DCP projection

In the terrifying future of 1997, a hijacked Air Force One crashes on the island prison of Manhattan, stranding President Donald Pleasance among murderers, terrorists, thieves and a drug-dealing Isaac Hayes. Eye-patched mercenary Snake Plissken (Carpenter regular Kurt Russell) gets tapped for the rescue mission, with a 24-hour deadline before the government sets off the explosives implanted in his neck. Carpenter’s visionary dystopian nightmare finally returns to the big screen, sharper than ever. With Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine and Harry Dean Stanton.

“By far Mr. Carpenter’s most ambitious, most riveting film to date. Hallucinatory… a toughly told, very tall tale.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times

Archival 35mm print

In honor of what would have been legendary jazz musician Dexter Gordon’s 90th birthday, we’re pleased to present a special screening of ROUND MIDNIGHT, featuring Gordon’s Oscar-nominated performance. Following the screening, the Blue Note Jazz Festival will host an in-depth panel discussion, moderated by American music/jazz historian, journalist and producer Ashley Kahn. The panel will also include Dexter Gordon’s wife, Maxine Gordon, former President/CEO of Blue Note Records, Bruce Ludvall, iconic jazz saxophonist Jimmy Heath and jazz record producer, writer and founder of Mosaic Records, Michael Cuscuna.

“Tavernier’s offbeat love letter to bebop gets the best jazz film award since Sven Klang’s Combo. Night after night in the pouring rain, a young Frenchman (Francois Cluzet) squats outside a Parisian jazz club, listening to the sublime saxophone of one ‘Dale Turner’. Since Turner, a shambling bear of a man, is troubled by the jazzman’s classic demons of drink and drugs, it is not long before the young man has befriended him, rescued him from cheap flophouses, and installed him in his own flat, where kindness and devotion achieve some kind of advance over the depredations of the jazz life. The film reeks of the authentic stuff of jazz, smoky with atmosphere and all as blue as a Gauloise packet. Dale Turner, as played by Dexter Gordon, seems to be an amalgam of Bud Powell and Lester Young, but the private, rueful dignity that he brings to bear is all his own.” – Time Out (London)

New York premiere! Filmmakers and film subject in person!

In 1986, Michael Morton’s wife Christine was brutally murdered in front of their only child, and Michael was convicted of the crime. Locked away in Texas prisons for a quarter century, he had years to ponder questions of justice and innocence, truth and fate. Though he was virtually invisible to society, a team of dedicated attorneys spent years fighting for the right to test DNA evidence found at the murder scene. Their discoveries ultimately reveal that the price of a wrongful conviction goes well beyond one man’s loss of freedom.

Presented in association with Innocence Project, www.innocenceproject.org and Open Society Foundations, www.opensocietyfoundations.org

The criminal justice system in the United States is riddled with error, discrimination, and unfairness. Perhaps nothing exemplifies these problems as powerfully as the convictions of those who are innocent. The battle of committed lawyers to secure their release, a fight that can last decades, testifies equally powerfully to the enduring belief that justice and respect for human rights can and should be part of the US criminal justice system. Human Rights Watch shares that belief. While we do not work on behalf of individual defendants or prisoners, we seek to reform policies and practices that tarnish justice and violate their rights.

hrw.org/united-states/us-program/excessive-punishment-and-restrictions

US premiere! Filmmaker in person!

With enthusiastic musicians and ornate wedding parties setting the stage, we meet Khadija, a Moroccan divorcee who works as a camerawoman at weddings in Casablanca. Her mother and brother strongly disagree with her choice of occupation, complaining that Khadija is out until all hours and a source of gossip for the neighbors. Already ashamed that Khadija is divorced, they simply want her to remarry. But Khadija is the breadwinner in the family and she won’t bow to their demands. The fairy tale world of the wedding parties plays in sharp contrast to the difficulties of marriage and the reality of divorce. Together with her best friend Bouchra, also a divorcee, Khadija talks candidly about the issues they face and the competing forces at play in the lives of women in Morocco and beyond.

preceded by:

GOING UP THE STAIRS

Married at age nine, Akram was so fearful of displeasing her husband that she left school before she learned to read. Now a grandmother living with her husband Heidar in Tehran, she has found her calling: painting. Akram’s children organize an exhibition in Paris for her and she hopes Heidar will give her permission to go. Like many couples married for decades, they bicker back and forth and Akram’s sarcastic sense of humor shines through. A charming portrait of an artist, Going Up the Stairs also provides an enlightening glimpse inside a traditional Iranian marriage.

Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami—Iran—2011—51m

Presented in association with Alwan for the Arts, www.alwanforthearts.org, Equality Now, www.equalitynow.org, The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, www.iranhumanrights.org and New York Women in Film and Television, www.nywift.org

Human Rights Watch has reported on a range of obstacles to women’s equality and protection from violence in the Middle East and North Africa. In March 2012 a 16-year-old Moroccan woman apparently took her own life after being forced to marry a man who may have raped her. Human Rights Watch investigated the case and urged Moroccan authorities to enact a meaningful law on domestic violence and repeal a penal code provision that, in practice, has allowed men accused of raping or having sex with minors to avoid prosecution if they wed their victims.

hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/morocco/

New York premiere! Filmmaker in person!

Since 1998 more than 2000 dead bodies and skeletal remains of illegal border crossers have been found in the desert in southern Arizona. The Undocumented tells the story of Marcos Hernandez, an undocumented Mexican living and working in Chicago. Marcos came to the United States, crossing through the Sonora Desert in southern Arizona. Each month he sends money to his mother in Mexico City for medicine for his brother Gustavo who is in need of a kidney transplant. But Marcos had an even more pressing reason for coming to the United States. He came to search for his father, Francisco, who disappeared in the Sonora Desert trying to enter the United States. Chronicled over the course of Arizona’s deadly summer months, the film weaves Marcos’ search for his father with the efforts of humanitarians and Border Patrol agents who try to prevent migrant deaths; medical investigators and the Mexican Consulate working to identify the remains of deceased border crossers; and Mexicans who struggle to accept the loss of a family member.

Presented in association with Cinema Tropical, www.cinematropical.com, El Museo Del Barrio, www.elmuseo.org and The New York Immigration Coalition, www.thenyic.org

The urge to migrate for family or “a better life” has shaped the history of the United States since its inception. However, the current US immigration system focuses more on harsh enforcement of outdated, ineffective laws than on application of policies that take into account family and labor considerations that draw immigrants to the United States. For over two decades, Human Rights Watch has documented abuses in the US immigration system, from its failure to protect families from being separated by deportation to the vulnerability of farmworker women to sexual violence and harassment.

hrw.org/united-states/us-program/unfair-immigration-policies

Closing night film — New York premiere! Filmmaker in person!

TALL AS THE BAOBAB TREE poignantly depicts a family struggling to find its footing on the edge of a modern world fraught with tensions between tradition and modernity. Coumba and her little sister Debo are the first to leave their family’s remote African village, where meals are prepared over open fires and water is drawn from wells, to attend school in the bustling city. But when an accident suddenly threatens their family’s survival, their father decides to sell 11-year-old Debo into an arranged marriage. Torn between loyalty to her elders and her dreams for the future, Coumba hatches a secret plan to rescue her younger sister from a future she did not choose.

Presented in association with the African Film Festival, Inc., www.africanfilmny.org and Girls Not Brides, www.girlsnotbrides.org

Child marriage is almost always forced marriage. It disrupts girls’ education and exposes them to domestic violence and preventable health crises. To protect the rights of women and girls, Human Rights Watch has recently joined with other groups to call for the elimination of child marriage. Utilizing field-based research in more than 10 countries on this abuse, Human Rights Watch has urged governments worldwide to set 18 as the minimum age for marriage and to verify that both spouses provide full and meaningful consent to the partnership.

hrw.org/news/2012/10/10/un-mark-day-girl-fighting-child-marriage

New York premiere!

Like many other women in rural South Asia, Salma, a young Muslim girl in India, was forced into seclusion once she reached puberty. She was forbidden by her family to study and pushed into marriage. Words were Salma’s salvation. Once married, Salma began covertly composing poems on scraps of paper and, through an intricate smuggling system, was able to sneak them out of the house, and into the hands of a publisher. Salma won numerous accolades and was written about in the media. Against the odds, Salma became a famous poet: the first step to discovering her own freedom and challenging the traditions and code of conduct in her village. Her extraordinary story is one of courage and resilience. Salma has hopes for a different life for the next generation of girls, but as she sees, familial ties run deep and change is slow.

Presented in association with Breakthrough, www.breakthrough.tv, Girls Not Brides, www.girlsnotbrides.org and Indo American Arts Council, Inc., www.iaac.us

Criminal law reform to address sexual violence has been the subject of national debate in India since the gang rape and death of a 23-year-old woman in New Delhi in December 2012. The Indian government set up a three-member committee to consider reforms to strengthen laws against sexual violence. A new ordinance signed in February 2013 unfortunately ignores the committee’s key recommendations, especially on police accountability and framing sexual violence as a violation of women’s rights to bodily integrity. Human Rights Watch called on legislators in India to substantially amend or replace the new criminal law on violence against women such that it reflects international human rights law and standards.

hrw.org/asia/india

New York festival premiere! Filmmakers in person!

In the winter of 2011, after a controversial election, Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin as president of Russia. The vote followed months of mass protests that challenged Putin’s rule. Around the same time, a group of young, radical-feminist punk rockers known as Pussy Riot took a stand against the direction Putin was taking Russia. Wearing colored balaclavas, tights, and summer dresses, they entered Moscow’s most venerated cathedral and air-guitared their way through 40 seconds of “Mother Mary, Banish Putin!” British filmmaker Mike Lerner and Russian Maxim Pozdorovkin collaborate to chronicle the way one small act of protest captured global attention. Putting a personal face on rebellion, they follow three women prepared to defend their actions no matter what it may cost them.

Presented in association with Harriman Institute, www.harriman.columbia.edu and Tribeca Film Festival, www.tribecafilm.com

The Russian government’s actions against Pussy Riot were one of many signs of the Kremlin’s unprecedented crackdown that Putin ushered in after his return to power. Documenting and seeking to end this crackdown is one of Human Rights Watch’s top priorities. We analyzed how new laws restricting public protests and Internet content have undermined fundamental rights in Russia, and raised attention to new laws that seek to brand Russian groups that work on controversial issues as “foreign agents” and tar independent activists as enemies of the state. We documented a massive wave of invasive, punitive government inspections of Russian and foreign organizations, and advocated for the international community to urge Russia to foster a free civil society.

hrw.org/europecentral-asia/russia

Srdjan Dragojevic’s THE PARADE takes a comedic look at Serbia through the lens of one group’s fight to hold a Gay Pride parade in Belgrade. When a bulldog is shot, an improbable alliance develops. We meet Pearl and Mickey, a couple about to be married, and Mirko and Radmilo, a couple involved in the gay pride parade. Mirko happens to be Pearl’s wedding planner and Radmilo, his partner, turns out to be the veterinarian who saved Mickey’s dog’s life. After a lover’s quarrel, Mickey—who is less than accepting of Gay Pride—makes a deal to protect the participants in the parade in order to win Pearl back. Mickey and Radmilo embark on a road trip across Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo as Mickey attempts to assemble a fearsome security team for the parade. As they gather Mickey’s old friends from the war, it becomes clear to all that so-called enemies are often your greatest allies.

Presented in association with the Global Film Initiative, www.globalfilm.org and International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), www.iglhrc.org

Gay men and lesbian women face fierce discrimination in Serbia. Whenever they want to organize a Gay Pride parade, they are attacked by hooligans and not protected by Serbian authorities. Human Rights Watch has documented several of these homophobic attacks. Together with local Serbian organizations, Human Rights Watch met with government officials, members of parliament, judges, lawyers, and other stakeholders in order to advocate for freedom of expression, association and assembly. In spite of these meetings, the authorities banned several Gay Pride Parades in Belgrade.

hrw.org/topic/lgbt-rights

New York premiere! Filmmaker in person!

THE NEW BLACK tells the story of how the African American community is grappling with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in light of the marriage equality movement and the fight over civil rights. We meet activists, families, and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland, a state with a 30 percent African-American population. Through this story, the film examines homophobia in the black community’s institutional pillar—the black church—and reveals the Christian right wing’s strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda. THE NEW BLACK takes viewers into the pews and onto the streets as it tells the story of the historic fight to win marriage equality in Maryland and charts the evolution of this divisive issue within the black community.

Presented in association with Freedom To Marry, www.freedomtomarry.org and LGBT Faith Leaders of African Descent, www.lgbtfaithleadersofafricandescent.com

Same-sex marriage is currently legal in 13 countries around the globe—Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and Uruguay —and in several states in Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. It is currently in the legislative process in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Boris Dittrich, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Rights Program, proposed the first same-sex marriage bill in the Netherlands, which became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage. Human Rights Watch promotes full equality for LGBT people, including the right to marry.

hrw.org/topic/lgbt-rights