Karama Human Rights Festival concludes

The Karama Human Rights Film Festival 2011 The Karama Human Rights Film Festival 2011 celebrated its closing ceremony with dances from across the world in Aman yesterday.For one week, the second Karama Human Rights Film Festival , sought to highlight the issue of human dignity at the heart of Arab’s spring.   
The festival had screened Arab and international documentaries and movies on human rights at the Royal Cultural Centre (RCC), and some of the screenings were followed by discussions in which the audience engaged with members of the films' casts and crews.
Festival Director Sawsan Darwaza told reporters the festival reflected the Arab Spring and the many changes that have occured, and is a testimony to the festival's aspirations.
According to the Head of Royal Cultural Centre, Mohammed Abu Summaqa, the festival was successful by all standards, referring to the ability to attract audience, which he says is a true reflection of such an event's successs. He also assured that the number of audience reached five thousands, reflecting an increased interest in the topics raised by the various films on show.
Some of the most prominent human rights films from over 27 countries were featured at the Festival which took place from December 5 until December 7 such as the following:
Here Comes the Rain or “Shatti ya Deni”
Ramez returns home after 20 years to a family who had lost hope of ever finding him after he was kidnapped in the mid-eighties during the Lebanese civil war. But the father’s return destabilizes the family. The film portrays a typical Lebanese family confronted with the unexpected return of a physically and morally devastated man.
Checkpoint Rock or “Hajez El-Sakhra”
This is a documentary musical movie, which travel through music in Palestine, guided by some of its best-known, most inspiring musicians. The journey starts with footage of Marcel Khalife reading at Mahmoud Darwish’s funeral, and the spirit of the late poet pervades the film.
Burma
Undercover video journalists in Burma keep up the flow of news from their closed country despite risking torture and life in jail. ‘Joshua’ becomes tactical leader of a group of reporters as Buddhist monks in September 2007 lead a massive uprising. Foreign TV crews are banned from the country, so it’s left to Joshua and his crew to keep the revolution alive on TV screens all over the world.
Justice for Sergei
This documentary is the incredible tale of one individual who went up against the power of a state and lost his life in the face of devastating corruption. One year after his death, Justice for Sergei tells the story of an ordinary man trying to expose the extraordinary corruption gripping Russia today.
Standing Army
An award-winning documentary about the global network of US military bases, the impact that these have on local populations and the military-industrial complex that lies behind them. Over the course of the last century, the US has silently encircled the world with a web of military bases unlike any other in history. No continent is spared. They have shaped the lives of millions, yet remain a mystery to most.
Tahrir 2011
Is a documentary about the Egyptian uprising.
The Green Wave
A documentary illustrates the dramatic events behind Iran’s 2009 Green Revolution. Facebook reports, Twitter messages and videos posted on the internet are included in the film composition, and hundreds of real blog entries served as reference for the experiences and thoughts of two young students whose story is the main thread that runs through the film.
Fallega 2011
In reference to those Tunisians who rebelled agains Zine Al Abidine's rule and led to his ousting and consequently triggered the Arab spring. The word ‘fallega’ was first used to describe southern Tunisian tribes who battled French colonizers in the late 19th century.
Where Do We Go Now? Or “Hallaa la Ween?”
Set against the backdrop of a war-torn country, the film tells the heart-warming tale of a group of women determined to protect their isolated, mine-encircled community from the pervasive and divisive outside forces that threaten to destroy it from within. United by a common cause, the women’s unwavering friendship transcends, against all the odds, the religious fault lines which crisscross their society and they hatch some inventive and often comical plans, in order to distract the village’s menfolk and defuse any sign of inter-religious tension. But when events take a tragic turn, just how far will the women go in order to prevent bloodshed and turmoil?
Asmaa
Asmaa struggles to raise her teenage daughter and nurse her aging father. But Asmaa also has a secret: she is HIV-positive. In a world where HIV/AIDS is still stigmatized, Asmaa survives by avoiding any situation that might make it known that she is infected. For months, Asmaa has been suffering from a benign infection and due to her illness, no doctor has agreed to carry out the surgery that could easily treat her. She must find a solution before her condition becomes fatal.
Women Are Heroes
A documentary paying tribute to oppressed women from Brazil, India, Kenya and Cambodia in order to give them an identity, both literally and figuratively.
City of the Dead
The City of the Dead in Cairo is the largest necropolis in the world. A million people live inside the cemetery – in tomb houses, or in the buildings that have grown up around them. And in that city, mothers scheme to find the best match for their daughters, boys chase girls, and neighbors fight.
Capitalism – Our Improved Formula
The movie is an imagined return of Dictator Ceausescu after 20 years of capitalism in his country, Romania, where he finds a new society but also old habits amongst the country’s businessmen.
Revolution
The movie is about Cuban hip-hoppers. They are revolutionaries in a Hip Hop underground group at the frontline of a movement through music. Using provocative lyrics, they express their feelings about the real situation in Cuban society.
Nomad’s Home or “Bait Sha’ar”
Nomad’s Home is a portrait of two Arab women born of entirely different social and cultural circumstances within Egypt: The first is Selema Gabaly, a Bedouin social entrepreneur, who struggles against patriarchal traditions. The second is filmmaker Iman Kamel who is invited into the tribeswomen’s inner circles and discovers that their contrasting lives are more connected than might appear on the surface.
Other movies:
The festival had showed some other movies such as: Majid, Newen Mapuche: The Force of the People of the Land, Collateral Murder: Hellfire, Presumed Guilty, Sucumbíos: Land Without Evil, The Other World, 14 Kilometers, Microphone, Malaki – Scent of an Angel, Granito: How To Nail a Dictator, Welcome to Lebanon, A Man’s Shadow, Angry Man, Smell of My Homeland, (Reehtak Ya Wattan), Bahiya & Mahmoud, Tok Tok Diaries, Raining Cats and Frogs, Damascus, With Love, Into Thin Air, Grazie, Sabeel and some other Jordanian short movies.
In addition, the Festival's visitors attended a concert by Egyptian band Massar Egbari, whose songs were featured in the film Microphone.