War, Love, God, & Madness and Budrus will be screening at the 2011 Movies that Matter Festival at The Hague!

War, Love, God, & Madness makes its Dutch premiere!

While visiting Iraq in 2007 for the premiere of his first feature film, Ahlaam, director Mohamed Al-Daradji summons the courage to look back over the turbulent past three years of his life and the making of his film in a volatile war zone.

Undaunted by ever present dangers and heartbreaking chaos, Mohamed returned to his home in Baghdad in 2004. The Iraq he had once known had vanished, replaced by the gritty aftermath of 35 years of dictatorship, three wars, and the wake of occupation. Finding the once vibrant streets consumed by unemployment, poverty, and madness, he strives to fulfill his dream of making a film in the country he loves.

Determined not to succumb to physical and emotional strife, Mohamed’s camera rolls on as the world begins to unravel around him. A spectrum of society previously sidelined by images of war is introduced to the audience: a young child sings for Saddam; a father grieves for his hanged son; a young actor thinks back on his time in prison; a troubled friend becomes lost in madness.

War, Love, God, & Madness shows the huge risks filmmakers in ‘liberated’ Iraq face. There is hardly any equipment, safety cannot be guaranteed on the set and crew members, including the director himself, are arrested and tortured.

Al-Daradji’s movie Son of Babylon will also be screened at the festival. This road movie is part of the Iraq’s Missing Campaign, an initiative from The Iraq’s Missing Persons Organisation, that was founded by the filmmakers to support the families of missing persons in Iraq: www.iraqsmissing.org

Budrus at The Hague

When the residents of Budrus learn that the Israeli army plans to build the Separation Barrier through their town, cutting them off from neighboring Palestinian villages and uprooting their precious olive groves, they decide to organize. Under the leadership of Ayed Morrar, Palestinian men of all political factions come together to wage an unarmed struggle to preserve their lands. Victory seems unlikely until Ayed’s 15-year-old daughter steps in to organize a female contingent that brings the women of Budrus to the front lines in a tense stand-off with the military.

As word of the nonviolent protest spreads, Israeli citizens, international activists and Palestinians from other villages join the people of Budrus to demand that the Barrier be moved. Struggling side by side, father and daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known movement that is still gaining ground today.

Ayed Morrar is one of the ten human rights defenders featuring in the A Matter of ACT main programme and will attend the festival.

About the Festival

The Movies that Matter Festival is the Netherlands’ main platform for engaged cinema, with dozens of documentaries and movies of inspired film makers being screened every year. Films that stir the debate about human rights, human dignity and situations where these are at stake. The Movies that Matter Festival will present over seventy human rights films and documentaries from all over the world. Many films will be screened for the first and only time in the Netherlands. All films are English spoken or subtitled.

Reservations and ticket sales starts on March 10th.

American Radical North American Theatrical Screening Dates:

* February 11-17, 2010 . New York, NY at Anthology Film Archives
* March 8-11, 2010 . Seattle, WA at Northwest Film Forum
* March 12-18, 2010 . Los Angeles, CA at Laemmle Theatres
* March 23-30, 2010 . New Orleans, LA at Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
* March 28, 2010 . San Francisco, CA at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
* April 15-16, 2010 . Columbus, OH at Wexner Center for the Arts
* April 23-29, 2010 . Montreal, QC at Cinema du Parc
* April 24, 2010 . Chicago, IL at Chicago Palestine Film Festival
* May 23-26, 2010 . Vancouver, BC at Pacific Cinematheque
* June 3, 2010 . San Francisco, CA at Roxie Theater

Typecast Releasing is pleased to announce that American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein, the new feature-length documentary film from directors David Ridgen (Mississippi Cold Case) and Nicolas Rossier (Aristide and the Endless Revolution), enjoyed a successful premiere and week-long run in NYC at Anthology Film Archives in February—with Norman Finkelstein and the directors in attendance at opening weekend screenings for Q&A. American Radical next went on to play in Seattle, WA at the Northwest Film Forum and then had its Los Angeles theatrical premiere at Laemmle Theatres’ Music Hall 3 cinemas in Beverly Hills, with opening night events on Friday, March 12 sponsored by the Levantine Cultural Center. The film had a successful two-week theatrical run in Montreal, QC at Cinema du Parc and will next be showing at Pacific Cinematheque in Vancouver, BC from May 23-26 after which it will be screened at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco on June 3, with a panel discussion following both screenings there.

A devoted son of Holocaust survivors and ardent critic of Israeli foreign policy, the polarizing American political scientist and author Norman Finkelstein has been called a lunatic and self-hating Jew by some, and an inspirational revolutionary by others. Exploring the deeply complex issues at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, American Radical is the insightful and enraging documentary that follows Finkelstein around the world as he attempts to negotiate a voice among his impassioned critics and supporters. Uncompromising even in the face of his recent denial of tenure at DePaul University, Finkelstein is revealed as a complex and supremely lonely figure whose self-destructive nature often undermines his academic credibility. A guaranteed argument starter, this potent documentary plunges viewers into the psychological and intellectual underpinnings of a vitriolic personality.

“For us, Finkelstein is the consummate documentary subject: a complex firebrand, principled to the point of self-ruin, at the apex of several of the world’s largest conflicts. A man who has never been asked to appear on mainstream American television, but who regularly appears – always creating controversy – in the international media. At once anti-hero, clown, and merciless scholar, Finkelstein creates as many storms as he enters. And to what end? When radicals collide, does it create understanding? Some would argue that it sometimes does. Others would claim that Finkelstein’s principled but too often bitter advocacy does much to discredit the cause of a just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Audiences can decide for themselves.” —directors David Ridgen & Nicolas Rossier

VIEW TRAILER:

REVIEWS:

“‘American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein’ is a cautiously respectful documentary portrait of a political firebrand who presents himself as a beacon of moral truth in the murk of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” —Stephen Holden, New York Times

“Surprisingly entertaining…a compelling portrait of a difficult man.” —Mark Cohen, The Jewish Daily Forward

“With impressive restraint, the fascinatingly thorny ‘American Radical’ is less interested in the validity of Finkelstein’s ideas—seriously mounted, if inflammatory—and more in the topsy-turvy life of today’s professional academic. Amazingly, that choice doesn’t result in a boring movie.” —Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

“‘American Radical’…presents a more balanced portrait of Finkelstein, who, when his passion doesn’t carry him off on a wave of anger, is shown to be thoughtful, intelligent and deeply melancholy.” —George Robinson, The Jewish Week

“A blood-boiling, very good documentary.” —Mark Keizer, Boxoffice Magaine

“(Norman Finkelstein’s) conclusions can be debated, his methods can be deplored, but as (‘American Radical’ directors) Ridgen and Rossier take pains to point out, a man so rigorously committed to putting an end to oppression ought not be so easily dismissed, even if coming to grips with such a challenging figure may be finally as difficult as getting to the bottom of the Arab-Israeli conflict itself.” —Andrew Schenker, Slant Magazine

“A guaranteed argument starter…an engaging portrait of an academic whose work is both fueled and undermined by his vitriolic personality.” —Chicago Reader

“A fascinating, well-rounded portrait of Finkelstein that simultaneously informs, inspires and infuriates…the filmmakers ride a delicate line, assembling a warts-and-all portrait that shows why Finkelstein is deeply respected and equally reviled.” —Mark Achbar, director of ‘The Corporation’ and ‘Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media’