An invitation to all of you from La Chiva, the Colombia Solidarity Group at the University of Alberta:
Thursday, February 8th
INOCENT VOICES (2004)
Directed by Luis Mandoki
USA. 111 min.
FREE ADMISION, 7pm
Based on the true story of screenwriter Oscar Torres's embattled childhood, INNOCENT VOICES is the poignant tale of Chava, an eleven-year-old boy who suddenly becomes the "man of the house" after his father abandons the family in the middle of the civil war opposing the Salvadorian army to the rebel peasants of the FMLN.
Thursday, January 25
MEN WITH GUNS (1997)
Directed by John Sayles
FREE ADMISSION, 7pm
Education Building - Room 221
Thursday, January 18
EL BAILE ROJO
(The Red Dance)
7pm Room: ED 221, UofA
ADMISSION IS FREE
Colombia/ 2003/ 58 min
Director: Yezid Campos Zornosa
In the mid-1980s, peace initiatives between the Colombian government and the guerrilla group, FARC, led the latter to disband after two decades of fighting and establish a legal-political party, the Union Patriótica (Patriotic Union). As the UP met with some success in local elections, it became a target of right-wing death squads and paramilitaries. So far, 3,000
UP members have been murdered or have disappeared, making it a case of political genocide unparalleled in the world. The documentary "The Red Dance" views, through the memories of survivors and relatives of victims, this period of terror and assassination. While FARC has reverted to war, a petition is pending before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding human rights violations by the Colombian State.
This film gives significant insight into the reasons for FARC's return to armed struggle and the extent to which political exclusion is a major cause of the 60 years of violence that continues in Colombia today.