From: ab+political@andrew.cmu.edu
Date: Wed Nov 05 2003 - 10:40:50 EST
November's monthly documentary will feature "Drowned Out",
a film on the controversial Narmada Dam in India and a lecture
by the film's British maker Franny Armstrong (her other
notable films include McLibel).
Franny will lecture at 8pm and will be followed by a screening
of her Documentary, Drowned Out.
Location:
McConomy Auditorium, CMU University Center
When: Wednesday November 5th, 8pm
(lecture to be followed by film screenings)
(don't forget guerilla girls at 5pm, also)
Free of charge!
Info on Drowned out:
Three choices. Move to the slums in the city, accept a place at a
resettlement site or stay at home and drown.
The people of Jalsindhi in central India must make a decision fast. In the
next few weeks, their village will disappear underwater as the giant
Narmada Dam fills.
Bestselling author Arundhati Roy joins the fight against the dam and asks
the difficult questions. Will the water go to poor farmers or to rich
industrialists? What happened to the 16 million people displaced by fifty
years of dam building? Why should I care?
Drowned Out follows the Jalsindhi villagers through hunger strikes,
rallies, police brutality and a six year Supreme Court case. It stays with
them as the dam fills and the river starts to rise...
"This is the heart of politics, this is the story of modern India"
- Arundhati Roy
Info on Franny:
London-born Franny Armstrong, 31, got involved in filmmaking
when she read about a trial in which the fast food company McDonald's
were suing a gardener and postman for libel. Three years later, August
1997, Franny's first documentary, McLibel - the inside story of England
longest-ever court case - was released to great critical acclaim.
McLibel's infamy quickly grew after the film was pulled by lawyers at both
the BBC and Channel 4. Although never broadcast in the UK, it has now
been watched by an estimated 11 million viewers.
Franny's second major documentary, 'Drowned Out', (2002) follows the
fightagainst the Narmada Dam in India. She filmed it over three years,
battlingagainst illness, rain, solar battery chargers, six language
barriers and policearrests.
The 75 minute film was recently runner-up for Best Documentary at both the
One World Media awards ("a masterfully crafted study of a stand-offbetween
the powerless and the powerful") and the San Francisco International Film
Festival ("a film of enormous heart, grit and insight that is both
taut political essay and enormously moving plea.").
Franny's films are produced through Spanner Films, the independent
TV production company, based in London, England, which she founded in
1999.
The film is part of a monthly political documentary
series this fall at CMU, held on the first Wednesday of each
month.
In December we present Dark Days, a unique documentary on the community of
homeless people living in train tunnels beneath Penn Station in New York
City.
for more info contact:
Activities Board Political Speakers Committee
ab+political@andrew.cmu.edu or (412) 268-2105
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