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| A great NGO that's tackling this issue. |
What a treat to have found out about the film festival and to have been able to get to so many of the films. Along with the movie about cotton farmers (described in Friday's post), the other highlight of the festival for me was "Blood in the Mobile." In the spirit of the best aspects of Michael Moore, a Danish filmmaker seeks answers from Nokia about their response to the well-known violence and human rights abuses that take place at mining sites in remote eastern Congo/DRC. These mines are the source of the "blood minerals" (especially cassiterite, SnO2 - the primary ore of tin, and coltan) that are used in all of our cell phones (and many other electronics). There is a good trailer and other info at http://bloodinthemobile.org/). Besides the tragic human, highly endangered Mountain gorillas are also being lost due to this mining activity. (More info on that issue here.) As a Seattleite, it was great to see that hometown congressman Jim McDermott (interviewed in the film) is a co-sponsor and supportive of a House Resolution to take action to promote "peace, stability, and observance of human rights" in the DRC.
In a line-up dominated by quite intense and sobering films, a joyful stand-out was the story of a group of Sudanese blues musicians. Here's a taste. The most memorable lines from the festival come from Propoganda which referred to Paris Hilton as a "narcissistic parasite" and to celebrities in general as "trained monkey collaborators of death."
Kind of mean and a bit (but not entirely) outrageous, of course, but memorable!
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