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Middle East Studies

AND THERE WAS ISRAEL

Directed by Romed Wyder

The idea of questioning the creation of the State of Israel from the perspective of the western world's responsibility triggers a lot of interest, for it's rarely if ever addressed in a scientific and non sectarian approach.

AND THERE WAS ISRAEL shows how Great Britain, the United States and other European countries were guided by their own agenda as they adopted Zionism in the early 20th century: the hegemony of the West, imperialism, colonialism and the seizure of the Near East. The fate of the Jewish people was secondary, that of the Arabs, and especially Palestinians, tertiary.

The interviewees are historians of international renown: Ilan Pappe (Israel), Eugene Rogan (Great Britain), Riccardo Bocco (Switzerland), and Shlomo Sand (Israel). Assembled, the different points of views of the speakers form a coherent and captivating narrative that is complemented by images of cinematographic and photographic archives. These sources contain some real treasures: there are a huge amount of newsreels, institutional films and propaganda films whose editing and commentary are very revealing. The film then moves on to the origins of the conflict, the rise of political Zionism, the creation of a mythology and finally of the historical facts demonstrating the responsibility of the western world.

DVD (English, French, With English Subtitles, Color) / 2018 / 52 minutes

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THIS IS HOME: A REFUGEE STORY

Directed by Alexandra Shiva

Sundance award-winner puts a human face on the global refugee crisis by providing an intimate portrait of four Syrian refugees arriving in the US and struggling to find their footing.

THIS IS HOME is an intimate portrait of four Syrian refugee families arriving in America and struggling to find their footing. With only eight months of help from the International Rescue Committee to become self-sufficient, they must forge ahead to rebuild their lives in a new home: Baltimore, Maryland. They attend cultural orientation classes and job training sessions where they must "learn America" -- everything from how to take public transportation to negotiating new gender roles.

When the newly imposed travel ban adds further questions and complications, their strength and resilience are put to the test. Through humor and heartbreak, this universal story illuminates what it's like to start over, no matter the obstacles. THIS IS HOME goes beyond the statistics, headlines, and political rhetoric to tell deeply personal stories, putting a human face on the global refugee crisis.

DVD / 2018 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 91 minutes

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IN THE LAND OF POMEGRANATES

Director: Hava Kohav Beller

In the Land of Pomegranates, a suspenseful, multi-layered documentary centered on a group of young people who were born into a violent and insidious ongoing war.

They are young Palestinians and Israelis invited to Germany to join a retreat called 'Vacation From War' where they live under the same roof and face each other every day. In highly charged encounters they confront the entrenched myths and grievances that each side has for the other. Woven into this intense footage are the stories of other embattled lives in the Occupied Territories and Israel: a mother and four children living in the shadow of Gaza's border wall; an imprisoned Palestinian and the subsequent path he's taken; a traumatized Israeli survivor of a suicide bombing; and a daring Palestinian mother whose son's life is saved by an Israeli doctor.

They are all caught in the duality of the pomegranate: will they embrace rebirth and each other's humanity, or will they pull the pin on the grenade?

DVD (Arabic & Hebrew with English subtitles) / 2017 / 125 minutes

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DISTURBING THE PEACE

Directed by Stephen Apkon, Andrew Young

A film about people born into conflict, sworn to be enemies, Palestinians and Israelis, who challenged their fate and joined together to say "enough."

In a world torn by conflict--in a place where the idea of peace has been abandoned--an energy of determined optimism emerges. When someone is willing to disturb the status quo and stand for the dream of a free and secure world, who will stand with them?

DISTURBING THE PEACE is a story of the human potential unleashed when we stop participating in a story that no longer serves us and, with the power of our convictions, take action to create new possibilities. DISTURBING THE PEACE follows former enemy combatants--Israeli soldiers from elite units and Palestinian fighters, many of whom served years in prison--who have joined together to challenge the status quo and say "enough."

The film reveals their transformational journeys from soldiers committed to armed battle to nonviolent peace activists, leading to the creation of Combatants for Peace. While based in the Middle East, DISTURBING THE PEACE evokes universal themes relevant to us all and inspires us to become active participants in the creation of our world.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 9-12, College Adults) / 86 minutes

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END OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, THE

By Mathilde Damoisel

For six centuries, the Ottomans, named after the Osman dynasty in Turkey, ruled over three continents and seven seas: in Eastern Europe, from Vienna to Crimea, all around the Black Sea and the Caucasus; in Mesopotamia; in Arabia, from Cairo to Aden; in the Mediterranean, from Greece to Alexandria...

A great power, home to an unprecedented mosaic of peoples and faiths, the Empire controlled the Holy Places of Islam, Christianity and Judaism-yet would collapse in less than a century.

From 1830, when Greece won its independence, until 1923, when Mustafa Kemal abolished the Sultanate and proclaimed the modern Republic of Turkey, THE END OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE explores the political, economic, and social processes that led to the fall of the Ottomans. On the ruins of the Empire, a whole new world was born, one of new nation-states, borders, and ethnic and religious fractures.

With rare footage, archival images, and interviews with the most renowned international historians, this two-part film analyzes these new lines of division and reminds us that the Ottoman past still matters today, across the Balkans and the entire Middle East.

DVD (Color) / 2016 / 104 minutes

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NASSER'S REPUBLIC, THE MAKING OF MODERN EGYPT

By Michal Goldman
With narration by Hiam Abbas

NASSER'S REPUBLIC: THE MAKING OF MODERN EGYPT is the first film for an American audience about Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the Arab world's most transformative leaders. In 1952, as a unknown young Egyptian colonel, Nasser led a coup that became a revolution. Over the next 18 years he challenged Western hegemony abroad, confronted Islamism at home, and faced deep divisions among the Arabs, emerging as a titanic figure, champion of Arab progress and African liberation. But what he could not offer was democracy; instead, he established the region's first and much emulated military authoritarian regime. A man of enormous charisma and ambition, Nasser became caught in the coils of his own power, dying at 52 with many dreams unrealized. The Arab Spring and its aftermath are his legacy.

Fifteen years after completing her film UMM KULTHUM, A VOICE LIKE EGYPT, director Michal Goldman returned to a very different Egypt to begin work on NASSER'S REPUBLIC, filmed between 2011 and 2015. During this period of turmoil, Egyptians argued passionately about their history as a way to see what course to follow in the future. It is their voices - peasants and professors, secularists and Islamists - that drive this film.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2016 / 82 minutes

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OPEN BETHLEHEM

Directed by Leila Sansour

The filmmaker comes home to Bethlehem to find the city being strangled by the wall and ongoing Israeli settlements, and starts a campaign to keep Bethlehem open to the world.

Reports predict that if trends continue the Christian community of Bethlehem, a city that provides a model for a multi-faith Middle East, may be unsustainable within one generation. The enormous wall and ongoing Israeli settlements are strangling the city. Leila Sansour's plan to stay a year stretches to seven, and is only resolved when she realizes that, sometimes, the biggest dreams take flight from the smallest places.

OPEN BETHLEHEM is a story of a homecoming to the world's most famous little town. The film spans seven momentous years in the life of Bethlehem, revealing a city of astonishing beauty and political strife under occupation. The film draws from 700 hours of original footage and some rare archive material. In fact the making of this film has led to the creation of the largest visual archive of Bethlehem in the world and plans are currently being discussed with University College London (UCL) to turn the collection into a museum.

While telling a personal story, the film charts the creation of a campaign, named Open Bethlehem, to compel international action to bring peace to the Middle East.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 90 minutes

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RUINS OF LIFTA, THE

Directors: Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky

Lifta is the only Arab village abandoned in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that has not been completely destroyed or repopulated by Jews. Its ruins are now threatened by an Israeli development plan that would convert it into an upscale Jewish neighborhood. Discovering that his parents' Holocaust experiences may have distorted his views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Menachem - the filmmaker and an Orthodox Jew from Brooklyn - sets out to establish a personal relationship with a Palestinian. He meets Yacoub, who was expelled from Lifta and now leads the struggle to save the haunting ruins of his village from Israeli plans to build luxury villas on the site. Learning that Lifta was once a place where Jews and Arabs got along, Menachem joins Yacoub's campaign in the hopes that Lifta can serve as a place of reflection and reconciliation. This sets up a climactic encounter between a Holocaust survivor and a Nakba refugee amidst the ruins of Lifta.

DVD / 2016 / 77 minutes

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SPEED SISTERS

Director: Amber Fares

The Speed Sisters are the first all-woman race car driving team in the Middle East. Grabbing headlines and turning heads at improvised tracks across the West Bank, these five women have sped their way into the heart of the gritty, male-dominated Palestinian street car-racing scene. Weaving together their lives on and off the track, Speed Sisters takes you on a surprising journey into the drive to go further and faster than anyone thought you could.

DVD (Arabic and English with English subtitles) / 2016 / 80 minutes

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TADMOR

By Monika Borgmann and Lokman Slim

Amidst the popular uprising in Syria that began in 2011, a group of former Lebanese detainees of the Assad regime decides to break their long-held silence about the horrific years they spent imprisoned in Tadmor, Palmyra, one of the Syrian government's most dreaded prisons.

They testify publicly about the systematic torture and humiliation they experienced. And to reclaim and overcome this dark chapter in their lives, in TADMOR they recreate the prison in an abandoned school near Beirut. There, and by playing out the roles of both "victims" and "victimizers," they will relive their survival.

DVD (Color) / 2016 / 103 minutes

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AMONG THE BELIEVERS

Directors: Hemal Trivedi & Mohammed Ali Naqvi

Firebrand cleric Abdul Aziz Ghazi, an ISIS supporter and Taliban ally, is waging jihad against the Pakistani government with the aim of imposing Shariah law. His primary weapon is his expanding network of Islamic seminaries for children as young as four. Among the Believers follows Aziz's personal quest, and charts the lives of two of his teenage students who are pawns in his ideological war.

DVD (English and Urdu with English subtitles) / 2015 / 84 minutes

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BAPTISM OF FIRE, A

By Jerome Clement-Wilz

"As it gets harder to sell pictures, we take greater and greater risks," explains Corentin Fohlen. A war correspondent still in his twenties, Fohlen is part of a new generation of freelance journalists who fly to war zones from Libya to Afghanistan on their own dime in the hope of selling images to news media outlets.

But the carefree attitude of youth can change when confronted with the harsh reality of life in wartime. When a colleague is killed in Syria, Fohlen's thirst for adventure turns into a deeper reflection on the meaning of work and life. Director Clement-Wilz followed Fohlen through shells and bullets for four years in order to create this riveting portrait of the life of a contemporary war correspondent.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2015 / 52 minutes

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GRASSROOTS IN DRY LANDS

By Helene Klodawsky

Shot in Palestine, Israel, and Jordan, GRASSROOTS IN DRY LANDS tells the story of three unconventional social workers united by a common vision, one that transcends the antagonisms between their countries. Nuha, from Nablus (Palestine), Talal, from Amman (Jordan), and Amit, from Sderot (Israel) work to empower some of the region's most disenfranchised, war-scarred communities in an effort to build a just and civil society.

In Sderot, an Israeli town with a large immigrant and elderly population, student volunteers led by organizer Amit Kitain spearhead a campaign to improve access to public services-particularly for those who are poor or disabled. Near Nablus, architect and social worker Nuha Dwaikat Shaer works to provide secure housing for a family, while also initiating therapeutic conversations about domestic violence. Outside Amman, social worker Talal Qdah organizes regular meetings between residents and once-inaccessible political and religious leaders.

By stressing the importance of standing up for individual rights and fair treatment as a local community, these organizers all hope their work will help their clients improve their lives, while contributing to a goal of creating peace and understanding, both within and among communities.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2015 / 52 minutes

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NEFERTITI'S DAUGHTERS

By Mark Nickolas and Racha Najdi

A story of women, art and revolution, this vibrant film documents the critical role that revolutionary street art played - and is continuing to play - in the political uprising of Egypt. Introducing a cadre of courageous and gifted female artists who are deeply involved in the struggle for social and political justice, NEFERTITI'S DAUGHTERS illustrates the surprising ways that artwork, instead of being relegated to dusty museums and academia, can instead become a powerful tool in the ongoing fight for civil and human rights.

Conversations with prominent Egyptian artists Bahia Shehab, Mira Shihadeh and Salma Samy - each from a different generation - weave throughout the film's narrative. As the women discuss their work and the ways that it is inspired by and responds to a violent and complicated political environment, viewers are offered a rare window into the struggles of living and creating in Egypt today.

For Shebab, Shihadeh and Samy, art can serve many functions: memorializing acts of government brutality; calling potential comrades into the struggle; turning the tables on male predators and sexism; and imagining a world where a woman would be permitted to sing the sacred Adhan, the Muslim call for prayer.

Acclaimed journalist Shahira Amin and art historian Christiane Gruber, author of Creative Dissent: The Arts of the Arab World are among those who add valuable context. As they illustrate, street art has long been a key means of communication and dissent during times of political transformation and social instability in Egypt. Techniques, styles and symbols from Egyptian history are re-appropriated and adapted to become relevant today - including the image of the legendary Queen Nefertiti, a powerful symbol in an ongoing fight for justice.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2015 / 40 minutes

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AFGHANISTAN 1979: THE WAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

By Gulya Mirzoeva

In 1979, when Soviet troops entered Afghanistan, they said it was only a 'limited contingent' of armed forces. Little did they know that the war would last ten years, and play a key role in the collapse of the Soviet Union (not to mention launch Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda).

AFGHANISTAN 1979: THE WAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD examines this final conflict of the Cold War focusing on events from the side of the 'invading' Soviets. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who here speaks publically on the Afghanistan invasion for the first time, is joined by Afghan, Russian, and American generals, journalists, intelligence analysts, and resistance leaders.

Together with the use of hitherto secret Soviet archives (the film reveals the single hand-written page that was the only record of the official decision to intervene in Afghanistan, a country that was never named in the document but instead designated by the initial "A"), the film offers a privileged reading of contemporary history, and an expanded understanding of how we have come to such a seemingly intractable situation in the region.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2014 / 52 minutes

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NEXT YEAR JERUSALEM

Director: David Gaynes

Choosing life in life's final chapter is the poignant subtext of this new powerful documentary, a lyrical portrait of eight nursing home residents who make a pilgrimage to Israel.

Offered a seat on the bus for a 10-day tour, the viewer accompanies individuals with various personal theologies in and out of museums, crossing Israeli landscapes from mountains to desert. But Next Year Jerusalem is less a story about tourists in a foreign land than it is a meditation on the sanctity of human experience and a tribute to the wisdom acquired in the course of a lifetime. Earnest and nuanced, it is a true exploration of living and dying, hope and fear, travel and memory. A celebration of and a reverent tribute to life's eldest travelers.

DVD / 2014 / 72 minutes

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FORCED CONFESSIONS

By Maziar Bahari

Forced Confessions pulls the mask off a regime that brutally extracts lies from its citizens. For the first time on film, six victims of Iran's torture chambers speak. These are not criminals, but writers, journalists, and scholars.

The film is narrated by Director Maziar Bahari, who himself was used as a "poster boy for subversion" and forced to falsely admit to orchestrating street protests in 2009.

We meet Faraj Sarkoohi, the editor of the most popular literary magazine in Iran during the 1980s and 90s. Put through a mock execution, Faraj had a remarkable experience that shows the power of the human spirit over terror and even death.

Ali Afshari and Omid Memarian are activists and bloggers who had to flee Iran after their arrest and torture, and now work on behalf of human rights and freedom of expression.

Ramin Rahanbegloo is a philosopher and follower of Gandhi and the Dalai Lama, whose belief in non-violence led the Islamic regime to accuse him of plotting a "soft overthrow."

In a tribute the life and death of journalist Siamak Pourzand, his wife Mehrangiz Kar and daughter Leily Pourzand speak about his passion for cinema and his decision to commit suicide after years of physical and mental abuse: a final act of defiance against the Islamic state.

This is the story of the Iranian regime's attempt to legitimize its rule through force, and how the Iranian people continue to speak truth to power - whatever the cost.

DVD / 2013 / 58 minutes

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OUR MAN IN TEHRAN

Director: Drew Taylor and Larry Weinstein

"In 1979 we found ourselves in an impossible situation. We had three CIA operatives in Tehran, but all three had been taken hostage in the American Embassy with the others. In those troubled days, we reached out to the Canadians. Ambassador Ken Taylor became our greatest asset. He was our man in Tehran." - President Jimmy Carter

Our Man in Tehran is an in- depth, intimate exploration of the true story behind Ben Affleck's Oscar-winning film Argo. In this gripping new documentary, the story of the "Canadian Caper" is told by the man who knows it best: Ken Taylor, Canada's former ambassador to Iran, who hid the six Americans in his official residence and obtained the counterfeit documents that allowed them to make their dramatic escape from Tehran. Based on Robert Wright's book, the film uncovers new information and adds valuable context, including an historical overview of Iran, interviews with the rescued Americans, former Prime Minister Joe Clark, ex-CIA officer Tony Mendez, and many others.

DVD / 2013 / 85 minutes

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BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

Directed by Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman

A personal essay revealing the passionate debates over identity and generational change inside today's American Jewish community.

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS is a groundbreaking personal exploration of the community and family divisions that are redefining American Jewish identity and politics. The filmmakers' own families are battlegrounds over loyalty to Israel, interpretations of the Holocaust, intermarriage, and a secret communist past.

Filmed in the United States and Israel, this first-person documentary begins with a near riot at a Jewish Film Festival in San Francisco, reveals the agonizing battle over divestment from Israel on a university campus, and shows the crackdown on dissent in Israel itself.

DVD / 2011 / (College, Adult) / 70 minutes

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FRAGMENTS OF A REVOLUTION

Directed by Anonymous
By Virginie Guibbaud & Gilles Padovani

Fragments of a Revolution goes beyond the headlines and the tweets to tell the story of the protests that swept Iran in the aftermath of the disputed 2009 presidential election.

Directed by an anonymous Iranian living in exile, the film brings together clandestinely sent emails, online videos and footage shot by protesters in the midst of demonstrations.

Fragments of a Revolution is, of necessity, a highly unconventional documentary - one in which the director relies on anonymous correspondents within Iran and on YouTube footage. The director feels as though he or she has been living in a "virtual Tehran" for eight months - watching distressing images from the homeland and trying to reconstruct the story of what happened.

This unusual process leads to a film with an astounding immediacy. We alternate between events in Tehran and the our anonymous director's attempts to make sense of them - until the two storylines converge in early 2010.

As the protest movement grows, we are privy to the immediate experiences of those on the ground: women picking up rocks to hand to protesters; people secretly filming police as they beat people, smash cars and target those in windows who are looking on; marchers coming under fire from rooftop snipers.

Finally, the protests die down, and the forced confessions and show trials begin. "My hopes have become ashes" says the film's director. But under those ashes, embers continue to glow.

Fragments of a Revolution is not the definitive, objective record of the powerful opposition movement that swept the country. But it is a remarkable and impressionistic inside view of the movement, through the images and words of those it most closely affected.

DVD (Color) / 2011 / 57 minutes

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GOODBYE MUBARAK!

By Katia Jarjoura

On January 25, 2011, the world was captivated as thousands of protesters flooded Tahrir Square in Cairo, demanding an end to the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

But the ground for the protests had been laid in the weeks and months preceding the mass outpouring of opposition. Goodbye Mubarak! takes us to Egypt during the fall of 2010, in the run-up to legislative elections. What we discover is a revolution-in-waiting already simmering under the surface of Egyptian society.

Over several weeks, the documentary crew travels the country - from Cairo, to Alexandria, to the industrial city of El-Mahalla El-Kubra - introducing us to activists, politicians, and ordinary Egyptians. Activist Mahitab el Gilani walks through a market at night, urging people to sign a petition calling for the end of Egypt's draconian Emergency Law and for free elections. "If this conversation is broadcast on TV, we'll all be arrested," one woman tells her. Later, a man she approaches says he hopes she makes it out of the neighborhood alive.

We also meet opposition candidates in the midst of their campaigns - feminist Gameela Ismail, liberal politician Ayman Nour (who was sentenced to five years in prison after winning election in 2005) and Muslim Brotherhood members Saad El Husseini and Hamdi Hassan. They may not agree on much, but all see endemic corruption, the repressive Emergency Law and the lack of political freedom as the key elements that must change if the Arab world's largest and most influential country is to move forward.

And while young, web-savvy activists get much of the credit for the demonstrations, Goodbye Mubarak! Shows just how deep opposition to the regime ran in the months leading up to the revolution. "We only have corrupt and old leaders with nothing to offer" says one angry pensioner. Another adds that "The solution is in the hands of our 12 million jobless kids. They need to go out, demonstrate, and overthrow the regime."

Within weeks, Mubarak's opponents - led by many of those we meet in this film - would be doing just that. Goodbye Mubarak! Is an invaluable portrait of a crucial moment in Egyptian society.

DVD (Color) / 2011 / 72 minutes

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INVENTING OUR LIFE: The Kibbutz Experiment

Director: Toby Perl Freilich

Set against the backdrop of its glorious 100-year history, Inventing Our Life reveals the heartbreak and hope of Israel's modern kibbutz movement as a new generation struggles to ensure its survival. Can a radically socialist institution survive a new capitalist reality? How will painful reforms affect those who still believe in the kibbutz experiment, and continue to call it home?

Through the lens of its communal movement, director Toby Perl Freilich explores the modern history of Israel, from its revolutionary settlers to the political upheaval that shook the socialist foundations of the state. We meet first, second and third generation members from kibbutzim like Degania, the flagship commune established in 1909; Hulda, once near collapse and recently privatized; and Sasa, the first to be settled entirely by Americans and today Israel's wealthiest kibbutz.

With their desire to create a Jewish homeland and build a more just society, the first settlers helped place kibbutzim in the vanguard of Israeli history. In doing so, they became a magnet for all those who shared one thing in common - a powerful urge to invent their own life.

DVD-R (English, Hebrew, With English subtitles) / 2011 / 81 minutes

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TAHRIR: LIBERATION SQUARE

Directed by Stefano Savona

Soon after the first reports came about the occupation of Tahrir Square, filmmaker Stefano Savona headed for Cairo, where he stayed, amidst the ever-growing masses in the Square, for weeks. His film introduces us to young Egyptians such as Elsayed, Noha and Ahmed, spending all day and night talking, shouting, singing, finally expressing everything they were forbidden to say out loud until now.

As the protests grow in intensity, the regime's repression becomes more violent, with the terrifying potential for massacre never far away. TAHRIR is a film written in the faces, hands, and voices of those who experienced this period in the Square. It is a day-to-day account of the Egyptian revolution, capturing the anger, fear, resolve and finally elation of those who made it happen.

DVD (Color) / 2011 / 90 minutes

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VALENTINO'S GHOST (NEW EDITION)

Directed by Michael Singh

Shows the way in which the changing image of Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. media has mirrored America's political agenda in the Middle East.

Valentino's Ghost takes viewers on a chronological journey through more than a century of images of Muslims, Arabs and Islam in the U.S. media, from the early 20th-century fantasies of romantic sheiks to today's damaging stereotypes as evil fanatics. Through interviews with Robert Fisk, Niall Ferguson, and John Mearsheimer amongst others, the film shows the way in which the changing image of Arabs and Muslims has mirrored America's political agenda in the Middle East.

Valentino's Ghost aims to sharpen viewers' media literacy and increase their skills in questioning media representations, especially those of minority groups and people with whom our government is in conflict. The film ends with a report of a few Hollywood films that have provided complex images and avoided ethnic stereotyping.

DVD / 2011 / (Grades 8-12, College, Adult) / 93 minutes

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ATOMIC JIHAD: AHMADINEJAD'S COMING WAR FOR ISLAMIC REVIVAL AND OBAMA'S POLITICS

Directed by Joel Gilbert

Atomic Jihad leaves little doubt that Iran is in the final stages of preparing for a "Coming War for Islamic Revival".

"Gilbert understands the Islamic threat better than anyone. Pay close attention to this film"-Jerry Doyle

By seeking to appease Ahmadinejad with "change" in U.S. Middle East policy, President Obama may have ushered in the a catastrophe for America. If successful in its nuclear program, Iran and its allies will possess the means to achieve their ultimate goals-the defeat of America and the return of Islam to past glory.

DVD / 2010 / 100 minutes

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BHUTTO

Director: Duane Baughman & Johnny O'Hara

A recent Sundance world premiere, Bhutto tells the epic story of one of the most fascinating characters of our time- Benazir Bhutto, the first woman in history to lead a Muslim nation. A favored daughter of the family often called the "Kennedys of Pakistan," Benazir was elected Prime Minister after her father was overthrown and executed by his own military. Her two terms in power saw extreme acts of courage and controversy as she tried to clean up Pakistan's corrupt political culture while quelling the fires of radical Islam that threaten to engulf the region. A fascinating array of archival footage and interviews with family members and leading experts brings life to this tale of Shakespearean dimension in the country the Economist calls "the World's most dangerous place."

DVD / 2010 / 111 minutes

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SERGIO VIEIRA DE MELLO: EN ROUTE TO BAGHDAD

Director: Simone Duarte

When Kofi Annan asked Sergio Vieira de Mello to be his top envoy in Baghdad following the US-led invasion of Iraq, he knew that his request was highly unprecedented. There was no doubt de Mello was the most skilled mediator at the UN, perhaps the only one who could balance the delicate intricacies that the situation presented. Yet he was also the person that the UN - and the world - could least afford to lose.

On August 19th, 2003, a bomb exploded outside the UN headquarters in Baghdad. Among the 22 killed was Sergio Vieira de Mello. Years later, the shadow of uncertainty continues to loom heavily over Iraq.

One of the most tireless and effective advocates for peace and stability the world has ever known, the Brazilian born diplomat traversed the globe using his uncommon diplomatic skills to accomplish the impossible. Travelling to four continents and featuring the stories and reminiscences of colleagues and luminaries whose lives he touched, this award-winning documentary is "a testament to the power of diplomacy and the proven impact of an insouciant, simple charm that reaches people on a human level" (Sun Sentinel, Florida).

DVD / 2010 / 56 minutes

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