United States Institute of Peace Joins Silverdocs Film Festival

For the first time, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is participating in the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival. The two organizations have teamed up to present a thematic strand of six films that explore the human side of conflict. The strand is called "Peacebuilding on Screen."

The film festival runs from June 21-27. There will be panel discussions following each film. Learn more about the films and discussions.

The six films in the "Peacebuilding on Screen" strand and post-screening panel discussions with USIP experts include:

• BUDRUS
  Israel/Palestinian Territories/USA, 2009, 82 minutes (Director: Julia Bacha)

  This rousing film about one Palestinian village and its unlikely hero—humble family man turned activist Ayed Morrar—reveals the power of ordinary people to peaceably fight for extraordinary change.

• FOUND
  Canada, 2009, 6 minutes (Director: Paramita Nath)

  For Laotian-Canadian poet Souvankham Thammavongsa, a discarded scrapbook sheds light on a harsh infancy in Southeast Asia emphasizing how family memory is often an aggregation of disparate pieces. The film will preceed both screenings of GRACE, MILLY, LUCY...CHILD SOLDIERS.

• GRACE, MILLY, LUCY...CHILD SOLDIERS
  Canada, 2010, 73 minutes (Director: Raymonde Provencher)

  Grace Akallo is one of many northern Ugandan women attempting to live a normal adulthood after being forced as children to fight for the Lord's Resistance Army, a notoriously brutal rebel group. Akallo and several others have become activists, striving to help female ex-rebels find a voice in the world, acceptance at home and forgiveness from one another.

  Post-screening discussion
  Friday, June 25 | 1:45 pm

  • Raymond Provencher
    Filmmaker
  • Raymond Gilpin
    Associate Vice President, Sustainable Economies Center of Innovation
  • John Prendergast
    Co-founder of the ENOUGH Project and former USIP executive fellow
  • Grace Akallo
    Film subject
  • Kathleen Kuehnast, Moderator
    Gender Adviser, Gender and Peacebuilding Initiative Center of Innovation
• LA ISLA—ARCHIVES OF A TRAGEDY
  Germany/Guatemala, 2010, 85 minutes (Director: Uli Stelzner)

  Guatemala’s violent history of repression at the hands of extremist political regimes is laid bare following the discovery of a vast archive of secret police documents. As a team of dedicated forensic specialists sort through the files, the voices of the disappeared challenge the culture of impunity that plagued the nation.

  Post-screening discussion
  Thursday, June 24 | 1:45 pm

  • Uli Stelzner
    Filmmaker
  • Tani Adams
    Former USIP senior fellow and research director at the Institute of Learning for Social Reconciliation (Guatemala)
  • Ambassador Francisco Villagrán de León
    Embassy of Guatemala
  • Tom Gjelten, Moderator
    NPR senior correspondent
• MY SO CALLED ENEMY
  USA, 2010, 87 minutes (Director: Lisa Gossels)

  Filmed over a seven-year period, the film follows a group of teenage Israeli and Palestinian girls committed to mutual understanding and a just solution to the conflict that continues to rage in their homeland.

  Post-screening discussion
  Wednesday, June 23 | 7:15 pm

  • Lisa Gossels
    Filmmaker
  • Manal Omar
    Director of Iraq programs, USIP
  • Robin Wright
    USIP Senior Fellow
  • Tara Sonenshine
    Executive Vice President, USIP
• WAR DON DON
  Sierra Leone, 2010, 85 minutes (Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen)

  Is Issa Sesay a war criminal guilty of crimes against humanity? Or a reluctant fighter who protected civilians and played a crucial role in forging peace in Sierra Leone? A trial in the United Nations’ “special court” in the heart of Freetown attempts to reveal the answer to this question.

  Post-screening discussion
  Tuesday, June 22 | 4:15 pm

  • Stephen Rapp
    U.S. ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues and former chief prosecutor, Special Court for Sierra Leone
  • Alpha Sesay
    Trial Monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative
  • Roy Gutman, Moderator
    Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former USIP Senior Fellow