Human Rights Law & Documentary Filmmaking

Thursday, October 23, 2014

6:30 – 8:00 p.m.

For more information and to register, please visit: http://www.humanrightsccny.org/

Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education of the City College of New York (downtown, near Wall Street, in front of ‘bull statue’)

25 Broadway, 7th Floor

New York, NY 10004

Contact: 212 925 6625, ext 0

In the spring of 2013, General Efraín Ríos Montt of Guatemala was tried and convicted of genocide (even if the conviction was overturned one month later). This was the first time in 500 years that genocide against indigenous Americans was tried. Clips from the documentary Granito (Skylight Pictures, 2011) were used as evidence in the trial. Now the filmmakers are working on the third in the Guatemala trilogy triggered by the trial and its aftermath called 500 Years. Almudena Bernabeu, one of the lawyers who worked on the Guatemala Genocide Case, still serves transnationally on cases throughout the world.  The event will explore the path-breaking work of Spain in human rights law and the relentless commitment of intellectuals and activists in making the seemingly impossible possible. By bringing together documentary film, ethnography, and law, the filmmakers and lawyer who join us for this event are exemplary of how human rights can make a difference, even if the odds remain seemingly insurmountable.