Rising Up For Human Dignity Film & Discussion Series: Syrian, Rohingya, and Congolese Voices

Discover the voices of artists and performers from within communities in conflict and their diasporas around the world who are rising up and speaking out for human dignity. Please join us for this free film and virtual discussion series in May.

All discussions will be live streamed on Thursdays in May, starting at 7pm (PST)

How to participate

• Watch the Films: When you RSVP, you will receive links to view the films online prior to discussion.
• Join the Discussion: Prior to the first event, you’ll be notified by email with information and links to stream and participate in the panel discussions with an array of experts, policy professionals, humanitarian aid workers, activists, directors, and actors from the films.

THE FILMS

Thursday, May 7, 7 pm | Virtual Discussion on FOR SAMA  

• FOR SAMA (2019, Syria;  dir. Waad Al-Kateab) is both an intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war. A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.

Thursday, May 14, 7 pm | Virtual Discussion on I AM ROHINGYA: A GENOCIDE IN FOUR ACTS

• I AM ROHINGYA: A GENOCIDE IN FOUR ACTS (2018, Canada; dir. Yusuf Zine) is a powerful documentary that chronicles the journey of fourteen Rohingya youth who take to the stage in order to depict their families' harrowing escape from Burma. With no prior acting experience, the decision to re-enact the stories of their people becomes a courageous act of resistance, demonstrating to the world that they will not be erased, and they will not be silenced.

Thursday, May 21, 7 pm | Virtual Discussion on SEMA

• SEMA (2019, DR Congo; dir. Machérie Ekwa) is a film about survival made by survivors. Sema (which means “speak out” in Swahili)follows the lives of two women from different backgrounds whose lives are changed forever by rape, and who must find the strength to survive and make a difference for themselves and their children.  Thanks to the support of Dr Denis Mukwege, Panzi Hospital, and the courage of survivors, the Movement of Survivors of Sexual Violence in the DRC was formed. The Movement decided to create a film to tell the story of what a survivor of sexual violence faces. The survivors of The Movement came together to write the screenplay based on their own real experiences. The majority of the acting roles are played by the survivors themselves. In order to create a truly powerful film, they bravely reenacted their own traumas. The survivors took on these parts consciously, realizing the benefit of artistic expression as part of the healing process.

Cosponsored by WorldOregon, Portland State University’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project, Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Amnesty International USA Group 48, STAND, and Never Again Coalition