December 10, 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of international Human Rights Day. In its celebration, Sarah Lawrence students have dedicated the day to raising awareness of violations and discrimination occurring around the world and in the United States. The day is meant to educate and rally support from students and community members while providing information on how to get involved and make a difference in the multiple causes being presented. It also reinforces the concept of global citizenship. As members of the international community it is everyone’s responsibility to assist in stopping human rights violations and secure those basic rights for all people.

Below is a complete list of events taking place on December 10. All events are open to any interested person. For directions and travel information, visit our Directions to SLC page.

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Road to Guantanamo (2006)

9 to 10:35 a.m.
Library Pillow Room

Director Michael Winterbottom presents the true story of three British Muslim men, known as "the Tipton Three," who were unjustly arrested and held for more than two years in the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. By blending dramatic re-enactments, interviews with the surviving men and archive news footage, Winterbottom's Independent Spirit Award-winning docudrama delivers a chilling and shocking exposé of out-of-control security measures.

Bulgaria's Abandoned Children (2007)

9 to 10:30 a.m.
PAC Film Viewing Room

Director Kate Blewett visits a children's care home in Bulgaria and investigates the subhuman conditions in which the children live.

Student Art Show

9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Heimbold Visual Arts Center

Food and drinks served at 4 p.m.

Committee for the Protection of Journalists Exposé (2007)

9:30 a.m.
Science Center 103
(37 min.)

CPJ, a non-profit organization working on protecting journalists worldwide, present an exposé on the dangers of covering world affairs and the need for journalists to be protected from death and danger in their quest to inform the world.

Invisible Children (2006)

10 to 11 a.m.
Science Center 103
(55 min.)

A film about the plight of child soldiers and night commuters in northern Uganda. Filmed in 2003 when three young men, Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole traveled to Sudan. Their adventure took them into the depths of northern Uganda where they discovered thousands of people affected by the brutality and attacks of a rebel group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The documentary chronicles their experience as young Americans learning firsthand about a conflict largely unknown to the international community, while also informing audiences about the great humanitarian crisis of child soldiers.

Human Rights Issues In Our Own Backyard: Activism in Yonkers

10:30 a.m.
MacCracken Meeting Room

Sponsored by Office of Community Outreach. Local activists and Community Outreach administration will lead discussion on the Human Rights struggles in Yonkers. Topics include the prison system, segregation, social programming and the schooling system.

The Day My God Died (2003)

11 a.m. to 12:10 p.m.
Library Pillow Room

Sponsored by the South East Asian Society. Directed by Andrew Levine and filmed in Nepal and India, this documentary presents the stories of young girls whose lives have been shattered by the child sex slave trade. The film provides actual footage from inside the brothels of Bombay, known even to the tourists as "The Cages," captured with "spy camera" technology. The documentary also introduces the heroes of the movement who are working to abolish child sex slavery and who remind us that, "these are our daughters."

Lunch & Learn

12 p.m.
MacCracken Meeting Room

Sponsored by Hillel. Rabbi Mike leads a discussion on worker’s rights through Jewish Texts. Lunch provided by Hillel of Sarah Lawrence. Please R.S.V.P. at michael@hillelsofwestchester.org. Walk-ins welcomed.

Resistance Songs

1 p.m.
Bates Student Dining Hall and Siegel Center

Students sing resistance songs from around the world as community members dine.

Witness Exposé

1 to 2:30 p.m.
Library Pillow Room
(90 min.)

Witness, a non-profit organization that “uses video and on-line technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations,” presents an exposé on these violations in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Hell on Earth (2007)

1:30 to 1:45 pm
Film Viewing Room
(15 min.)

Anti-Slavery International’s film focuses on modern forms of slavery that affect more than 12 million people around the world today.

The Devil Came on Horseback (2007)

2 to 3:30 p.m.
Film Viewing Room
(85 min.)

Sponsored by STAND. In this unflinching documentary on the genocide in Darfur, former Marine Capt. Brian Steidle is forever transformed by the atrocities he witnesses as a military observer for the African Union. Armed only with his camera, Steidle records the killings of black Africans at the hands of Janjaweed militias funded by Sudan's Arab government. With his bleak photos, Steidle focuses attention on the horrors ignored by the rest of the world.

Free the Slaves Speaker Pauline Kravath

2:30 pm
MacCracken Meeting Room

Activist Pauline Kravath will be giving a power point presentation on the current slave trade. Book by Kevin Bales available as well.

Precarious Peace: God and Guatemala

3 to 4:15 pm
Library Pillow Room
(72 min.)

Sponsored by SLCU. This documentary explores the Guatemalan peace process, past and present, and the complicated role religion plays in that drama. The video focuses first on the brutal violence of the recent war, seen through the lives of a Mayan family in the rural highlands, then on today's more insidious levels of violence--economic, racial, and religious marginalization. Woven through these stories is frank commentary from a wide variety of perspectives, including a former military officer, a Roman Catholic bishop who faces constant death threats, a Mennonite educator, an internationally known poet/activist, and a Lutheran clergyman who was instrumental in getting the warring parties into dialogue.

New Generation (2008) with Rico Speight and Younes Abouyoub

3:30 p.m.
Heimbold 202

Sarah Lawrence Faculty and African Film Festival participant Rico Speight presents his documentary on the current situation in the Congo from the perspective of young people. UN investigator, Younes Abouyoub, who has recently returned from the Sudan, will recount his personal experiences in Darfur. Followed by a question and answer for both presenters.

Thin (2005)

4 p.m.
Science Center 103

Sponsored by Porcelain Baby Burlesque Troup. The HBO Documentary film Thin takes us inside the walls of Renfrew Center, a residential facility for the treatment of women with eating disorders, closely following four young women, ages 15–30, who have spent their lives starving themselves often to the verge of death. The film deftly chronicles the pervasiveness of restrictive eating behaviors as well as the failure of our current health-insurance industry to address its clients' needs, while never shifting focus from the women themselves. Director Lauren Greenfield documents with astonishing depth the daily rituals, spontaneous friendships and startling swings between recovery and relapse that make up life at the center. Screening followed by a student panel discussion on body image.

Discussion on the International Law on Rape

5 p.m.
MacCracken Meeting Room

Sarah Lawrence student Dani Young will lead a discussion on the International law of rape and the feminist critique that accompanies it.

Discussion on Martin Luther King, Jr., led by Komozi Woodard

5 p.m.
Library Pillow Room

Sarah Lawrence Faculty member Komozi Woodard will screen a film and lead a discussion on Martin Luther King, Jr., from 1963-68 when the civil rights leader began tackling the issues of poverty and the Vietnam War.

Gene Baur, President and Co-founder of Farm Sanctuary

5 to 6:30 p.m.
Heimbold 202

Sponsored by Students Promoting Awareness of Animal Rights (SPAAR), with Faculty Sponsor, David Peritz. President and Co-founder of Farm Sanctuary Gene Baur will lead a discussion in the intersection of animal rights and human rights.

Guest Speaker Norman Finkelstein

5 p.m.
Titsworth Lecture Hall

Sponsored by SIPP. Norman G. Finkelstein received his doctorate in 1988 from the Department of Politics at Princeton University. For many years he taught political theory and the Israel-Palestine conflict and is currently an independent scholar. Finkelstein is the author of five books which have been translated into more than 40 foreign editions. He will discuss the recent conflict history between Israel and Palestine and the need for peace.

A Day With Out A Mexican (2004)

5:30 to 7:15 p.m.
Film Viewing Room
(100 min.)

Sponsored by Unidad. One day California wakes up and not a single Latino is left in the state. They have all inexplicably disappeared. Chaos, tragedy, and comedy quickly ensue. Followed by a discussion on immigration.

School of Assassins (1994)

6 p.m.
Titsworth Lecture Hall
(18 min.)

Narrated by Susan Sarandon and nominated for an Academy Award in 1995 for Best Short Documentary, this short film examines how U.S. taxpayers foot the bill for a school on U.S. soil that has graduated some of the worst human rights violators in the hemisphere. Since it was established in 1946, the United States Army School of the Americas has trained thousands of Latin American and Caribbean soldiers. Among them, we learn in the exposé, are the former dictators of Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras and Panama. Discussion will be held following the film led by the film’s producer, Larry Rich.

Inside North Korea (2006)

7 to 8 p.m.
Titsworth Lecture Hall
(52 min.)

Disguised as a medical coordinator, National Geographic correspondent Lisa Ling gains access into the dictator-led North Korea and gives viewers a powerful glimpse inside one of the most restrictive countries in the world. Through personal accounts and exclusive footage, Ling exposes the difficulties the North Koreans face while living within such an oppressive regime, coping with poverty, hunger, and the lack of civil freedoms.

Leaving Fear Behind (2008)

7 p.m.
Library Pillow Room
(24 min.)

A heroic film shot by Tibetans from inside Tibet, who longed to bring Tibetan voices to the Beijing Olympic Games. With the global spotlight on China as it rises to host the XXIX Olympics, Tibetans wish to tell the world of their plight and their heartfelt grievances against Chinese rule. The footage was smuggled out of Tibet under extraordinary circumstances. The filmmakers were detained soon after sending their tapes out, and remain in detention today. Discussion following the movie led by Sarah Lawrence student Dechen Kelden.

Open Mic

7 p.m.
TeaHaus

All community members are welcomed to perform at the open mic. Drinks and snacks served at the TeaHaus.

Tying the Knot (2003)

7:30 to 9 p.m.
Science Center 103
(83 min.)

Sponsored by QVC. Extremely relevant, highly entertaining, and utterly humanist, the critically-acclaimed film festival favorite Tying the Knot poignantly explores one of today's hottest issues, the ferocious political battle in the US between gay people who want to marry and those determined to stop them. Directed by Jim De Sève.

Human Rights in Your House: Violations and Discrimination in the U.S. and its Global Consequences

8:30 p.m.
Reisinger Auditorium

A panel of Sarah Lawrence Faculty members—Julie Abraham, Angelia Means, Jamee Moudud, Judith Rodenbeck, and Komozi Woodard—will address human rights as it pertains to their field, American society, and the meaning of global citizenship and responsibility. Opening performance by Sarah Lawrence Student Chamber Group.