The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo invites the public to its Global Lens International Film Festival on October 19, 20 and 22. The film festival will be held on the UH Hilo campus in the University Classroom Building (UCB) Room 127. Admission is free.
In recognition of United Nations Day, the focus of this year’s film festival is on Asian and Pacific nations that may not be well known in the United States: Mynamar (Burma), West Papua, Indonesia and Timor-Leste. Each film will be introduced by a student who is either from the nation being featured or is knowledgeable about the topic exposed in the film.
On October 19 the festival begins at 7 pm with They Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain. Shot clandestinely over a two-year period by best-selling novelist and filmmaker Robert H. Lieberman, the film provides a rare look at the second-most isolated country on the planet. It lifts the curtain to expose the everyday life in a country that has been held in the iron grip of a military regime for 48 years.
The festival continues on October 20 with films focusing on West Papua and Indonesia. Starting at 5:30 pm, the critically acclaimed Forgotten Bird of Paradise provides a rare insight into the forgotten struggle for independence that has gripped West Papua for over 50 years. The Road to Home will be shown at 6 pm. The film follows Benny Wenda, the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated West Papuan independence leader, in his ongoing struggle to free his people from Indonesian colonial rule.
Turning to Indonesia, The Act of Killing will be featured at 7:30 pm on October 20. Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer exposes the mass executions of accused communists in Indonesia and those who are celebrated in their country for perpetrating the crime. The film was a 2014 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature and won numerous international awards.
The festival concludes on October 22 with A Guerra de Beatriz (Beatriz’s War) at 7 pm. The film is the first feature film made in Timor-Leste (formerly known as East Timor) and has had only limited distribution in the United States. Set in 1975 during the Indonesian invasion of Timor, it is the story of one woman’s conviction to remain true to the man she loves and the country for which she fought.
The film festival is sponsored by the UH Hilo International Student Services and Intercultural Education program and made possible through a grant from the University of Hawaiʻi SEED Initiatives for Diversity, Equity, Access and Success.
For more information, visit http://hilo.hawaii.edu/international or call 932-7467.