MHM Film Club: “Sand and Sorrow” (2007)

“Sand and Sorrow” (2007) 90mins
Directed by Paul Freedman

Offered exclusive and unparalleled access to the situation on the ground inside Darfur, Peabody award-winning filmmaker Paul Freedman joins a contingent of African Union peacekeeping forces in Darfur as a tragic and disturbing chapter in human history unfolds.

Following the screening there will be a talk by guest speaker, Eltayeb Ali, a survivor of the genocide in Darfur plus a presentation by filmmaker Guna Subramaniam. The screening will also be attended by other survivors from the local Darfuri community who will participate in the general Q&A.

While the heroic men and women of this under-manned and under-funded mission brave harsh conditions and unfettered violence, as many as 2.5 million displaced persons have no choice but to settle inside squalid camps to wait and hope. As Freedman ventures deep inside the vast and violent Internally Displaced Persons camps of Darfur, he comes face to face with the collective sorrow of a people devastated by others’ political unwillingness and shameful indifference. These people have joined the growing spectral chorus of others who waited for help in genocides past – help that we know may never come.

$5 per person to cover costs of screening

Many thanks to Amalgamated Movies (http://www.amalgamatedmovies.com/) for making this screening possible.

In partnership with the Centre for Memory, Imagination and Invention (http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/src/cmii/) and the Processes of Signification Faculty Research Group (PSFRG), Deakin University.