Angelus Student Film Festival Comes to Stonehill
February 24, 2009
Movies from one of the largest student film festivals in the world will be featured at the College's Martin Institute on Tuesday, March 3 at 7 p.m.
Established in 1996 and held annually at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood, the Angelus Student Film Festival explores redemption, spirituality, dignity, tolerance, equality, diversity, hope and triumph of the human spirit.
Created by Family Theater Productions, the Festival showcases and awards emerging filmmakers, and encourages them to continue creating visionary projects that honor the fundamental dignity of the human person.
On March 3, the Martin Institute will present four short, award-winning films, each one of which has a soul searching, painful theme.
The first film examines the consequences of a father's protest in the wake of his daughter's death. The second looks at the forgiving hearts of two Rwandan women forced to face the men who killed their loved ones during their county's genocidal war. The third profiles a reformed young man's conflict over moral responsibility versus religious beliefs. The fourth charts the boundless guilt of a Serbian officer over an unthinkable act he carried out during the Bosnian War.
All four student directors, who won awards at the 13th annual Angelus Film Festival in September, will be present to answer questions following the screenings. The festival is sponsored by the Martin Institute, the Mission Division as well as the Honors Program.
John Arlotto's Deface is the story of Sooyoung, a factory worker in a small town in North Korea. When his daughter dies of starvation, he begins to vandalize the reassuring propaganda posters that decorate his town, repainting them to reflect a more forthright take on contemporary North Korean culture. When he sees that his acts of protest lead to the arrest of innocents, Sooyoung questions what end his efforts serve. Will he continue his campaign of revolution or will the government silence another dissenting voice? The film won the Production Excellence Award at the 2008 Student Angelus Film Festival.
Laura Waters Hinson's As We Forgive asks: could you forgive a person who murdered your family? Overwhelmed by an enormous backlog of court cases, the government of Rwanda has returned over 50,000 genocide perpetrators to the communities they helped to destroy. In this documentary two Rwandan women, Rosaria and Chantal, come face to face with the men who killed their relatives during the 1994 genocide. Director Laura Waters Hinson and narrator Mia Farrow explore the topic of reconciliation through the lives of four neighbors once on opposite sides of a genocidal war. As We Forgive was the Outstanding Documentary Award at the Student Angelus Film Festival.
In Justin Lerner's The Replacement Child Todd Turnbull returns to his hometown after spending a year in a juvenile center for assaulting his stepfather. Now a repentant and deeply religious young man, Todd finds his best friend Michael withering away without medical attention due to his family's spiritual beliefs. Todd must make a choice: let his friend die, or break his oath of non-violence and take matters into his own hands. The film was the winner of the Director's Choice Award at the Angelus Festival.
Harun Mehmedinovic's In the Name of the Son is a film that looks at personal conflicts that trace their origin to the Bosnian war of 1992 to 1995. Tarik, who had been a prisoner of war, emigrates from Bosnia to the United States, hoping to leave his previous life behind. Years later, the man who saved his life pays him a visit at home to ask for a favor, with nearly disastrous consequences. In the Name of the Son was the recipient of the Audience Impact Award at the Angelus Festival.
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