BURKINABÈ RISING: THE ART OF RESISTANCE IN BURKINA FASO
Thursday 6 December 2018 at 17:00 in Hotel Flamingo in Larnaca, Cyprus
BURKINABÈ RISING: THE ART OF RESISTANCE IN BURKINA FASO
A film on Human Rights by Iara Lee
The film celebrates the power of the people when united. This amazing positive energy comes from the small, landlocked country in West Africa: BURKINA FASO. The film has just won an Amnesty International Human Rights Award in Italy, the UNESCO special prize at the Afrika Film Festival in Belgium and more…
Context of the screening
SEAL CYPRUS will screen the documentary during our international training course “Human Rights Education versus Cyber-hate” which will take place in Larnaca, Cyprus from 2-8 of December 2018.
The participants in the training course are 36 youth workers from Cyprus, Italy, Slovakia, Estonia, Denmark, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Greece.
More on the project here: https://sealcyprus.org/projects/international-projects/human-rights-education-versus-cyber-hate/
After the film, we will hold a dialogue session to discuss the film in relation to Human Rights.
Cost
The entrance will be free of cost. However, the audience will be invited to make donations small contribution to the organisation Cultures of Resistance Network if they wish
Summary of the film
A small landlocked country in West Africa, Burkina Faso is home to a vibrant community of artists, musicians, engaged citizens who carry on the revolutionary spirit of Thomas Sankara, killed in a coup d’état led by his best friend and adviser Blaise Compaoré, who then ruled the country as an autocrat for 27 years, until a massive popular insurrection led to his removal. Today, the spirit of resistance and political change is mightier than ever and it permeates every aspect of the Burkinabe life. It is an inspiration, not only to Africa, but to the rest of the world.
About the director
Iara Lee, a Brazilian of Korean descent, is an activist, filmmaker, and founder/director of the Cultures of Resistance Network, an organization that promotes global solidarity and connects and supports agitators, educators, farmers, and artists to build a more just and peaceful world through creative resistance and nonviolent action!
As a filmmaker, Iara has directed/produced several full-length documentaries and dozens of short films over the past decade.
Her latest documentaries were shot in West Africa: BURKINABÈ RISING (2018), about the intersection of art and politics in Burkina Faso, and BURKINABÈ BOUNTY (2018), on agroecology in Burkina Faso. She currently has three projects in post-production: STALKING CHERNOBYL, a film examining the underground culture of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone three decades after the world’s most infamous nuclear disaster; FROM TRASH TO TREASURE, a short documentary on turning negatives into positives in Lesotho; and WANTOKS: DANCE OF RESILIENCE IN MELANESIA, a short film highlighting the performers who are using their talents to celebrate local culture and draw international attention to their islands’ fight against climate change. CAMERA UNOBSCURED, a film profiling photographers-for-change from the global South, is in pre-production.
In 2015, Iara completed two documentaries: K2 AND THE INVISIBLE FOOTMEN, shot in stunning northern Pakistan, chronicles the plight of the indigenous porters of majestic K2, the earth’s second-highest peak. LIFE IS WAITING: Referendum and Resistance in Western Sahara looks at more than forty years of Moroccan occupation and the Sahrawi nonviolent struggle for self-determination by a people for whom colonialism has never ended.
In 2013, Iara finished a series of three short films on indigenous rights: BATTLE FOR THE XINGU, which highlights the spectacular determination of the Amazon people to protect their way of life; THE RAPE OF THE SAMBURU WOMEN, which illuminates the situation facing women in the Samburu region of Kenya, where England has maintained military training facilities for more than fifty years; and THE KALASHA AND THE CRESCENT, which chronicles how this indigenous minority in northern Pakistan responded to the challenges facing their culture.
In 2012, Iara directed THE SUFFERING GRASSES: when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers, which examines the Syrian conflict through the humanity of the civilians who have been killed, abused, and displaced to the squalor of refugee camps.
In May 2010, Iara was a passenger on the MV Mavi Marmara, a vessel in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that was attacked in international waters by the Israeli navy, leading to the murder of nine humanitarian aid workers. Among the many people who recorded the events on that ship, her crew was the only one to successfully hide and retain most of the raid footage, which she later released to the world after a screening at the United Nations. Iara is dedicated to the support of Palestinian civilians who have been victims of war crimes committed by the Israeli military and who suffer from the Israeli government’s ongoing acts of collective punishment.
At the onset of the Iraq war in 2003, Iara decided to live in the MENA region (Middle East & North Africa) in order to understand the conflict from that perspective. She spent extensive time in Syria, Yemen, Tunisia, Jordan, and Lebanon, where she experienced firsthand Israel’s 34-day bombardment of that country in 2006. Moved by that experience, she has since dedicated herself to the pursuit of a just peace in the region, and she is an enthusiastic supporter of those initiatives which strengthen adherence to international law. In 2008, Iara lived in Iran and supported a number of cultural exchange projects with the goal of promoting arts and culture for global solidarity. Her experiences in the Middle East led her to travel to other corners of the global South and culminated in the production of her feature-length documentary CULTURES OF RESISTANCE (2010), which explores how creative action contributes to conflict prevention and resolution worldwide.
From 1984 to 1989, Iara was the producer of the Sao Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil. From 1989 to 2003, she was based in New York City, where she ran the mixed-media company Caipirinha Productions, created to explore the synergy of different art forms, such as film, music, architecture, and poetry. Under that banner, Iara directed short and feature-length documentaries including SYNTHETIC PLEASURES, MODULATIONS, ARCHITETTURA, BENEATH THE BORQA, AN AUTUMN WIND, and PRUFROCK.
Iara is a long-time supporter of Greenpeace, Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, and many organizations around the world through the Cultures of Resistance Network.
Stay connected with the creators
https://www.facebook.com/CulturesOfResistance/
https://www.facebook.com/iara8.lee8
https://culturesofresistancefilms.com/
https://culturesofresistance.org/https://www.instagram.com/culturesofresistance/
The Facebook Page of the film is https://www.facebook.com/burkinaberising/