00 panel/film screening of Robert Koenig's "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army"
Clinical Considerations in Developing
Countries, War, and Exile
Ilse Derluyn, Robert Koenig Brandon Kohrt, Anneke
Rummens, & Charles Watters

Univeristy of Chicago Screening of "Returned"

University of Chicago Screening of "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army", followed by a panel discussion with Filmmaker Robert Koenig.

Date: April 16, 2009
Time: 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Location:
South Asia Commons in Foster 103
5848 S. University Ave Chicago, Illinois 60637


Sponsored by: The Committee on South Asian Studies

Northwestern Screening of "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army"

This award winning documentary tells the personal story of Nepali boys and girls as they attempt to rebuild their lives after fighting a Maoist revolution. Through the voices of former child soldiers, the film examines why these children joined the Maoists and explores the prevention of future recruitment.

The children describe their dramatic recruitment and participation in the Maoist People’s Liberation Army during the eleven-year civil war between the Maoist insurgents and the Hindu monarch of Nepal. The girls’ stories demonstrate how voluntarily joining the violent Maoist struggle became their only option to escape the gender discrimination and sexual violence of traditional Hindu culture in Nepal.

RETURNED highlights contemporary political and social forces in Nepal, bringing awareness to issues of human rights, poverty, violence and insurgency, global health, women's rights, migration and international interventions.

Discussion with flimmaker Robert Koenig follows the screening

"Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" at Loyola

"Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army"
Film screening and discussion with the documentary's director Robert Koenig with a reception to follow.
Tuesday, April 14, 7:30 PM
Crown Center Auditorium, LSC

This film “tells the personal story of Nepali boys and girls as they attempt to rebuild their lives after fighting a Maoist revolution. Through the voices of former child soldiers, the film examines why these children joined the Maoists and explores the prevention of future recruitment. The children describe their dramatic recruitment and participation in the Maoist People’s Liberation Army during the eleven-year civil war between the Maoist insurgents and the Hindu monarch of Nepal. The girls’ stories demonstrate how voluntarily joining the violent Maoist struggle became their only option to escape the gender discrimination and sexual violence of traditional Hindu culture in Nepal. With the major conflict ended and the Maoists in control of the government, these children are now discarded by the Maoist leadership and forced to return home to communities and families that want nothing to do with them. For many of the children of Nepal’s Maoist Army, the return home can be even more painful than the experience of war.”

The film has received several awards including Best Student Work at the 2008 Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival. For much more information about this film and the film maker, please see http://nepaldocumentary.com.

Premiere of the NEW feature length version of "Returned" at Emory's Human Rights Week 2009

On Tuesday March 31st at 7PM we are premiering the new hour long version of "RETURNED: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army". If you are in Atlanta please come to the screening and stay for the short panel discussion with Filmmakers Robert Koenig and Brandon Kohrt afterwards.

Date: Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Harland Cinema on Emory's Campus
Street: 605 Asbury Circle, Atlanta, GA 30322 (in the Dobbs University Center)
Phone: 4047274609

The following is more information on the week's events:

HUMAN RIGHTS WEEK CELEBRATED AT EMORY MARCH 30-APRIL 3, 2009

Members of the Emory University community and the greater Atlanta community will celebrate Human Rights Week March 30-April 3. Organized by the student group Human Rights Action, the week’s theme is entitled "Fulfilling the Full Spectrum of Human Rights: Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights Today,” which seeks to address rights beyond the traditional U.S. conception of political and civil rights. The dates of the week have been selected to commemorate Cesar Chavez Day as well as the 41st anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Human Rights Week 2009 will feature films and panel discussions on various issues, including: women’s rights and sexual violence, the right to health, children’s rights, and labor rights during the economic recession.

The week will conclude with the Human Rights Festival at Asbury Circle from 12pm-2pm on Friday, April 3rd. which will feature a global market with fair-trade crafts, world music and other cultural performances, and a human rights organizational fair featuring Atlanta area organizations working on local and international human rights issues.

All events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.emoryhumanrights.org or call 404-727-4609.

Himals in Holland

The Sixth Himalayan Film Festival at the Free University (VU) of Amsterdam on 14-15 February screened 50 films about the Himalaya to 2,200 visitors. The films went on non-stop from 9.30 AM to nearly midnight through the weekend with discussions and even a Himalayan arts and crafts fair.

Glenn Krishna Mitrasing, medical doctor by day and festival organiser by night, says audience numbers continue to rise every year with better advertising and publicity. "The festival has now become an established yearly cultural event known across the Netherlands," he says.

Nepal and Nepali films were particularly well represented this year. From feature presentations such as Kagbeni (Dahal) to contemporary politics addressed by Sari Soldiers (Bridgham), Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army (Koenig) and Living Goddess (Whitaker); documentaries and social commentaries such as Malaamee (Thapa), Chhau (Khadka), Children of God (Yi Seung-jun) and Yuddha Chitra (BK and Tseten); through to travelogues, mountains and music such as Return to Nepal (Lang), Daughters of Everest (Sakya and Limbu) and Musicians Call (Bajracharya), the range of genres and locations were impressively diverse.

Neasa Ni Chianain's Fairytale of Kathmandu is a nuanced and penetrating film about honesty and the abuse of power, raising uncomfortable questions which provoked much discussion. The five-episode series for BBC Four entitled A Year in Tibet was another festival highlight, since writer and producer Peter Firstbrook was present to introduce his films and answer questions. Lectures by Pema Wangchuk Dorjee, editor of Sikkim's leading English-language daily Now!, and John Sanday, conservation architect, on their recent research and ongoing work were also well attended and lively.

It's no small achievement that in the few years since 2003, when Mitrasing launched the first Himalayan film festival, the event has done so well. Hundreds of Dutch film goers pay ?10 a session to watch films about the Himalaya, and the festival has already been to Tokyo and may travel to other European countries in the future. Taking the festival on tour would be an excellent next move, as it would ensure further exposure for the film makers and their creations. The large communities of Himalayan heritage residents in the UK and Germany make these countries in particular natural settings for future screenings.

The appetite for Nepal-related events seems to be insatiable in the Netherlands: Nepal Samaj Nederland (NSN), an association established by Nepalis in Holland, organised a one day Nepali film show and public discussion about immigration in Amsterdam a few days after the festival on 21 February.

Mark Turin in Amsterdam

www.himalayafilmfestival.nl/eng/
www.nepalsamaj.nl/

Source: Nepali Times

30 Minute Version of 'Returned' Released by DER. Purchase a Copy Today!

Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army

Directed by
Robert Koenig

Written by
Robert Koenig
Brandon Kohrt

color, 30 min, 2008

Institutional price includes public performance rights
Paypal purchases ship via UPS Ground only
contact us for overnight shipping, purchase / international orders and rental / 16mm sales and rental

Imagine being forced to leave your family and fight in war you don't understand - and you are only eleven years old. Sadly, for many of these child soldiers in Nepal this is a reality and the peace process has not solved their problems. These children quickly discovered that the return home is even more painful than the experience of war.

Returned follows several Nepali child soldiers including Asha, a young Nepali girl, who was sent home from the Maoists' People's Liberation Army after the ceasefire. Asha joined the Maoist army when she was 14-years-old. For this young low caste girl, joining the Maoists was a pathway to a future with education and employment. Despite two years of being on the frontlines, her biggest concern was what would await her when she returned home. Would she turn to commercial sex work, become a domestic slave, or would she be banished from her home and forced into marriage?

Returned weaves the voices of Nepal's child soldiers, organizations working to help them, and military leader's from Nepal's opposing forces, who answer challenging questions about their use of childen as warriors.

Related Links
To purchase a copy of 'Returned' click on this link.
Returned's official website

A photo exhibition for Leora Kahn's "Child Soldiers" book is opening today in Brooklyn, NY. I contributed to a chapter in the book and the exhibition will feature photos from prominent photographers. So, check it out if you are in town.
-Robert Koenig

Here is more information:

Child Soldiers: Forced To Be Cruel
PowerHouse Arena
DUMBO
37 Main Street, Brooklyn, 718-666-3049
February 12 - March 8, 2009
Opening: Thursday, February 12, 7 - 9PM

Curated by Leora Kahn and Peter Mantello

Up to half a million children are engaged in more than 85 conflicts worldwide. As armed conflict proliferates, increasing numbers of children are exposed to the brutalities of war. Boys and girls around the world are recruited to be child soldiers by armed forces and militant groups, either forcibly or voluntarily. Some are tricked into service by manipulative recruiters, others join in order to escape poverty or discrimination, while still others are outright abducted at school, on the streets, and at home. Aside from participating in combat, many are used for sexual purposes, made to lay and clear land mines, or employed as spies, messengers, porters, or servants. Kids have become the ultimate weapons of twenty-first-century war.

This exhibition will feature the work of prominent photographers: Dominic Sansoni, Olivier Pin Fat (Agence VU), Alvaro Ybarra Zavala (Agence VU), Peter Mantello, Tomas van Houtryve (PANOS), Tiane Doan na Champassak (Agence VU), Ami Vitale, Bob Koenig, Guy Tillim, Colin Finlay, Jan Grarup (Noor Images), Francesco Zizola (Noor Images), Q. Sakamaki, Zed Nelson (Panos), Francesco Cito (Panos), Martin Adler (Panos), Tim A Hetherington, Richard Butler, Sven Torfinn, Giacomo Pirozzi (Panos), Roger Lemoyne, Rhodri Jones(Panos), Cedric Gerbehaye, Riccardo Gangale.

Child Soldiers focuses on individual stories about these children, captured by photographers and writers from across the globe. The book explores the children’s time as combatants, as well as their demobilization and rehabilitation. Included are Tim Hetherington's photographs from Liberia; Roger Lemoyne and Cedric Gerbehaye’s work from the Congo; Ami Vitale’s series on child Maoist recruits in Nepal; and other work from Burma, Colombia, the Central African Republic, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Palestine.

Leora Kahn is the founder of Proof: Media for Social Justice, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create awareness of the issues faced by populations in post-conflict societies and to encourage social change through the use of photography and words. Kahn has served as the director of photography at Workman Publishing and Corbis, and is currently at work on global projects with Amnesty International, Participant Films, and the Karuana Center for Peacebuilding. She recently edited the Lucie Award-winning Darfur: 20 Years of War and Genocide in Sudan (powerHouse Books, 2007) in collaboration with Amnesty, and curated an accompanying exhibit that will tour the US this year with the Holocaust Museum Houston. Kahn is currently working on an exhibition in Rwanda with Aegis Trust about Hutu rescuers during the genocide.

Child Soldiers features the work of prominent photographers, who have covered the use of children in combat around the world. Contributing writers include Jo Becker, Children’s Rights Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch, Jimmie Briggs, journalist and author of Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War (Basic Books, 2005), Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, International Criminal Court Prosecutor, Emmanuel Jal, a Sudanese musician and former child soldier, and Michael Wessels, a professor of psychology at Columbia University.

Himalaya Film Festival 14 and 15 February 2009

Press Release
February 2009


Himalaya Film Festival 14 and 15 February 2009

Politics, culture and nature in 53 films


In June 2009, for the first time in ten years, the Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama will visit the Netherlands in person. On 14 and 15 February, however, he can already be seen and heard at the Himalaya Film Festival in Amsterdam. 'The Tibetan issue plays a vital role at our festival,' says organizer Mr Glenn Mitrasing, 'but in addition as many as 30 films about Nepal will be screened. In all, 53 films, documentaries and lectures will sketch a picture of the fascinating diversity and the unique character of the Himalayan region.'


The running theme of the 7th edition of the Himalaya Film Festival is 'impermanence'. Mitrasing: 'Everything is impermanent, everything is transient, everything is in motion... In the Himalayan region this appears in many forms. Visitors may, for instance, watch Road to Tibet, a film about a reprise of the non-violent march - just before the Olympic Games. The marchers were stopped at the Indian-Tibetan border, however.

The film The Sari Soldiers is about the attempts of six brave women to shape Nepal's future in the midst of a civil war. Mitrasing also mentions Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army, directed by Robert Koenig. This documentary follows several Nepali boys and girls as they attempt to reintegrate into civil society after their associating - as child soldiers - with armed Maoist groups to fight the 'People's War'. Very moving!

Extreme beauty

Besides films with a political undertone, several 'lighter' films will be screened. Mitrasing: 'They emphasize the extreme beauty of the region. An example is Himalaya, Land of Women, which offers the viewers a sensitive and poetic immersion in the life of four generations of women during harvesting season. Or One Crazy Ride, about friendship and "never giving up" during a motorcycle expedition across Northeast India.'

Lectures

Past, present and future will play a vital role at this festival. 'They are inextricably bound up with each other and always in motion... Conservation architect John Sanday, for example, will talk about the conservation of old buildings and the impact it has on the local community. And Pema Wangchuk will highlight how geo-political decisions have impacted the Dokpas (yak herders). Together with the makers of the 53 films they will give the viewers a diverse and dynamic picture of the Himalayan region, a changing world.'

For more information and for tickets, please visit himalayafilmfestival.nl. The Himalaya Film Festival will be held in De Griffioen, the cultural centre of the Free University of Amsterdam, Uilenstede 106, 1183 AM Amstelveen.