The cost of peace

HERE'S a trailer for the touching and profound film Two-Sided Story, on the quest for reconciliation with justice in Israel and Palestine today.

It shows at 4pm, Sunday 25th August, St John's Church Hall, £6.

Israel, Palestine... Two-sided story

ON Sunday afternoon, Just Festival has a special screening of the moving, insightful and thoughtful film Two-Sided Story.

It is a narrative involving 27 Palestinians and Israelis meeting for a unique project called ‘History through the Human Eye’.

Bereaved Palestinian families, Orthodox Jews and religious Muslims, settlers, ex-soldiers and ex-security prisoners, and citizens of the Gaza strip; each holds their own historical truth and shares their own emotional baggage with each other.

As Archbishop Elias Chacour, a Palestinian and citizen of Israel who has struggled tirelessly and nonviolently for a just peace in the land has observed: a settlement in Israel-Palestine, which must offer security and recognition for all people, is not just about politics. It is about disarmed truth, and recognising in each other a wounded bother and sister, not an enemy or a threat.

Tor Ben-Mayor • Israel Palestine 2010 • 1h15m • Hebrew, Arabic/English subtitles Rated 18.

The hall at St John's Church (corner of Princes Street and Lothian Road, venue 127). Tickets are £6 and can be purchased at the cash-only box office at the venue.

Sponsored by Parents Circle - Families Forum (PCFF), which is a grassroots organization of bereaved Palestinians and Israelis. The PCFF promotes reconciliation as an alternative to hatred and revenge.

Trailer: Kalinovski Square

SHOWING tonight, 6-8pm at Edinburgh Filmhouse, as part of Just Festival, and with support from the European Parliament...

A documentary exploring the demonstrations on Kalinovski Square after the elections on 19 March 2006 where Lukashenka 'created' his victory with almost 83% of the votes.

With his astonishing footage and ironic discourses, director Yuri Khashchavatski speaks out about resistance and persecution, displaying an overwhelming will for freedom.

Resisting dictatorship

Kalinovski Square, which shows as part of Just Festival at the Edinburgh Filmhouse tonight (6-8pm) is an award-winning 2007 documentary film by Belarusian filmmaker Yury Khashchavatski. 

The film takes a critical look at the re-election of Alexander Lukashenko in March 2006, featuring especially the protests that occurred after the election was found to be fraudulent.

These protests had their centre at October Square in downdown Minsk, which was informally renamed on the occasion for Konstanty Kalinowski.

Before its commercial release on DVD in June 2009, the film was distributed under the title The Square.

The Belarussian authorities had already taken exception to the work of director Khashchavatski, following his first movie, An Ordinary President, released in 1996.

As a result, all production for Kalinovski Square was done underground.

With his astonishing footage and ironic discourses, Yuri Khashchavatski speaks out about resistance and persecution, displaying an overwhelming will for freedom.

Full booking details here. Tickets are £8.20 and £6. The showing is sponsored by the European Parliament.

A matter of life and death

CORALIE TAPPER, a Just Festival volunteer, reviews and comment on the moving One For Ten short films shown in Edinburgh recently

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Bringing tough issues to everyday people, giving access to the real questions and answers, exposing the reality of capital punishment and the death penalty within the United States justice system, and all at the click of a button.

One ForTen is a series of interactive documentary short films about innocence and death row. Directors Mark Pizzey and Will Francome visited Edinburgh recently as part of Just Festival to share the real stories of ten exonerees across the United States.

The concept was derived from the fact that for every ten people that have been executed since the death penalty reinstatement in the US in 1976, only one person has been set free.

In just five weeks the duo drove across eighteen states to visit ten people who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit. Twice a week along their journey Mark and Will would drive, shoot, edit, upload and share creative, common, democratic short documentaries with their followers and the rest of the world.

Connected through various social media outlets such as facebook, twitter and the online website, their supporters were invited on a trip of discovery and exposure. This allowed them no only complete access and encouragement for their viewers to get involved in this issue, but to ask questions, give advice and share support.

As Mark puts it: “We wanted our audience to be the one asking the questions, we promised them that we would ask every question. Sometimes it was the hardest, most offensive questions which would hit a spark and cause some sort of reaction”.

Many of the ten exonerees spent over 10 years on death row, with no hope of any life or future. They were away from their families, restrained from the option of ever having a family, and in one case prevented from saving the life of one of their relatives from cancer.

One For Ten is giving these survivors, these innocent few, the chance to spread awareness of what is not only a serious issue in the US, but in the rest of the world. Still today fifty-eight countries around the world permit the death penalty and capital punishment.

The lives of these exonerees have been changed forever, but the justice system continues to exist in turmoil.

“We had done a lot of research in to each of the specific cases, you don’t think you will be surprised at the evidence and facts. However when speaking to some of these people and hearing their stories, I was shocked how many things surprised me”.

The ten different short films each feature a different theme; an issue that was a common reoccurrence for almost all exonerated cases. Racism, perjury and false accusation, expert witness testimony, DNA evidence and poor public defense council, to name a few. These concerns are compounded by forensic failures which are continuously being discovered. No effective action is being taken and innocent people are still being executed.

At the Just Festival screening, Mark and Will passionately discussed their own views and experience on this journey and campaign. They came across as wise and encouraging to those who are wanting to challenge the way we see our justice system, to question this system at every opportunity, and to help a campaign to end the death penalty.

This self-funded project was created and made possible by four compassionate filmmakers, and by organisations and supporters from around the world.

The series of documentaries is available for viewing and download on the One ForTen website. http://www.oneforten.com/

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(c) Coralie Tapper has been a volunteer at the 2013 Just Festival in Edinburgh. She has studied journalism. This article has also been published and syndicated through Just Festival co-sponsor Ekklesia (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/18864).

One for Ten: Sunday screening

ONE For Ten is an revolutionary series of campaign films produced and broadcast online over five weeks in April and May of 2013.

 During those five weeks, the producers travelled the width of the United States and interviewed ten individuals who have been freed from death row after their false convictions were over turned.

"The case against the death penalty was never more strongly made", was one comment to Just Festival News.

The One for Ten team are also really looking forward to meeting people in Edinburgh and taking part in Just.

Will Francome, Mark Pizzey • USA 2013 • 1h • English • Rated 15

Sunday 18th August 4-5pm, the hall at St John's (corner of Princes Street and Lothian Road, venue 27).  Tickets are £6 from the cash box office at the venue.

Cutting edge film at Just

THE European Parliament and the Lux Prize have partnered with Just Festival to bring to screen four films that were contenders for the prize in previous years. All the screenings will take place in Edinburgh's Filmhouse.

The remaining fiims show as follows:

8 August 2013 at 18:00
Illégal
Olivier Masset-Depasse
Belgium France Luxemburg 2010 • 1h35m
French/English subtitles
Tania has been living illegally in Belgium with her 14 year old son. Refused asylum from Russia she lives in constant fear of being caught.
Q&A with Liz Leonard

15 August 2013 at 18:00
R: hit first, hit hardest
Michael Noer, Tobias Lindholm
Denmark 2010 • 1h36m
Danish/English subtitles
R has been sent to prison for violent assault. Determined to stay out of harm's way, he faces the challenge of navigating prison culture.
Q&A with Alex Dunedin

22 August 2013 at 18:00
Kalinovski Square
Yury Khashchavatski
Belarus/Estonia 2007 • 1h27m
Belarussian/English subtitles
A documentary exploring the demonstrations on Kalinovski Square after the elections on 19 March 2006 in Belarus.
Q&A with Dr Alan G. Flowers

Buzz around Just Conversations

DON'T MISS OUT!  Encouragingly, ticket sales for Just Festival 2013 are up so far and one conversation has already sold out... there are plenty more, of course, but make sure you line up your diary and get them booked.

The full Conversation programme can be viewed here. Just click each picture icon for full details and the link to online booking.

Likewise for the festival's inspiring range of Talks and perspective-altering Films.

Discussion and debate this year is grouped around five broad and inclusive 'strands'. These are:
* changing world,
* ethics over profit,
* behind closed doors,
* faith today and
* Scottish independence referendum.

There's undoubtedly a real buzz about the Conversation, Talks and Films at Just Festival this year. Indeed, Edinburgh Spotlight has an interesting comment in its preview and comment on the launch.

They declared: "It would be unfair to suggest that Edinburgh’s other festivals shy away from moral, political and social issues. However, by curating a series of events and performances which both celebrate and highlight the importance of the world’s cultural and ethical diversity, the Just Festival could perhaps be described as the festival season’s compassionate heart."

(Image courtesy of the excellent Art of Conversation blog, and (c) them). 

Lux Prize films at Just

THE European Parliament and the Lux Prize have partnered with Just Festival to bring to screen four films that were contenders for the prize in previous years. All the screenings will take place in Edinburgh's Filmhouse.

The fiims show as follows:

4 August 2013 at 17:45
Le silence de Lorna
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Belgium France Italy 2008 • 1h55m
French/English subtitles
A young Albanian woman is stuck in a strategic marriage set up by a Russian gangster.
Q&A tbc

8 August 2013 at 18:00
Illégal
Olivier Masset-Depasse
Belgium France Luxemburg 2010 • 1h35m
French/English subtitles
Tania has been living illegally in Belgium with her 14 year old son. Refused asylum from Russia she lives in constant fear of being caught.
Q&A with Liz Leonard

15 August 2013 at 18:00
R: hit first, hit hardest
Michael Noer, Tobias Lindholm
Denmark 2010 • 1h36m
Danish/English subtitles
R has been sent to prison for violent assault. Determined to stay out of harm's way, he faces the challenge of navigating prison culture.
Q&A with Alex Dunedin

22 August 2013 at 18:00
Kalinovski Square
Yury Khashchavatski
Belarus/Estonia 2007 • 1h27m
Belarussian/English subtitles
A documentary exploring the demonstrations on Kalinovski Square after the elections on 19 March 2006 in Belarus.
Q&A with Dr Alan G. Flowers