Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army

Review of "Returned" Published in American Anthropologist

2010-06-01T21:06:00.004-04:00

Film Review.

Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army. Robert Koenig, dir., Robert Koenig and Brandon Kohrt, writers. 30 min. and 60 min.
Baltimore, MD: Adventure Production Pictures, 2008 and 2009 (60 minute version)

WILLIAM P. MURPHY
Northwestern University

This first-rate documentary tells the story of the civil war between the Maoist People’s Liberation Army and the government army of Nepal, which began in the mid-1990s and continued until a peace agreement in 2006. The film focuses on human rights and social welfare issues at the heart of the story: recruitment of children by an insurgency and social rehabilitation of children after the war. Children are signifiers in the film, like canaries in coal mines, of wider political and economic crises in Nepal. The seemingly exotic subject matter of civil violence and child soldiers in faraway “Shangra-la” confronts the viewer with broader questions about adult exploitation of the social dependency and cultural plasticity of children -- especially children at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.

The “voices of the victims” are foregrounded – an ethnographic emphasis characteristic of anthropological research on violence. The word “victim” is appropriate here in both moral and legal senses, e.g., international standards proscribe recruiting children under18 for combat, and recruiting children under 15 is a war crime. Dramatic intensity in the film is generated by juxtaposing victim voices with voices of authority – such as, leaders of the insurgency, government officials, journalists, scholarly experts, as well as national and international welfare organizations working with former child combatants. In one interview a spokesperson for the Maoist insurgency denies that children were used as combatants – a statement then mixed with film footage of children carrying guns or engaged in battles, as well as footage of interviews with children describing participation in battle or seeing former playmates killed.

The superb picture and sound quality of the film captures both the lush beauty of the Nepalese landscape of mountains and valleys as well as the sounds of battles, military ceremonies, and political speeches. The technical quality of the film intensifies the formal tension of the narrative’s contrast between poignant natural (and human) beauty versus political violence and the exploitation of children.

By skillfully weaving together interviews with scenes of battles, violence in the streets, rebel group cultural programs for youth as well as a short photo narrative of feudal kingdoms in Nepalese history, political and ideological complexities emerge. Why is an insurrectionary movement against an oppressive, dictatorial government called a “terrorist” group, and what are the global politics legitimating that designation? How do we understand the contradictions between revolutionary idealistic doctrine and human rights abuses carried out in its name?

The film brilliantly captures the blurred line between “choice” and “forced recruitment” of children, which is a basic analytical problem in the anthropological study of child soldiers. Consider three, short examples. Ashish says he “joined” when he was 14, but his story describes being tricked into a rebel sponsored excursion for school children to a very distant place where children could not find their way back. Ashish’s father succinctly sums up the violent logic limiting the options of civilians and their children: if you fulfill the Maoist demands for food (or children), the government army will punish you; if you do not, the Maoists will kill you.

Maya explains that she “joined” when she was around 12 years old. Her mother begged the older women in the insurgency not to take her daughter, and pleaded further that they take some other girl in the village. From the mother’s point of view, neither she nor her daughter had a choice about this recruitment. Poverty and lack of opportunities make young girls easy prey for forced recruitment, and make many children vulnerable to the political rhetoric of resentment and revenge. The film powerfully captures the economics of gender (as well as caste and socioeconomic status) in the recruitment of children.

The last section of the film focuses on post-conflict rehabilitation of child soldiers, and highlights the social contradictions in this well-meaning endeavor. For example, Asha, who was recruited when she was 13, reminds us that “reintegration” is more complicated than the warm connotations evoked by this post-conflict policy term. Asha was stigmatized and forced to marry when she returned to her village, and attempted suicide to escape the physical abuse of her husband and in-laws. The last image of the film – a tear on Asha’s youthful cheek combined with her painfully cracking voice – sums up the suffering of children who lost their childhood to the physical violence of civil war in Shangra-la and are vulnerable in the aftermath to the subtle structural violence of post-war society.

"Returned" shown at the NOA 9TH ANNUAL CONVENTION AND GENERAL MEETING ON SUNDAY, MAY 30, 2010

2010-05-31T11:46:00.004-04:00

Jwojalapa! Namaste! Hello!

Season Shrestha invited Director and Producer, Robert Koenig, to show selected clips of his award winning documentary, "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" to guest in attendance of the Newah Organization of America's 9 th Annual Convention and General Meeting in the Washington, DC metropolitan area on Sunday May 30, 2010 from 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

The screening was followed by a short Q & A with Robert Koenig. For more information on where you can purchase a copy of "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army", please go to http://www.der.org/films/returned.html

"Returned" to be screened at the 2010 Anthropology Film Festival at UBC

2010-04-20T18:20:00.006-04:00

"Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army" a documentary film directed by Robert Koenig is an "Official Selection" at the Fourth International Anthropology Film Festival.

The Ethnographic Film Unit in collaboration with the Museum of Anthropology hosts the 4th International Festival of Anthropology Films. Contact us at anthfilm@interchange.ubc.ca for further information.

This year's film festival will be held in the newly refurbished Michael M. Ames Theatre, Museum of Anthropology, UBC. April 30 and May 1, 2010. Festival co-sponsored by The Museum of Anthropology.

Museum of Anthropology
at the University of British Columbia
6393 N.W. Marine Drive
Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z2

DIRECTIONS

www.ubc.ca/about/maps.html

Full Length Version of 'Returned' Released by DER. Purchase Your Copy Today!

2010-01-07T11:21:00.002-05:00

To purchase a copy of 'Returned' click on this link.

Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army

Directed by
Robert Koenig

Written by
Robert Koenig
Brandon Kohrt

color, 56:40 min, 2010

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.

“[Koenig & Kohrt's] parsimonious film carefully balances explanations and analysis offered by various professionals with scenes of Nepalese children involved in communist-inspired activities. Most telling, however, are young people's own statements about their experiences, statements which simultaneously reveal the rapport and trust established between themselves and the filmmaker.” — Society for Visual Anthropology

“This first-rate documentary... captures the blurred line between "choice" and "forced recruitment" of children, which is a basic analytical problem in the anthropological study of child soldiers. ...(Returned) raises broader questions about adult exploitation of the social dependency and cultural plasticity of children - especially children at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.” — William P. Murphy, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University

Film Festivals, Screenings, Awards
Best Short, Children's Advocacy 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival, Hollywood, CA, 2008
Best Student Work, Society for Visual Anthropology Film, Video and Interactive Media Festival, 2008
Best Documentary Short 2008 Atlanta Underground Film Festival, 2008
CARE Film Festival, Johannesburg, 2008
Himalayan Film Festival, Amsterdam, 2009
Document 7 - International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Scotland, 2009
Days of Ethnographic Film, Moscow, 2009
Children & Armed Conflict: Risk, Resilience & Mental Health Conference, Washington DC, 2009 (long version)
Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, 2010

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

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

2009-12-07T11:22:00.010-05:00

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

2009-11-20T11:58:00.004-05:00

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

2009-10-08T12:53:00.005-04:00

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

2009-10-08T11:31:00.008-04:00

"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

2009-06-18T14:37:00.007-04:00

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

2009-05-06T11:56:00.011-04:00

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

2009-04-29T10:38:00.003-04:00

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"

2009-04-15T15:03:00.002-04:00

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"

2009-04-12T16:54:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-11T00:12:00.003-04:00

"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

2009-03-23T11:31:00.004-04:00

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

2009-03-03T09:12:00.004-05:00

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!

2009-02-23T10:45:00.004-05:00

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

2009-02-12T08:04:00.003-05:00

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

2009-02-04T14:17:00.001-05:00

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.

"Returned" Wins Society for Visual Anthropology Award for Best Student Work

2008-11-17T12:47:00.005-05:00

For Immediate Release
San Francisco, CA (November 17, 2008)

"Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" directed by Robert Koenig and co-written by Brandon Kohrt, MD/PhD student in Anthropology and the School of Medicine at Emory University receives the 2008 Best Student Work Award from The Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA), a section of the American Anthropological Association.

The SVA jury lauded the film's scope and depth in revealing conditions before, during and after the eleven-year civil war between the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists and the Government of Nepal, which impacted those Nepalese boys and girls of different ages who joined armed communist groups. The film examines conditions that led children to connect to the communist military groups, the positive aspects and risks of the children's association with the Maoists, and the after effects of the U.N.'s policy of sending children to their home villages following the 2006 peace accord.

Koenig and Kohrt's parsimonious film carefully balances explanations and analysis offered by various professionals with scenes of Nepalese children involved in communist-inspired activities. Most telling, however, are young people's own statements about their experiences—statements that simultaneously reveal the rapport and trust established between themselves and the filmmaker. Youths' remarks about the discriminatory acts that fueled their support of the Maoist cause, their descriptions of the benefits many felt they accrued, and finally, the children's emotionally-laden stories of the often discriminatory conditions they encountered upon return to their home villages, reveal a range of extraordinary experiences. Two boys and two girls' individual experiences capture the variety of young people's experiences and negate any oversimplification. Combined with admirable camera work, the film's recurrent "grounding" in scenes of the country's landscape provides the context of the children's remarkable lives.

This film would be useful in courses that include such topics as human rights, warfare, child soldiers, community responses to unprecedented change, and the challenges of childhood and adolescence. At 30 minutes, there is time to see the film and to discuss the significant issues it raises.

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A screening of "Returned", will take place on Friday, November 21 at 11:40 AM at the Hilton San Francisco in Franciscan D Ballroom, followed by a discussion with filmmakers Robert Koenig and Brandon Kohrt. For more information about the 2008 SVA Film, Video and Multimedia Screening Program or the AAA Meetings in San Francisco please click here

Fears for 10 thousand child soldiers in Nepal

2008-10-22T10:45:00.003-04:00

Fears for 10 thousand child soldiers in Nepal

Updated Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:54am AEST
Rights groups say more than 10-thousand Maoist child soldiers in Nepal need help integrating back into their communtiies .. after failing to be registered at UN monitored camps.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane
Speaker: Suman Khadka, Save the Children Nepal, Robert Koenig, producer of a soon-to-be-released documentary called 'Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army'

COCHRANE: Nepal's 10 year civil war attracted thousands of young boys and girls away from their villagers and into the jungles to fight, cook and spy for the rebel Maoists. Many children were performers in cultural groups which spread propaganda in remote villages. With the official end of the war in late 2006 came promises to immediately discharge all child soldiers, but two years on, little has been done. The Maoists, who now head the after elections this year, registered 30-thousand fighters and the UN decided that around 3-thousand of those were under age of 18. But Suman Khadka, a child rights advocate for Save the Children in Nepal, says the 3-thousand who currently live in UN-monitored camps, or cantonments, are just the tip of the iceburg.

KHADKA: There was so many children outside the cantonments, informally, who never even came to the cantonments... and now we actually realise the ones who are in the community are much more vulnerable and they actually need equally support if not more.

COCHRANE: Experts say its impossible to put an exact number on how many child soldiers there are in Nepal, but Ms Khadka estimates that less than a third of young fighters are in Maoist camps.

KHADKA: I think we are saying 15,000 children including those children in the cantonments, but that means at least 10 to 12,000 are actually outside in the community.

COCHRANE: Ian Martin is the chief of the UN Mission in Nepal, which has assisted with the peace process. He and others in the UN have pushed for the immediate discharge of child soldiers, as called for in the peace deal. But Mr Martin says reintegration has been delayed by concerns from the former rebels that child soldiers they trained could be re-recruited by other smaller armed groups who continue to fight for various causes.

MARTIN: That's a concern, in fact, which the Maoist leadership expresses to us as to why they dont want those who are still in the cantonments to be discharged, unless and until arrangements have been made to reintegrate them effectively. They specifically express concern that they might join other armed groups and there are people who, even if they came very late into the cantonments, have had some degree of physical and even military training there.

COCHRANE: UNICEF and other childrens organisations have started working with child soldiers, both inside and outside the camps to faciltate their return home. But that's not always an easy process. Robert Koenig is the producer of a soon-to-be-released documentary called 'Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army'.

KOENIG: The child soldier in Nepal is not what you think of as child soldiers in say Africa or in other places around the world where there is this forced recruitment, where in Nepal there seems to be more of an indoctrination program and the indoctrination starts very early, they have these indoctrination programs that go around to the schools... and for the most part, most of the Maoist kids that we met were really into the idea of being a Maoist.

COCHRANE: Many young fighters joined the Maoist army to escape Nepal's entrenched caste system, gender discrimination and poverty. Those who try to return to their villages, often find those issue are largely unchanged. The documentary makers found many young boys who left the Maoists ended up migrating to India or the Middle East to work, while girls, considered impure under the strict Hindu culture for leaving the village, are often forced to get married.

For some young Maoist fighters, their actions during the war mean they aren't welcome back home, as Robert Koenig explains.

KOENIG: You have, you know, 15 year olds who were running villages at gun point, and some of them were extorting money from people, there were kidnappings, there was vigilante justice involved, so there are a lot of issue with these kids going back home again.

COCHRANE: Suman Khadka, from Save the Children, says it could take two years or more to reintegrate Nepal's child soldiers and says the issue deserves more attention, both in Nepal and the world.

KKHADKA: Maybe in the middle they thought you know, if we focus too much on this it's going to disrupt the peace process... The other political parties don't really give so much attention to it, neither do the general overall civil society of Nepal, nor even the international community... so relatively I feel not enough has been done.

Photos from the Hollywood Premiere of "Returned"at the Artivist Film Festival and Director Robert Koenig at The Artivist Awards

2008-10-07T14:26:00.009-04:00

Robert Koenig outside The Egyptian Theatre where "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" made its Hollywood premiere on Oct 4, 2008.

Director Robert Koenig at The Artivist Awards

Director Robert Koenig talking to Reporter on the red carpet

Robert Koenig talking to Reporter about "Returned:Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army"

Director Robert Koenig accepting the award of Best Short, Children's Advocacy for "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival

Robert Koenig after the awards ceremony and reception with the Artivist Award for Best Short, Children's Advocacy for his film "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army"

"Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" Wins Artivist Award for Children's Advocacy at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival

2008-10-01T14:15:00.006-04:00

For Immediate Release
Hollywood CA (October 1, 2008)

"Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" makes its Hollywood premiere on October 4, 2008 at 3:30 pm at The Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028.

Additionally “Returned” has been selected to receive the award of "Best Short, Children's Advocacy" at The Artivist Awards ceremony, which will be take place at 7:00pm on Sunday, October 5, at The Egyptian Theatre. There will be a red carpet event prior to the ceremony and a catered reception afterwards.

The film “Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" examines the reintegration of child soldiers after the recent the civil war in Nepal.

When asked about the driving force behind picking the topic of child soldiers in Nepal, the film's director Robert Koenig said, “Like most people, I generally am concerned about the suffering of children. However, I was not fully aware of the plight of former child soldiers in Nepal until a researcher friend, Brandon Kohrt, who later became the co-writer of "Returned," told me about his work with former Nepali child soldiers and the communities to which they are returning." "Returned” gives a voice to these children and bring a larger awareness to the difficulties that they are now facing.

Chris Riedesel, VP of The Artivist Collective asked Robert Koenig to describe his feelings about being honored with an Artivist Award.

“Receiving the award of Best Short, Children's Advocacy for "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival is an amazing honor.” Koenig said. “I was delighted just to have the film selected as part of the Artivist Film Festival, because their mission of raising awareness for global causes furthers the mission of our film. Receiving an Artivist Award makes me appreciate that this film has the potential to influence people to take action and help these children. I am extremely proud of the entire team that worked so hard to make this film a reality.”

The 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival will take place on October 2 – 5, 2008, at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California. Additionally, Artivist Films be touring a selection of films over the following two months in London, Lisbon, Mexico City and Tokyo.

Films that premiered at the Artivist Film Festival include ACADEMY AWARD winner "Born into Brothels", ACADEMY AWARD Nominee "Super Size Me", ACADEMY AWARD Nominee, "God Sleeps in Rwanda", and the premieres of "Fast Food Nation", "Emmanuelle's Gift", "Trudell", and more.

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To see a preview or learn more about the film Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army go to http://nepaldocumentary.com/

To arrange for Robert Koenig to show the film "Returned" and speak to your school, group, workshop or seminar, or to arrange an interview with Robert Koenig or Brandon Kohrt, please go to the contact page at www.nepaldocumentary.com

Award-winning Documentary about Child Soldiers coming to NCF

2008-09-26T10:31:00.003-04:00

Award-winning Documentary about Child Soldiers coming to NCF
By Suzy Woltmann
Excerpt from:
Catalyst Volume XXV
Wednesday, September 24, 2008; Page 10

Renowned filmmaker Robert Koenig is visiting New College to exhibit this 30-minute documentary about child soldiers in Nepal. At 7 p.m. on Sept. 25 and 26, the Emmy nominated director will be showing the film, "Returned: Child Soldiers of Maoist Nepal" and he will be on hand for a question-and-answer session after the film. The documentary, according to its official website, explores how Nepal went from what some in the media put it "Shangri-la to hell in ten years." It examines why children feel compelled to join armed forces and groups in Nepal and investigates ways to improve the lot of these children through the voices of child soldiers, Nepal leadership and experts in the field.

Nepal has been rife with political crises for over a decade. The country has recently has been plagued by a Maoist insurgency and a civil war that the rebels have dubbed the "People's War." This guerilla rebellion began on Feb. 13, 1996 when the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist declared war on the then of Kingdom of
Nepal. Both the Maoist and the government forces used tactics condemned by the European Union, including the heinous crime of recruiting and abusing child soldiers for their cause.

"I found the children involved to be very compelling," said Koenig. "For the most part, children aren't forced into service but rather go voluntarily. They think it's something more innocent,like a special camp or something, until they actually have to fight and kill. These children have issues upon their return home, where
they face stigma and shame within their community."

The documentary reached the Novo Collegiate radar when thesis student Shannon Strischek promoted the film while working as a summer intern for publicist company Savvy Buzz. Strischek kept the film in mind once school started and invited Koenig down to Sarasota using student-allocated funds and appealing to Director of New College Student Activities Konnie Kruzcek, who called the event a "great
opportunity." Strischek sent out several press releases for the exhibition to garner community notice and encouraged both New College students and Sarasota residents to attend the screening.

The film, which Koenig co-wrote with Brandon Kohrt, a medical anthropologist, came out in 2008 and has already won numerous awards at various film festivals, including Best Documentary Short at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, Best Student Film at the Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival and had been selected to
premiere in Hollywood, CA at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival.

Besides wishing for his film to be "successful," Koenig's objective with the documentary is to increase awareness of the plight of children soldiers and to one day improve their condition.

"I felt that by making this film we could give a voice to these children and bring a larger awareness to the difficulties that they are now facing," said Koenig. "In the future, we want to continue working aid organizations to assist returned child soldiers in reintegrating to their communities."

For now, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children USA and Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) Nepal are the major aid groups that currently have programs in Nepal. These organizations work to get children jobs and help them to come back to their communities and avoid stigmatization, which can be especially difficult for girls. UNICEF and partners are
trying to address this and reintegrate child soldiers back into society in a productive way through vocational training and assistance.

Students interested in learning more about this cause can attend the film screenings, For more information or to contact Robert Koenig go to the documentary websites: www.nepaldocumentary.com

Documentary on Child Soldiers of Nepal Thursday and Friday September 25 and 26 at New College of Florida

2008-09-18T16:02:00.002-04:00

Documentary on Child Soldiers of Nepal Thursday and Friday September 25 and 26

Award winning film director, Bob Koenig’s documentary, “Returned: Child Soldiers of Maoist Nepal,” examines one of the use of child soldiers in the civil war in Nepal. The film will be shown in the Hamilton Classroom Teaching Auditorium on Thursday and Friday September 25 and 26 at 7:00 pm. This event is free and open to the public. Seats are on a first come, first serve basis.

In the past few months, Nepal’s government has undergone extraordinary changes. Despite recent hopes for peace, many people fear anything could upset the process.

“Nepal is going through the worst political crisis in its history,” explains Koenig, . “The monarchy has been abolished and the Maoists, the former guerrilla insurgents, have taken control of the government.”

“This film has the potential to influence people in the U.S. and other developed nations around the world to take action,” says Koenig. “It can help these children at the macro level and at the political level.”

Already the film is garnering a positive response both nationally and internationally. After a successful premiere at Atlanta’s DocuFest, it is slated to air during the United Nations Association Film Festival, receive a jury award from the American Anthropological Association, and admitted into the renowned Artivist Film Festival in Los Angeles.

“All the political parties involved in Nepal, including the U.S. government’s representatives, don’t want the truth uncovered,” Koenig says. “They don’t really want justice, they don’t really want to find out who was involved in which atrocities, because they are all somehow linked to criminal acts of violence.”

“We’re so excited to bring this documentary to New College,” says Konnie Kruzcek, director of New College Student Activities. “It’s such a great opportunity for our students and the community to gain understanding of a country that is so rarely discussed in the news.”

For more information or to arrange an interview with Bob Koenig, please contact Shannon Strischek at (404) 433-1724 or by email at shannon.strischek@ncf.edu.

###

New College of Florida is a national leader in the arts and sciences and is the State of Florida's designated honors college for the liberal arts. Consistently rated among the country's top five public liberal arts colleges by U.S.News & World Report - including as the No. 1 public liberal arts college in "America's Best Colleges, 2007 Edition" - New College attracts highly motivated, academically talented students from 40 states and 25 foreign countries.

Nepal promotional footage at www.nepaldocumentary.com

2008-09-04T18:43:00.001-04:00

Nepal is an amazingly beautiful country. In the documentary "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" the struggle to overcome the harsh terrain in Nepal is a reoccurring theme. This footage was shot by Scott Ippolito for the documentary "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army", directed by Robert Koenig. Go to www.nepaldocumentary.com for more information about "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army".

Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army is listed on IMDB

2008-09-04T01:42:00.004-04:00

"Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" is now listed on IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base). Please go to the our IMDB page and rate the film or add your thought and opinion to the user comment area or message board.

Also, there is a listing for Robert Koenig. IMDB works in mysterious ways and I hope that they add more information about the film and the crew. Be sure to check back regularly.

Best,
Robert Koenig

"Returned" is awarded "Best Documentary Short" at 2008 AUFF

2008-08-27T02:22:00.008-04:00

This is the updated movie poster for"Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" a film by Robert Koenig, which just won the AUFF "Best Documentary Short" Award for 2008

The awards have been posted for the Atlanta Underground Film Festival. We won Best Documentary Short! Here is the link:

http://festivalleague.com/awards

Thank you all for you continued support of this project! we are already starting work on the feature length version, which will take a more in depth look into the lives of these children.

Cheers,
Bob

For screening information or to read Robert Koenig's other film blog go to:
http://audience.withoutabox.com/films/returned

Photos from the "Returned" Premiere at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival

2008-08-24T00:08:00.008-04:00

Robert Koenig and Brandon Kohrt in front of the Plaza Theatre before the screening of "Returned"

Robert Koenig's film "Returned" Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" Premiered at the Plaza Theatre on August 22, 2008.

"Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" has been accepted into the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival!

2008-08-20T01:15:00.002-04:00

Dear Friends,

I just wanted to share with you the letter that I received yesterday from the Artivist Film Festival in Hollywood, CA.

Films that premiered at the Artivist Film Festival include ACADEMY AWARD winner "Born into Brothels",
ACADEMY AWARD Nominees "Super Size Me", "God Sleeps in Rwanda", and the premieres of "Fast Food Nation", "Emmanuelle's Gift", "Trudell", and more.

Thanks again for all of your support!

- Robert Koenig

--------------------------------- ---------

August 19, 2008

Congratulations! We are delighted to officially notify you that your film, "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army", has been accepted into the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival!

We were pleased by the high volume of quality film submissions for this year’s film festival, submitted by a diverse and talented group of filmmakers. Your response to our festival demonstrates the passion and strength of activists around the world, and the power of the visual image. We thank you for joining us in our mission to raise awareness for social, global issues.

The 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival will take place on October 2 – 5, 2008, at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California. Additionally, we’ll be touring a selection of films over the following two months in London, Lisbon, Mexico City and Tokyo.

We are in the process of finalizing the schedules for the Hollywood and international screenings, and will notify you of each schedule when they have been confirmed. Your film will be screened at the main Hollywood festival, but we cannot guarantee that it will be included in the international screenings.

Christopher Riedesel, a Co-founder/Vice President of Artivist, oversees the logistical concerns of all film screenings. He will assign a staff member from Artivist who will be your main contact for all information we will need, as well as for providing any information you will need for being a part of the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival.

We are committed to making the screening of your film a success at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival. On behalf of everyone in the Artivist family, we look forward to your participation in this year’s Artivist Film Festival!

Sincerely,

Diaky Diaz,
President/Founder

Bettina Wolff
Vice President/Founder

Christopher Riedesel
Vice President/Founder

Emory Researcher and Filmmaker Team up to Expose Nepal’s New Maoist Government’s Human Rights Violations Against Children.

2008-08-18T11:20:00.004-04:00

“Many Nepalese’s’ worst fear was realized when Prachanda, the leader of the Maoist party became Prime Minister of Nepal today,” says Robert Koenig, who interviewed Prachanda and other Maoist leaders during the time he spent making the documentary Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army, which premieres in Atlanta on Friday, Aug. 22 at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival (http://www.festivalleague.com/docshorts2008.cfm).

Prachanda, the former guerrilla leader who led a successful war on Nepal's despotic royal dynasty, has finally taken charge as the Prime Minister of the Himalayan republic on Monday, ending a four-month political vacuum.

Prachanda has received worldwide criticism for his party’s role in the death of thousands and the inclusion of child soldiers in the ten-year-long Nepalese Civil War, also known as the “People’s War”.

Koenig’s documentary Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army follows several Nepali boys and girls as they attempt to reintegrate into civil society after their association with armed Maoist groups to fight the "People's War." The film examines why these children are compelled to join armed groups and explores the prevention of future recruitment through the voices of two girl soldiers, two boy soldiers, and experts in the field.

Former child soldiers in Nepal are more than twice as likely to suffer from symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as Nepali children who experienced war trauma as civilians, according to a study led by Brandon Kohrt, an MD-PhD student at Emory University in Atlanta.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published the study results Aug. 13 (http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/300/6/691), in a theme issue on violence and human rights. It is the first published study of the mental health of child soldiers that includes comparative data with children who were not coerced into military service.

Kohrt speaks Nepali and has studied mental health issues in Nepal for over a decade. Along with Atlanta filmmaker Robert Koenig, Kohrt recently won the jury award from the Society for Visual Anthropology for co-writing Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army. The documentary, about the impact of the long-running battle between the Nepal government and Communist insurgents, will premiere this Friday in Atlanta.

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To see a preview or learn more about the film Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army go to http://nepaldocumentary.com/

To arrange an interview with Robert Koenig or Brandon Kohrt, please contact Cassie Bouldin by phone at 727-209-1745 or by email at cassie@savvybuzz.com.

JAMA Publishes Groundbreaking Comparative Study on Child Combatants

2008-08-13T10:47:00.004-04:00

Former child soldiers in Nepal are more than twice as likely to suffer from symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as Nepali children who experienced war trauma as civilians, according to a study led by Brandon Kohrt, a graduate student at Emory University in Atlanta.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published the study results Aug. 13, click here to go to the JAMA article online, in a theme issue on violence and human rights. It is the first published study of the mental health of child soldiers that includes comparative data with children who were not coerced into military service.

"Our findings suggest that many former child soldiers may need more than interventions to reduce the mental health problems associated with surviving bombings and torture – often they have to endure being stigmatized when they return to their home villages," says Kohrt, a final-year student in Emory's School of Medicine and a PhD candidate in Emory's Department of Anthropology.

Kohrt speaks Nepali and has studied mental health issues in both Hindu and ethnic minority communities of Nepal for nearly a decade. Along with Atlanta filmmaker Robert Koenig, Kohrt recently won the jury award from the Society for Visual Anthropology for co-writing "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army." The documentary, about the impact of the long-running battle between the Nepal government and Communist insurgents, will air Aug. 22 at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival.

Kohrt conducted the comparative study of former child soldiers of the Maoist army for Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) Nepal, a Nepali nongovernmental organization that works conflict affected children. Co-authors of the study include Carol Worthman, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology at Emory; Rebecca Speckman, a graduate student in Emory's Rollins School of Public Health; and colleagues from Nepal and Amsterdam.

The researchers identified 141 former child soldiers, both male and female, who had been coerced to join the Maoists forces. At the time of conscription, the children ranged in age from 5 to 16 years. The matched-pair cross-sectional study included another 141 Nepali children who experienced the war but were not conscripted into a military group. All of the study participants had experienced at least one trauma associated with the war, such as enduring beatings, bombings and torture.

Lengthy interviews were conducted with each child, and standard instruments were used to assess symptoms of psychological difficulties. The results found that both groups of children exhibited similar levels of general psychological difficulties and anxiety, when controlling for the number of traumas they each experienced.

Even after adjusting for traumatic exposures, however, 53 percent of the former child soldiers met symptom cutoff scores for depression, compared to 24 percent of the other children. And 55 percent of the former child soldiers had levels of PTSD that warranted mental health interventions, compared to 20 percent of the other children. The risk of PTSD was especially high for girls who had been conscripted.

"These findings suggest that there is something else – in addition to war trauma – that is causing problems for the former child soldiers," Kohrt says. "One hypothesis is that the reintegration process puts added stress on them."

Some of the child soldiers reported being ostracized upon returning to their home villages because they were seen as "polluted." Girls from Hindu households were especially affected, perhaps due to cultural taboos about girls sharing close quarters with males outside of the family.

Kohrt plans to conduct further research with TPO Nepal, to help determine ways to screen children who experienced the war for mental health problems and to help develop targeted intervention programs. After receiving his medical degree, he hopes to do a psychiatric residency for global mental health and continue working in Nepal as well as other developing countries.

"I want a career that allows me to do evidence-based research and provide mental health care to those in the most desperate need," Kohrt says.

###
To learn more about the film Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army go to www.nepaldocumentary.com

To arrange an interview with Robert Koenig or Brandon Kohrt, please contact Cassie Bouldin by phone at 727-209-1745 or by email at cassie@savvybuzz.com.

U.N. EXTENDS MISSION IN NEPAL & EXCLUSIVE VIDEO WITH PRACHANDA DISTRIBUTED

2008-07-25T14:47:00.002-04:00

For Immediate Release
Please contact 727-209-1745, Shannon Strischek

U.N. EXTENDS MISSION IN NEPAL & EXCLUSIVE VIDEO WITH PRACHANDA DISTRIBUTED
By, Shannon Strischek

July 25, 2008 - In the past couple of months, Nepal’s government has undergone extraordinary changes. The nation elected its first president this week and Wednesday the UN Security Council voted to extend the UN mission in Nepal to help with the peace process. Despite recent hopes for peace, there is one thing many people fear could upset the process.

“Many people fear that Prachanda, the leader of the Maoist party will agree to become Prime Minister of this new Democratic Republic,” says Bob Koening, who interviewed Prachanda during the time he spent making his newly released documentary “Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal Maoist Army”.

Prachanda is the leader of the largest political party in Nepal, the Communist Party of Nepal run by the Maoists. Prachanda has received worldwide criticism for his party’s role in the death of thousands and the inclusion of child soldiers in the ten-year-long Nepalese Civil War.

“We were lucky enough to be given an exclusive interview with Prachanda while filming a story on child soldiers recruited to fight with Maoists,” Koenig continues. “That was before Prachanda was asked to become Prime Minister and the Maoists didn’t know they’d win the elections in such a dramatic fashion.”
Koenig is releasing portions of the interview because of its international importance. The clip shows Prachanda’s dislike for American foreign policy.

Here is a transcript of the available clip. It may be viewed at: http://nepaldocumentary.com/Multimedia.aspx .

“American policy is not good. America's foreign policy, in general, is not good. See what has happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, Mid-east and everywhere throughout the world; it has been terrible due to their bad foreign policy. American policies are against people. Even in the case of Nepal, we made a 12-point agreement before we stepped into peace process. America was opposed to us. We entered into a peace process, and they opposed. Even now, it hasn't removed us from their terrorist list. American foreign policy is not good for the people of the world. America is not doing anything satisfactory. We think they have to rethink their policies."

“We want a new Nepal, we want to see all Nepalese free, and we want this through constituent assembly,” says Prachanda in the interview. “We would like to especially want to tell you all not to be suspicious about our intentions to hold constituent assembly election.”

“Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army” is a documentary video that follows several Nepali youths as they attempt to reintegrate back into civil society after their association with armed groups linked to the “People’s War.”

A preview of the film can be seen on www.nepaldocumentary.com. The film will be screened in November during the Society for Visual Anthropology's annual Film, Video and Interactive Media Festival as “Best Student Film”. It will also play during the United Nations Association Film Festival Film this fall.
###
To arrange an interview with Robert Koenig or film researcher Brandon Kohrt, please contact Cassie Bouldin by phone at 727-209-1745 or by email at cassie@savvybuzz.com .

Robert Koenig interview with Joel Aaron from Morning in Atlanta on WGKA.

2008-07-09T16:56:00.002-04:00

boomp3.com

“DOCUFEST” DRAWS ATLANTA MOVIE GO-ERS LOOKING FOR SOMETHING ELSE

2008-07-02T15:05:00.001-04:00

“DOCUFEST” DRAWS ATLANTA MOVIE GO-ERS LOOKING FOR SOMETHING ELSE
by, Shannon Strischek

Atlanta, GA (August 20-24, 2008) – From “Inconvenient Truth” to “Spellbound” documentaries seem to be big business these days. It’s no surprise then, that the 3rd Annual DocuFest is expected to draw big crowds in Atlanta this August. Decatur filmmaker Bob Koenig hopes his own film will steal the show at DocuFest ‘08.

“Nepal is going through the worst political crisis in its history,” explains Koenig. “The monarchy has been abolished and the Maoists, the former guerilla insurgents, have taken control of the government.”

The collapse of the 240 year old monarchy is due to the continuing success of the "People's War", launched in 1996 by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist). Even today, a bloody conflict continues to claim lives.

“Returned: Child Soldiers of Maoist Nepal” looks into one of the most condemned crimes of the Maoist army: the use of child soldiers in fighting forces, particularly the Maoists continue their commitment to recruiting students, sometimes as young as ten-years old, from primary schools.

“This film has the potential to influence people in the US and other developed nations around the world to take action,” says Koenig. “It can help these children at the macro level and at the political level.”

Already the film is garnering a positive response both nationally and internationally. Although its debut will be at DocuFest, it is slated to air during the United Nations Association Film Festival and has received a jury award from the American Anthropological Association.

“All the political parties involved in Nepal, including the U.S. government’s representatives, don’t want the truth uncovered,” Koenig says. “They don't really want justice, they don't really want to find out who was involved in which atrocities, because they are all somehow linked to criminal acts of violence.”

Koenig spent over two years researching and making the documentary. The film’s Director of Research, Brandon Kohrt, an Emory M.D./PhD candidate, is continuing to conduct interviews in Nepal until his return next month.

DocuFest takes place August 20-24, 2008 during the Atlanta Underground Film Festival. Individual tickets are $7.50 but $35 covers an All-Access-Pass for any film during the four-day-festival.

###
To arrange an interview with Bob Koenig, please contact Shannon Strischek at 727-209-1745 or by email at Shannon@savvybuzz.com

High Resolution Images Available.

Atlanta premiere of Returned - August 22, 2008

2008-06-25T19:31:00.001-04:00

I am thrilled to announce that Returned:Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army will be screening during the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, August 22, 2008 in Atlanta, GA. The film will be screened at The Plaza Theatre in Atlanta, Friday, August 22, 2008 at 5:00 pm.

Robert Koenig and Brandon Kohrt will be there holding a Q&A after the screening.

For more information about the festival go to:

http://festivalleague. com/docshorts2008. cfm

Child Soldiers in Nepal Get Help from Local Filmmakers

2008-06-20T07:32:00.000-04:00

Child Soldiers in Nepal Get Help from Local Filmmakers
By Cassie Bouldin

Decatur, GA (June 23, 2008) – A team of Atlanta-based filmmakers is raising awareness for child soldiers in Nepal, and they’re winning awards in the process.

“This is a story that no one wants to hear because it is gruesome and it’s unbearably sad,” says Robert Koenig, President of Adventure Production Pictures. “We as Americans can’t imagine this type of brutality against a child, and sadly most Americans are unaware of the humanitarian crisis raging in Nepal.”

Koenig and his colleagues spent 12 weeks in Nepal interviewing children as young as 10 years old who were once ran away from home or were kidnapped and forced to fight for Maoist Guerillas. Filmmakers interviewed several of former child soldiers during the making of “Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army”.

“No one wants to discuss this openly, especially on camera and it’s extremely dangerous to try to interview anyone in Nepal on this issue,” says Robert Koenig, Emmy-Award Nominated Producer & Director. “We were stonewalled and it was very difficult to get anyone on camera, for fear of retaliation.”

According to Human Rights Watch, Maoist guerillas have continued using child soldiers, and even recruited more children, despite signing a comprehensive peace agreement with the Nepali government almost two years ago.

“I witnessed the effects of this in person, during the past two years I’ve spent in Nepal working with Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Nepal,” says the documentary’s Director of Research Brandon Kohrt. Kohrt is a medical anthropologist at Emory University. “The saddest part is that after military service the children become outcasts and they can’t find work. Many are forced into abusive child marriages or run away to India.”

“Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army” is a documentary video that follows several Nepali youths as they attempt to reintegrate back into civil society after their association with armed groups linked to the “People’s War.”

A preview of the film can be seen on You Tube. The film will debut during DocuFest, which takes place in Atlanta this August. In November it will be screened during the Society for Visual Anthropology's annual Film, Video and Interactive Media Festival as “Best Student Film”. It will also play during the United Nations Association Film Festival Film this fall.

###
To arrange an interview with Robert Koenig or Brandon Kohrt, please contact Cassie Bouldin by phone at 727-209-1745 or by email at cassie@savvybuzz.com.

“Returned” with be screened on Friday, November 21, 2008 at 11:40 AM during SVA Film Festival. The award ceremony will take place at the annual in San Francisco on November 19.

“Returned” wins Jury Award at the 2008 SVA/AAA Film, Video, and Interactive Media Festival

2008-06-06T13:55:00.001-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: San Francisco, CA, June 06, 2008:
Peter Biella, Coordinator, Festival Jury contacted Brandon Kohrt to announce that the 2008 Film, Video and Interactive Media Festival jury has accepted his submission, “Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army”. The jury gave it their "Best Student Film" award out of 17 highly competitive graduate student films in the category. Peter expanded on some of the jury’s comments: The jury was impressed with the documentary’s thoroughness in reaching many types of children, and its investigation into the children’s past, present and future lives. Peter said that the jury felt that the cinematography was sensitive and professional. The jury found the voices of the children to be very eloquent and the film’s argument quite coherent. Each jury member was impressed with the consistency, parsimoniousness and ethnographic sensitivity that the film embodied.

The award ceremony will take place in San Francisco on November 19. Jurors will read prepared commendations for the winning films and show clips. Robert Koenig and Brandon Kohrt will be present to accept the award and speak to the audience about the film.

Clips from award winners will be shown Wednesday night in addition to their regular screening dates. “Returned” with be screened on Friday, November 21, 2008 at 11:40 AM. All award-winning films are followed by a 15 to 20 minute break so that, if filmmakers choose to be present, they may discuss their film with the audience immediately after it has been screened.

“Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army” is a documentary video that follows several Nepali youths as they attempt to reintegrate back into civil society after their association with armed groups linked to the “People’s War.” The child soldier issue in South Asia is quite different than the child soldier issues in Africa and after the major conflict ended in Nepal. The film examines why children join armed groups and explores ways to prevent future recruitment by following the lives of two girl soldiers and two boy soldiers. The children describe how they became associated with the Maoist People’s Liberation Army during the 11-year civil war between the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists and the government of Nepal. The children tell their individual stories, discussing both positive and negative aspects of their association with armed groups. These children are discovering quickly that the return home can be even more painful than the experience of war.

May Update

2008-05-19T17:10:00.004-04:00

30 Minute completed and submitted:
This is a huge week for progress on the documentary. Over the last
week or so, Brandon and I have been working hard to complete a fine
cut of the 30 version of the documentary. I am glad to say that we
have completed the first full version of the project and have met the
American Anthropological Association's deadline of May 15. Our goal
for next week is to polish the fine cut into the final cut.

New DVD:
While working hard to get the project out of the door a few new things
came out of it. I have authored a new DVD for the project that has a
more enhanced menu and I have put together a new design for the DVD label

Animated Maps and Credits:
Our art director, Dan Diehl had enlisted the help of fellow artist,
Bryan Hendrix, to create some very high end animated maps for the
history section of the film. Dan is also working on some new scrolling
credits for us.

Musical Score
Harishakar Thapa & Harris Bierhoff cranked out almost a dozen
separate scoring tracks over the last 2 weeks for the project. They
were able to create several versions of each track to accommodate my
editing needs.

Press:
Emory in the World magazine has posted Brandon's article titled "After
War, Child Soldiers Fight a New Battle on their website. If you
haven't read it already it is worth a look:

http://www.international.emory.edu/emory_online/feat_awcsfanb.html

Also check out the Robert Koenig profile page on LinkedIn:

Election Update from Kathmandu

2008-04-12T15:04:00.000-04:00

Yeah, after that first result in Kathmandu things got turned on it's head. There is a revolution going on here - fortunately a quiet one. The moaists are in the lead by far - with almost 60% of the seats and then UML with about 20% and NC with about 12%. The results are still coming in but there is a clear trend - the old established folks are being kicked out and new 'no bodies' are in their place. I think there were about 6 constituencies that had to cancel their election due to bad behaviour - burning ballot boxes etc. but everything went very smoothly everywhere else. Things were peaceful and well managed in all the stations I visited in Biratnagar, which seems to have been the case in most places. Here's a weblink if you'd like to keep up with the events here.

http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/main.htm

Big News in Nepal and Guest Lecturing

2008-04-11T17:51:00.000-04:00

Nepal in the News:

Nepal held the historic constituent assembly elections yesterday. If you have been reading the New York Times or listening to NPR you would have read and hear several people how are participating in our documentary, such as Manjushree Thapa, David Pottie, Kunda Dixit, Ian Martin, Prachanda and Jimmy Carter. It is good to see that the same people who are contributing to these big media outlets are also working with us and that this is getting some news penetration domestically.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/opinion/10thapa.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/world/asia/11nepal.html?pagewanted=print

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89490015

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88176977

Guest Lecturing:

Today I was invited to speak in the Issues in Cross Cultural Mental Health at Emory University. The discussion went well and I showed the preview of the documentary to the group of undergraduate students. The feedback was very positive; one student said that he thought it was very powerful. Most of the student seemed interested in the film and wanted to know when and where they could the full documentary, so that is a good sign.

Bob

Nepal’s Perilous Ascent By MANJUSHREE THAPA

2008-04-10T23:43:00.001-04:00

On April 10th, 2008, the constituent assembly elections took place in Nepal. Manjushree Thapa, who is also in the documentary "Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army" wrote this Op-Ed piece for the today's New York Times. She gives an interesting perspective on the political struggles that Nepal is facing.

Here is the story:

Op-Ed Contributor
Nepal’s Perilous Ascent
By MANJUSHREE THAPA

NEPALIS will vote today for the first time since a democratic uprising in 2006 that rejected King Gyanendra Shah’s absolute rule and led to a peace deal that ended a 10-year Maoist insurgency. This is not an ordinary election. We will be voting for a 601-member constituent assembly that will draft a new constitution that most likely will abolish the monarchy and will certainly restructure Nepal.

It is compelling, and moving, to live through the remaking of one’s nation.

Still, Katmandu has grown hushed and watchful, and anxious, as Election Day has neared. In previous weeks, the political parties staged rallies, canvassed door to door, and filled the streets with scratchy loudspeaker announcements imploring us to vote.

Now the campaigning is over. Electoral violence, though, is on the rise, with officials yesterday reporting eight deaths. Hundreds of international observers, and thousands of their Nepali counterparts, have fanned out to monitor the 10,000 polling places. Jimmy Carter has arrived. The government has declared a five-day public holiday to encourage people to vote, and banned alcohol to ensure public safety.

“So, are you planning to risk your life to vote?” This is the question my friends and I have been asking one another, not entirely in jest.

In the fray are the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which in 1995 started a blood-soaked insurgency that left more than 13,000 dead and the country’s economy ravaged. Used to ruling their rural strongholds by force, members of their Red Guard-style Young Communist League have attacked the candidates and workers of rival parties, and have threatened, rather than wooed, voters. They are convinced that the security forces are working against them. It would surprise no one to see the Maoists stuffing ballot boxes on voting day.

Equally menacing are the supporters of Nepal’s embattled monarchy. In its very first meeting, the constituent assembly is expected to abolish the 240-year-old monarchy. Ultraroyalists have forged a shadowy alliance of high-caste feudal landowners, Hindu fundamentalists and criminals in hopes of spoiling the election with violence. An underground group called the Nepal Defense Army bombed a mosque to incite Hindu-Muslim antagonism; and dark rumors are circulating of further bombings and assassination attempts on Election Day.

Between these two extremes lie scores of liberal and leftist parties, the largest of which are the Nepali Congress Party and the Nepal Communist Party (United Marxist Leninist), a moderate party despite the name.

In the past, these parties have not done much to protect democracy from the onslaughts of the extreme left and the extreme right. Yet the mere possibility of being able to choose from among them at all rouses what the Nepali newspapers call “election fever.”

Democracy may be imperfect, but unlike absolute systems like Maoism and monarchism, it incorporates mechanisms to correct its own flaws.

So, yes: I am planning to risk my life to vote today.

Not that the election will resolve much. Most Nepalis recognize that it will, in fact, send our country into an era of heightened instability.

Immediately after the polls, there will be extensive re-polling in the constituencies marred by rigging and violence. The announcement of results may also be combustible. The Maoists, in particular, are unlikely to be gracious either in the case of a landslide victory or of a humiliating defeat. “It would be ideal if they came in third,” a friend commented. “That would keep them from taking over, but also from going back to war.”

The danger will not end there. When the constituent assembly is formed, it will have to handle the delicate matter of asking the king to step down. So far, Gyanendra Shah has been adamantly opposed to giving up what he feels is his family’s birthright.

But the most bitter struggles will probably erupt over the drafting of the new constitution. The remote, neglected rural regions of Nepal have been demanding autonomous federal states. But to Katmandu-dwellers accustomed to a unitary, centralized state, a “United States of Nepal” can feel like the end of all that is known, all that is certain. The battles ahead are likely to be fierce.

“Three years,” laughs a friend, speculating on how long it will take for our country to become a functioning democracy. Another friend has a more somber assessment: “If we’re lucky, five years.”

On good days we will call this volatile age our “transition to democracy.” On bad days, though, it will feel frightening and even painful.

This is why we are hushed and watchful going into Election Day. This is why we are anxious.

Our sole consolation is the hope that we will become a democracy one day: the dream that we will free ourselves, at long last, from the autocracy of Maoism and monarchy alike.

Manjushree Thapa is the author of “Forget Kathmandu: An Elegy for Democracy” and “The Tutor of History,” a novel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/opinion/10thapa.html

Nepal's Child Soldiers on BBC

2008-04-07T17:05:00.000-04:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/08/south_asia_nepal_faces_the_future/html/1.stm

http://www.myspace.com/nepaldocumentary

2008-03-31T00:22:00.002-04:00

Copy and paste this link into your address bar:
http://www.myspace.com/nepaldocumentary

Check out our new Myspace film site dedicated to the film "Returned: Child Soldier's of Nepal's Maoists Army".

This site will keep you updated on the progress of the film and let you know about any news associated with the project.

The major news and the reason that we started this site is that we have recently completed our first preview of the documentary. The preview will be used for fund raising and submitted to granting agencies so they can an idea of what the full documentary will look like. This version will be then made into a slightly longer cut before it is sent off to the Sundance Foundation and ITVS for consideration.

In related news, we have contributed some photos and interview materials to Leora Kahn’s new book “Child Soldiers” that will be published by Powerhouse Cultural Entertainment, Inc. The book will be exhibited in Bonn in June and she has offered an opportunity for us to show an educational version of the documentary at some future speaking events.

Also, we have recently been listed on Documentary Educational Resources donation page. Please feel free to send the link out to anyone you think would be interested. Let them know that their tax-deductible contributions are vital in bringing this project to life.

http://www.der.org/donate/index.html#returned

Thank you for your interest in the film, I really appreciate everyone’s support, this really has been an extraordinary team effort for us to get to where we are right now.

Bob

Good Cause

2008-03-13T23:44:00.001-04:00

Returned is a feature length documentary that follows several Nepali child soldiers including Asha, a young Nepali girl, who was sent home from the Maoist’s People’s Liberation Army after the cease fire. Asha joined the Maoist army when she was 14-years-old. For this young low caste girl, joining the Maoist 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 the challenging questions about their use of child soldiers.

If you happen to run into anyone interested in contributing to the a good cause, please send them the following information:

Our fiscal sponsor, Documentary Educational Resources has listed our project on their donation page. So please feel free to send the link out to anyone you
think would be interested. Let them know that their tax-deductible contributions are vital in bringing this project to life.

http://www.der.org/donate/index.html#returned

Click on the [Donate] button in the "Returned: Child Soldiers of
Nepal’s Maoist Army" section.

Thank you for your interest in our documentary and for helping us with
the fund raising efforts.

I really appreciate it.

Bob

Fiscal Sponsorship

2008-02-01T18:40:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for supporting the documentary or at least reading this blog. Production in Nepal went extremely well and we were able to accomplish a great deal.

I am back in the States and I have begun post production on the project. I am working with Brandon Kohrt on writing and editing the full trailer for fund raising and grant applications, but in the mean time, please take a looks at some selected clips that we captured while in Nepal.

http://nepaldocumentary.com/Multimedia.aspx

Also we have been able to partner with great fiscal sponsor, we are privileged to be working with Documentary Educational Resources (www.der.org) in Watertown, MA. They are a non-profit organization founded in 1968 for the purpose of producing and distributing cross-cultural documentary film for educational use. They are a great
fit with our program and this is a big boost when it comes to accepting charitable donation and dealing with the distribution of the film. Many foundations, organizations and government funding agencies require the sponsorship of a non-profit, 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization in order to apply for funds. Examples of these agencies include the MacArthur Foundation or the National Endowment for the
Humanities.

Other highlights from the past week or so:

Brandon has gone through 13 interviews and has code them into crazy indexing software, which makes it very easy to find specific instances of when an interview subject talks about a specific issue. We had a meeting this week to discuss the structuring of the fund raising trailer, which should be completed in the next 2 weeks.

Gordon is continuing to research Grants and Funding opportunities. He and I are went to the "Doing Your Doc" workshop last weekend at GSU featuring Fernanda Rossi AKA the Documentary Doctor (http://der.org/community/doc-doctor.php). This workshop which was organized by Kathryn Galan of NALIP, discussed ways of structuring the fund raising trailer as well as other helpful idea about documentary filmmaking. Gordon and I were invited to be mentors for the workshop, which was a great experience.

I have finished transcribing all 17 English interviews. Our translator, Nabi continues to work on the Nepali interview. This week she sent the full Ganesh Man Pun, YCL president, interview and the Prachanda, leader of the CPN-(Maoist) interview this week. I spoke to Prachanda Shrestha on the phone this week. He is going to make sure that the rest of the transcriptions are delivered to Nabi.

Harris has updated the NepalDocumentary.com site, which is looking great. He is working on the new changes for the adventureproductionpictures.com website, which should be up by the end of this weekend.

Thanks again for believing in the work that we are doing,

Best Regards,
Robert Koenig

Black Water

2007-11-11T23:00:00.000-05:00

Last week we somehow ended up in Kaloopaani (black water) which is near the Tibetan border village of Taatopaani (hot water) but much higher up in the mountains. We got dropped off on a road and had to walk up-up-up for about 2 or 3 hours to reach the village. The village itself is really just a few clay/brick houses near each other. They have no services, no electricity, no running water, no bathrooms, not even an outhouse. The bathroom was literally behind a near by hill past a field of barley.

Our trip went well we met a kid who is 17 and joined the Maoist when he was 14. He left after his friend got killed in combat. Besides his interview we shoot kids learning to use a rifle, kids in a small rural school singing the new national anthem, and a shaman singing songs on a homemade guitar like instrument.

The food was interesting, they mostly eat some type of ground corn/barley paste and drink a barley based distilled liquid with ghee floating with every meal. I slept in the upstairs of one of the "houses", it was like camping. The floor was clay and dirt, I laid my sleeping bag on a hay mat so it wasn't directly on the dirt and the alarm clock was a white pigeon that lived in the rafter near were corn was drying. Scott and Prachanda were both sick from drinking the water. I was fine, I drank only tea and water with chlorine tablets.

On the way home our van was hit on the right side by an ambulance coming from the opposite direction, which in turn caused our van to hit a parked motorcycle, which in turn hit a lady sitting near the road. No one in the vehicles were hurt since the vehicles were only going about 25 miles/per hour. The lady sitting by the motorcycle was injured. I think that she broke her femur and her wrist, I checked her out since I was the only one who had any medical training what so ever. The police came and after some time, they felt that the ambulance driver should pay for the ladies injuries and take her to a hospital after they filled out the accident report. Our driver had to pay for the motorcycle repairs, we then had to place the motorcycle on top of our van and drive the driver to a repair shop in Kathmandu. I guess that is how traffic court works in Nepal. The police investigate and decide on the spot how justice is served. It wasn't fair, it wasn't fast and it didn't seem to make any sense, but it is kind of allegory for the way things are here.

So this weeks trip to Dhading went well. Our friend, Puru’s father is a Brahman priest in the village, located about 5 hours west of Kathmandu. We shot several hours of footage and interviewed 6 different people. This community was able to prevent it's young people from joining military groups because the local Brahmans funded an education system that is more inclusive than most rural Nepali villages. All caste (Brahmans, Chhetri, Janajaties and even Daletes (untouchables) go to school together and learn the same way. It still isn't great, they learn English and other subjects mostly through rote memorization, but it is still better than places that don't have any education at all. We talked to a 14 year old girl who was very intelligent and felt like the school can give her a chance to compete with the Kathmandu bourgeoisie. Then we spoke to a 17 year old Dalete girl, who was learning English and was a hard worker, but she felt that her only option was to join a military group because no one would give her a job due to her low caste status.

Last night I wasn't feeling great, when I got back from our several hour car ride, Prachanda called me and told me that a mutual friend, Sunita, invited us over to her house to celebrate Tihar. Sunita and her boyfriend Ojel are the photo journalist couple that accompanied us to Kaloopanni last week.

So basically Tihar is a brother/sister ceremony in which the bond between brothers and sisters are demonstrated through the sister giving the brother a seven colored tika on his forehead (Tika is a glob of colored yogurt and rice that is placed on your forehead during festival time). The ceremony is meant to take such a long time that it bores the god of death so much that he just decided to leave the brother alone for another year. So Sunita wanted to make me her brother, which was nice, but it takes a long time to get to the point. After driving on bumpy roads for 4 or 5 hours, by 8:30 PM I was feeling so tired that I thought I was getting sick. But I went home and slept until 7AM, the sun comes up before 6AM, so I slept in for about an hour and I am feeling much better now.

Blood in the Streets in the Town of Kathmandu

2007-10-20T05:19:00.000-04:00

The people of Nepal are celebrating their biggest national festival, Dashain.
The 15-day annual religious feast marks the victory of the Hindu goddess Durga over a feared demon and symbolises the triumph of good over evil.

There are a wealth of rites in the goddess's name, and sacred grass is being grown in special pots all over the country to be used as a blessing this Sunday, the 10th and most important festival day.

Every Hindu home has been cleaned and decorated to welcome the goddess. The markets have been heaving as shoppers seek out new clothes and foodstuffs, and many thousands are returning to their home villages from the cities and from foreign countries to spend time with their families.

The festival is like Christmas and News Years to the Nepali people. The have Dashain parties at work, then the whole country is closed down for ten days. On the eighth and ninth days - Friday and Saturday - when hundreds of thousands of animals are ritually slaughtered as a sacrifice for Durga.

Visible in the Kathmandu traffic among all the shoppers are youths walking with herds of goats; motorbikes with live chickens dangling from the sides; and trucks crammed with buffaloes arriving from India. We even saw a goat on top of a bus the other day, sitting in the luggage rack.

Yesterday and today, and especially during the overnight in between, known as "Kal Ratri" or the "Dark Night", thousands of these animals as well as sheep and ducks will be slaughtered across the nation.

Yesterday morning, my landlord invited Scott and me to witness the slaughter of a goat that they had purchased from the market. There was a short ceremony in which the goat was offered some food and drink. After the goat eats they spray it down with water, hold it in place by it's head and legs, then the eldest son wields a khukhuri, which is a large curved sword. He swings the khukhuri downward towards the back of the goats neck, and in one blow, the goat's head is removed from the rest of its body. The worst part of this is that after the act is completed, the goat's eyes dart from side to side as its tongue continues to thurst back and forth. On the other side of the courtyard the rest of the body start to kick for at least another minute in a seemingly protesting fashion. The whole thing was a bit distrubing, but quick.

The goat will yield a feast of meat. But it is also said to have a religious meaning - the killing being a sacrifice to honor the goddess and prevent her anger in the year ahead.

An article in the Nepali Times weekly says most buffalos, like smaller animals, are decapitated but the bigger ones are battered to death with a heavy hammer on the forehead.

In Bhaktapur, near Kathmandu, pigs are skinned alive and their beating hearts offered to the temple, while in a nearby village people tear apart a live goat.
A quote from a Nepali man that was in a BBC article on this subject asks, "What kind of people take pleasure in such cruelty", even suggesting that a society which treats animals so brutally will be brutal to human beings too.

In fairness not every Nepali family sacrifices animals. My Nepali assistant, Prachanda and his family, sacrifice a coconut to keep in the spirit of the season. And after smelling goat blood, urine, feces, and burnt goat hair, I think I would enjoy the refreshing flavor of a Pina Colada, hold the goat meat please.

First Days in Nepal

2007-10-10T22:36:00.000-04:00

Week 1 and a bit
September 28 – Oct 3

Greetings from Kathmandu, as of this writing, I have been in Nepal for 9 days. Liz and I left Atlanta on September 28th at 7pm to start a daunting 31-hour journey half way around the world. We stopped off in LA for dinner and to check in with Thai airlines.

From LA we headed to Bangkok, Thailand, this was a 17hr flight, luckily I was able to sleep for a few hours to make the time pass. We arrived in Bangkok at 6am Sunday September 30th, since we had flown over the international date line, we skip Saturday altogether.

In the airport we met up with a woman who was also traveling to Nepal to see the baby she had been trying to adopt for more than a year. She had not been able to complete the adoption process due to the ever-shifting political situation in the Nepali government. She had shown us pictures of her daughter in a Nepalese orphanage over some Thai Iced Tea, Liz and I both felt for her. She seemed happy travel to Kathmadu once ever few months for a weeklong visit.

Walking through the Airport in Bangkok felt like a trip to the Lexus mall on steroids. Stores like Coach, Armani, Chanel, and every other designer you could think of was accounted for there. I felt like I have had a more authentic Thai experience at the Little Bangkok restaurant on Cheshire

At last we get to the Kathmandu Airport. After paying the $30 arrival fee and getting our visa, we head down to pick up our luggage. Then we wait, and wait, everyone else is gone, and we continue to wait. Eventually I figure that no matter how long I wait, our luggage isn’t going to appear. We fill out the forms and continue through customs with only our carry-ons (which for me was mostly computer gear and asthma meds) and the clothes on our backs.

Outside the airport we meet up with Brandon and his wife Christina. I tell Brandon about the lack of luggage issue, which prompts him to speak to the luggage complaint office (one guy with a notebook) on my behalf. After a bit of back and forth in Nepalese, Brandon turns to me and tells me that the complaint office guy feels 85% chance of hope that our luggage will come tomorrow on the next flight from Bangkok. We then head to Brandon and Christina’s apartment in Patan, across the river from Kathmandu. This is where I will be living for the next couple months.

After living in Mongolia and a frat house in Pittsburgh, I was prepared for the worst, but their apartment is very spacious, has electricity and solar warm running water. It has three bedrooms; the room that I am staying in has a private bathroom. There are a few things that are suspiciously missing, like a refrigerator, an oven, and a TV. But on the positive side, Brandon’s grant provides him with a woman who comes around to wash clothes, clean the apartment and cook a number of meals per week.

Kathmandu takes some getting used for foreigners; for instance, in the US there seems to be traffic rules and regulations, not so in Kathmandu. There are no designated lanes, no street signs, no cross walks, no infrastructure, just chaos. Cars, motorcycles, and bikes are constantly beeping their horns. The horn beeping isn’t used for emergency situations like in the US; it is more of a beacon or sonar to let other drivers or pedestrians know where you are and how fast you are moving.

People are constantly trying to sell you something, they’ll walk up to you as you walk down the street and make there pitch for you to buy some useless souvenir. There constant without being overly push or grabby, which is better that other places I’ve been to like South America. Eventually I learn to say the words for “I don’t need” in Nepalese, “Malai Chahina”. That works some of the time, but not really, you just have to keep walking and ignore your new persistent friend until they get tired of trying.

The next day we traveled to Bhaktapur with Brandon for a day trip. Bhakatapor is very different from Kathmandu. The main difference is that there is no traffic on the streets. The lack of traffic makes walking through the town a pleasure, however you still get the pushy sales treatment, which over the course of a day or so, you barely notice. Bhaktapur has cobblestone streets, peppered with Hindu temples and interesting agricultural offerings, and pottery set to dry in the sun. We enjoyed our time there and came back to Kathmandu to meet up with the rest of our trekking crew for dinner.

That day I heard that Scott, the camera guy was delayed from arriving in Kathmandu by 6hrs; his plane had been re-routed to Bangledesh until the fog lifted. When he did arrive he too was without luggage. The good news was that our bags finally did show up and so did our other Trekking buddy, Dr. Tim Holtz from the CDC in Atlanta. Absent however was a mutual friend of Brandon’s and mine that told me that he was going on the trek but cancelled at the last minute. However, not absent were the two friends of his that he invited to join us. They were just as surprised as I was to find out that our friend had ditched us, but it turned out that Lisa and Mark were fun to talk to and be around, so it all worked out.

I think that is enough for now, I have to meet with some people about the documentary at the Cheese and Rice place that Brandon recommended. Tune in next time to find out how things worked out on the trek.

Best,
Bob

Film Festivals Info - from Gordon (another busy day at work)

2007-10-09T12:36:00.000-04:00

Investigating the film festivals

http://www.filmfestivals.com/ – a good site for lists of all the festivals around the country.

I’m thinking……

Something local…. Atlanta..Athens…The States next door to GA.
Something in/around NY (to capitalize on the local Nepalese Community)
Something Prestigious (might as well try)… Sundance etc
Something relevant… Asian Films… Docs…

A deadline of April 2008 or later for entry- ideally entry from March to May/June – we want it out there ASAP.

If we miss one we miss it – no point in waiting a year.

The festivals I’ve found

Something Local….

Atlanta Film Festival – we will MISS the deadline (Jan 2008)
http://www.atlantafilmfestival.com/

This might be our best shot at a prestigious festival….

Moondance International Film Festival – Boulder, CO (aka “The American Cannes”)
They don’t have a deadline yet but it’s in MAY 2008 – entries accepted starting in January.
http://www.moondancefilmfestival.com/

Facts from their website:

Moondance was voted the "third most important film festival in the world" after Cannes and Sundance in an online poll of 150,000 international film industry professionals

THE MOVIE IS ONLY THE BEGINNING! Moondance International Film Festival’s primary goal is to present films and scripts which have the power to raise awareness about vital social issues, educating writers and filmmakers, as well as our film festival audiences, and inspiring them to take positive action. Through meaningful films, we begin to realize that our routine perspectives can give way to new ways of seeing the world, ourselves and others. Moondance believes in the unique power of the world entertainment media to create great social and environmental change. Our goal is to deliver compelling entertainment that will inspire and encourage people to actively get involved in the issues that affect all of us.

THE FILM FESTIVAL: The Moondance International Film Festival, popularly known as the "American Cannes", is one of the premier venues for the exhibition and promotion of feature and short films in the US, and one of the leading indie film festivals in the world. Dedicated to celebrating and sharing with international audiences the absolute best in the world of films and screenplays, film scores, and some 25 other genres, the festival features special presentations, retrospectives, workshops, pitch panels, a gala awards reception and ceremony, and many of the world’s top indie film screenings.

MOONDANCE BENEFITS: Here's what you can get by participating in the Moondance: promotion and exposure of your work on an international level; a forum in which to share your knowledge, experience and talents with your peers; an opportunity to network with professional movers and shakers from Hollywood; learn something new and valuable; and get some great pointers on advancing your own entertainment industry career, in this professional, world-class forum. Moondancers are part of an amazing community; a unique collaboration of multi-talented writers and filmmakers.

Something Local…..

Docufest Atlanta – festival is in September.
http://www.docufest.com/
Deadline is probably April/May – (no info yet)

This is a small local thing – 2008 will be the 3rd year for this festival and it’s not exactly Moondance but you might get some press just because you are local.

Something Local(ish)….

Charleston International Film Festival May 1st to 4th 2008
http://www.charlestoniff.com/
NOTE : Deadline is March 1st

If you can get it ready in time – this might be good for 2 reasons-

1. Its the 1st year for this festival so it might be easier to get into.
2. Its local(ish) – we might get some press – plus we can drive there.

From their website:

The 1st Annual CIFF will bring attendees together for 4 days to attend premieres, panels, special events, seminars, after parties and deal making opportunities. The festival will showcase shorts, features and documentaries from around the world. There will also be a screenplay competition.

Something Prestigious….

LA film Festival – June 21st thru July 1st
http://www.lafilmfest.com/
NOTE : Deadline is March 1st

Why?? – because its L.A. Baby!!! – and besides, you know a lot of TV/movie buyers will be there.

From their website (and probably true of any prestigious film festival)

Feature films and short films must not have had any commercial theatrical or television play in the US

Something Else Prestigious….

If you miss the above festival

Toronto International Film Festival September 4th to 13th 2008
http://www.tiff07.ca/festivalinfo/2008info/
Deadline is June 8th for entries

Something Relevant

The Center for Asian American Media
http://asianamericanmedia.org/rf_cms/index.php

Lots of Docs about Asian subjects

Unfortunately they have a film festival in March but the deadline is October so you would have to enter for March 2009 – but if you get hung up with the editing….

There are a bunch of Asian Film festivals. Unfortunately
1. The timing is wrong on a lot of them
2. Some of them are only open to people of Asian descent (Bob, I don’t think you can pull it off)
3. Some of them are for Anime/Karate type movies.
4. Some of them only care about the Asian American experience inside the US.

Something Relevant

International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival – Glasgow
http://www.docfilmfest.org.uk/
Deadline is July 1st

From their (sparse) website:
Document 5 will screen a large and diverse selection of documentary film covering a broad understanding of international human rights including: immigration & asylum; racism; miscarriages of justice; eviction; poverty; social exclusion; war and conflict; workers / unemployed rights; africa; palestine / israel; central / eastern europe; north & south america; roma, gypsies & travellers; kurdish issues; central asian former soviet republics; mental health & social care; hiv / aids; young people; women; human trafficking; indigenous cultures; environmental exploitation & disaster...

Something Relevant

Human Rights watch international Film Festival – New York and London

Very relevant – but the timing stinks

In February
No Deadline specified
http://www.hrw.org/iff/

From their website:

In recognition of the power of film to educate and galvanize a broad constituency of concerned citizens, Human Rights Watch decided to create the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. Human Rights Watch's International Film Festival has become a leading venue for distinguished fiction, documentary and animated films and videos with a distinctive human rights theme. Through the eyes of committed and courageous filmmakers, we showcase the heroic stories of activists and survivors from all over the world. The works we feature help to put a human face on threats to individual freedom and dignity, and celebrate the power of the human spirit and intellect to prevail. We seek to empower everyone with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a very real difference.

In selecting films for the festival, Human Rights Watch concentrates equally on artistic merit and human rights content. The festival encourages filmmakers around the world to address human rights subject matter in their work and presents films and videos from both new and established international filmmakers. Each year, the festival's programming committee screens more than 500 films and videos to create a program that represents a range of countries and issues. Once a film is nominated for a place in the program, staff of the relevant division of Human Rights Watch also view the work to confirm its accuracy in the portrayal of human rights concerns. Though the festival rules out films that contain unacceptable inaccuracies of fact, we do not bar any films on the basis of a particular point of view. For more on submissions, click here.

The New York festival has been co-presented since 1994 by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and screens at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. In 1996, the festival expanded to London, where it now screens annually in March with our partners at Picturehouse cinemas. The Ritzy Cinema in Brixton is our main venue and we also screen at several other Pictureouse cinemas as well as the ICA in London. The festival consistently features a large number of co-presentations with other festivals to encourage cross-communication and mutual support throughout the festival and film community. A majority of each years screenings are followed by discussions with the filmmakers and Human Rights Watch staff on issues represented in the films.

Festivals/TV Networks Plan of Action

2007-10-09T12:31:00.000-04:00

Hope you are doing well in Nepal.

Here's my plan of action while you guys are away -

1. Investigate selling the doc to an HD channel.
What do they pay, what do they want etc.

2. Investigate the film festivals
Which are the best, can we create some buzz, get some PR and then sell the movie? This will be a choice that has to be made upfront – i.e. is the film good enough to go this route which will involve editing costs out of pocket.

3. Investigate some of the PBS programs
Frontline, POV, Independent Lens, Wide Angle etc. How does this tie in with ITVS grants etc? The money you get in grants will have to be the ‘pay’ for doing the movie.

4. Possibly look at some of the other channels
i.e. National Geographic, TLC, History etc.

I think you'll have to make some hard choices when you get back - do you want to go the festival route or just try and sell it and move on?

Of course this choice might be made for us if no-one wants to pay for it - but generally speaking most film festivals don't show stuff thats been on TV.

See my next post for Film Festival info.

Gordon

Donations

2007-09-24T16:24:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to take a moment and thank Corey and "Snickity Snacks" for the generous
donation to the production of our documentary.

If you are interested in donating to a great cause go to:
http://nepaldocumentary.com/Support.aspx

Here is the lovely email that accompanied the donation:

"Hey, Bob! In case you are wondering who the hell "Snickity Snacks" is that just donated toward your documentary, it's me, Corey :) My friend and I have a little side business that we use Paypal for...mostly bakery items, gift baskets, food trays, cookie-grams, etc. Her daughter and my son gave it that name...haha! It's actually pretty lucrative at times during the year, like Valentine's Day, Christmas, etc.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I am so proud of you and what you're doing. I wish you the best of luck and you have all my prayers and support for your success on this film. Please keep us all in the loop when you can.

Love, Cor"

Leaving for Nepal

2007-09-20T20:54:00.000-04:00

I have about a week left before I leave to go to Nepal for the next two months.
As many of you know I am headed there to produce a documentary about Children Soldiers who have fought in the recent Maoist insurgency against the government.

I am really starting to get excited about starting work on this project in earnest. We have a great team in place in both Nepal and in the US. The subject is compelling, topical, and no one is covering this subject matter in a comprehensive manner, not to mention that we are shooting in full HD, which is a big advantage for us.

I will be in the U.S. until next Friday, after that, I will only have periodic dial-up email in Kathmandu.

I will be living in an apartment in Kathmandu for most of my time in Nepal. I will be traveling to several other locations in the country, including Mt. Everest, Surkhet, Chitwan, Sindhuli, Dhading, and Kailali to conduct interviews.

For those of you in NE PA, there is an article coming out in tomorrow’s Wayne Independent about the project and some of the work that I will be involved in for the next two months. If you get a chance, pick up a copy.

Good Work on the websites

2007-09-20T08:51:00.000-04:00

The 2 websites look great.

I've finally finished my own project (a documentary for the station) so now I have time to do some of the other stuff (hey, I didn't take a job at PBS because I wanted to work myself to death!!!).

Firstly I will be going to the Foundation Center to see if there is any money available in the form of grants. Since you'll already be shooting in Nepal it makes no sense to apply for a grant at this point. Better to wait until you have 5 minutes to show people. It makes the whole thing a little more concrete.

SoI'll be collecting grant applications and preparing for when you return.

The other thing is to contact some of the networks. I'm already familiar with some of the PBS shows like POV and Wide Angle. Bob has also found a list of HD channels that will probably be looking for content.

So there will essentially be 2 choices - sell the show to an HD network. Or get grants to finish it up and sell/give it to a PBS station or show.

This is a good time to shoot HD. There's not a lot of content out there so it gives us an edge.

Gordon

Adventure Production Pictures Announces First Documentary Feature

2007-08-28T16:06:00.000-04:00

Press Release

Adventure Production Pictures Announces First Documentary Feature:

"Returned: Children Soldiers of Nepal 's Maoist Army"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Atlanta, GA, August 28, 2007:

Adventure Production Pictures in association with Transcultural Psychosocial Organization – Nepal has announced that pre-production on a new documentary feature titled “Returned: Children Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army” has begun.

"Returned: Children Soldiers of Nepal 's Maoist Army" is a long-form documentary that presents the stories of young children and teenagers whose lives have been shattered by war. They describe the day they were abducted from their village and forced to fight for the Maoist insurgency in Nepal. The film provides actual footage from the rural Nepali villages where these children were initially abducted, to the training camps where they were tortured and forces to obey insurgent leaders, to fighting on the front lines of the rebellion. It weaves the stories of children, and their stolen hopes and dreams, into an unforgettable examination of the rising epidemic of children used in armed conflicts.

Production on “Returned” begins in Kathmandu, Nepal on October 10, 2007. The crew will be comprised of a multi-cultural crew including Nepali nationals Rohit Karki and Pravesh Gurung (Silent Monsoon). The project will shoot in HD by cinematographer Scott Ippolito (Moved) and directed and produced by Emmy Award® nominated producer, Robert Koenig (The Wrestler’s Second & Nepali Maya). Learn more about the documentary at (http://www.nepaldocumentary.com/).

Adventure Production Pictures combines the talent and passion of its members together to create a truly unique experience for a variety of viewers and users. We focus on a multi-media approach to advance causes of a socially responsible nature. Our goals are to highlight subjects and stories that have not been told or do not have much of a voice on the global stage. We are committed to bringing these subjects to a large audience in a creative, entertaining, and conscientious manner. Learn more about Adventure Production Pictures (http://www.adventureproductionpictures.com/)

A New Beginning

2007-08-28T15:57:00.000-04:00

It has been about a week since I worked my last day of full-time employment at the warm comfortable confines of a major network affiliate. My decision to give up a steady paycheck and complacency to pursue the wonders and uncertainty of producing an independent documentary in Nepal was not an easy one. I am not naturally a spontaneous person; on the contrary, I am fond of having a plan. In fact, planning is what I am good at, so the idea of going to a third world nation on my own sort of takes me out of my comfort zone. But comfort can be overrated.

Personally, this is a big step, for the most part I have worked for commercial television stations or big corporations since I have graduated from film school, but it is time to try something outside the soul-crushing world of commercial television.

I’ll be working with the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization in Kathmandu to document the plight of children soldiers who were involved in the recent civil war between the Maoist and the Nepali Government. I will be in Nepal from the end of September to the beginning of December.

I have been able to put together a small crew, including a videographer, research director, director of fundraising, and a technical director who has put together the websites for the new production company that we created for the project (http://www.adventureproductionpictures.com/) and this project.

In the mean time, I am working as a freelance editor for editing children’s educational programming. The work can be a bit grueling, but the hours are flexible, it pays well, and it will help me fund the start-up costs associated with all the HD equipment needed for Nepal.

Besides freelance, I will be spending the next month organizing the shooting schedule, fund raising and writing grants to finance the post-production end of the documentary. So far, I have been in contact with a Nepali national, Rohit Karki, he is our associate producer/translator on the project. He and I are working on getting a grant from Nation Geographic to benefit underrepresented groups.

If you are interested in finding out more about the documentary you can go to (http://nepaldocumentary.com/).

Best Regards,
Bob