The Tenth Journey ( Guatemala)

"Love is a kind of warfare..." Ovid


Men with Guns(1997) Dir. John Sayles

My name is Conjeo, and I was thirteen when I meet Dr. Fuentes. He was doctor from the big city who had decided to search the countryside for doctors whom he had educated. It was journey to remember. As an orphaned, I was ambivalent to death, murder, starvation, inadequate housing, and the coldness of others. Therefore, I was unmoved when he discovered that his students were killed because they were doctors. But Dr. Fuentes was man. In the short time we were together, he taught me how to love, I went back to the big city, and worked hard in school and earned good grades. Now, I am in medical school. My country has changed a little. The guerillas are not as bad, and the military has improved. But, I and still afraid . I practice in the city. But for those who are courageous, I will support their journey into mountains with the corn, sap, and mountain people.

The Ninth Journey ( Argentina)

“The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men - from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms”… Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Official Story (Argentina 1985) director, Luis Puenzo

My name is Gaby Marnet Ibenez. I was born 22 years ago in Argentina. This is my story:


When I was thirteen my parents were divorced. At first, I could not believe this; I thought their marriage was perfect. As time progressed, I realized that I was the source of their problems, and my life will never be the same. The secret they kept made me wonder about life and how could people be so mean. My mother told me that I was adopted, that my real parents were kidnapped and killed because the military believed them to be dissidents and that my father adopted me. When they divorced, I decided to live with my mother who had befriended my biological grandmother. I grew to love my grandmother and feel betrayed by the system that killed my biological parents. From time to time, I speak with my adopted father, but our relationship is estranged. Over the years, my mother educated me well and this is my first year in law school. I have to become a victim’s of the “Dirty War” advocate. I support families whose family members were abducted as a result of “Dirty War”. I also search for their children who have been illegally adopted by other families. I will fight with every breathe in my body to make sure that another child does not suffer like me.

The Eighth Journey ( Chile)

No man is above the law and no man below it”…Theodore Roosevelt

Missing ( 1982) Costa Gravas

I am the attorney in New York Representing the Horman Family in a Wrongful Death Suit. This is my Motion for court.

Ed Horman
vs.
United Sates Government Stationed in Chile

Ed Horman
Plaintiff

vs.

United States Government Stationed in Chile
Defendant

PLAINTIF’S MOTION FOR WRONGFRUL DEATH SUIT


On September 16, 1980, an American Citizen Charles Horman was removed from his premise in Chile for unknown reasons and three days later shot to death. As an American citizen the Plaintiff would like to prove that the Government entities stationed in Chile failed to protect an American citizen, and is therefore responsible for his death on the following grounds:


1.The American Couselet failed to provide protection for an American citizen by telling
him (Charles Horman) that they could not assist him and turning him away from
Couselet.

2. The government after being advised by Mrs. Horman that her husband was missing
failed to properly investigate and file a missing person report with the necessary
agencies investigating Charles Horman’s Death. The government on numerous
occasions lied about their knowledge and participation in the murder.

3. The government protected and ignored threats and suggestions of a murder
which was provided by Colonel Ray Tower who often eluded to Charles Horman’s
murder before it was discovered.

The Seventh Journey ( South Africa, Soweto)

"Together we have travelled a long road to be where we are today. This has been a road of struggle against colonial and apartheid oppression…” Thabo Mbeki

A Dry White Season,(1989)by Andre Brink

In the Book, A Dry White Season, The story is being narrated by the narrator (not Ben Like in the Movie). And it begins with the death of Ben Du Toit, a 53- year-old white Afrikaner man killed on the road by a hit-and-run driver( No driver identified) .The hit and run barely makes the news and only covers a few lines on the fourth page of the evening newspaper. The person retelling the story is not Ben, but an old college friend of Ben whom he trusted. They had only met two weeks before his death. Ben was acting strange , and the narrator thought that Ben may need a vacation. But during their meeting, Ben asked him to hold on to a pile of “papers and stuff”. On these papers he had “written it all down,” he had told the narrator; “they’ve taken it all from me. Nearly everything. Not much left. But they won’t get that. You hear me? If they get that there would have been no sense at all” (p. 13). Then slowly the narrator tells the story.


In my opinion, this opening should have been how the movie began. I believe it pulls the audience in and provides a valid reason to support and believe in this cause: Ben gave his life, so it must be true. I think it would have been better than hearing and watching as Ben lived it.

The Sixth Journey ( Rwanda)

No one can demand that you be neutral toward the crime of genocide. If there is a judge in the whole world who can be neutral toward this crime, that judge is not fit to sit in judgment… Gideon Hauser.


In We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda (1998) by Philip Gourevitch


The word “genocide” is a word that any decent person would not want to define, or after learning the meaning would like to believe that this act has victims and suspects. Personally, it is a word and an act that I would like to forget and hide away forever. However, I must return to reality and explain my feelings about a case of genocide that was vicious like Adolph Hitler’s act of genocide in Germany. In We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch, I was introduced to an up close and painful story that detailed man’s inhumanity to man. In a matter of months more than 800,000 people were killed in churches, their homes, jobs, and on the street. The book told about unexplainable annihilation of the Tutsi tribe by its kin tribe the Hutsis.
From the beginning of the book, the authors disconnect and disassociation with the way he explained the horrific acts made me wonder: Do people in the world enjoy reading about human actions that are unfathomable? Stepping on sculls and viewing rooms filled with dead bodies that amounted in such great numbers that they could not be buried, is this our way of life? But, truthfully, could he have explained it another way, no. Throughout the book, Gourevitch provides a vivid picture of people who were slaughtered and died without dignity or grace. Their corpses were left to rot or become the meal of a hungry animal.
After I read about the people who escaped the killings and those who were accused of the acts, I learned a lot more than the movie Hotel Rwanda explained. I learned about the history of the two groups and how their great dislike for each other has caused many acts of genocide in the last forty or fifty years. People who shared the same blood line and heritage found it within themselves to be evil. Of course, it is easy for me to find the solution to their problems while I sit in my house in Washington, DC. Black people killing other black people, I know I may not politically correct with the terms, but that is what is, right? It hurt to the core of me. This was more than a film or a book for me. It was my history and my connection to pain.
Nonetheless, I am an advocate of telling the world about anyone who is causing harm. And, the Hutsis are definitely the ones on display now. I believe the cinema reaches more people. And if I could change or add to the movie Hotel Rwanda, I would provide more history. I would explain how this was not the first act of genocide executed by the Hutsis. I would also explain why people who are the victims continue to live where they are not wanted. The book interviewed Tutsis who had relocated after an earlier act of genocide. I think this too should have been added to the movie. The role of Paul R. and his wife were different, and I think because of the nature of the movie, their roles should have stayed true to the book. I also think the courageous acts of others like Dr. Odette, and Thomas K should have been added to illustrate their heroic acts. To close the movie, I would explain how some of those responsible were punished and how the survivors will never be the same.

The Fifth Journey ( Palestine)

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding… Albert Einstein.


Paradise Now (2005) Hany Abu-Assad, director

Please support this Oscar Nomination

Despite the theme, the sensitive topic, and people on both sides who have lost their lives, I do not believe the movie should be removed from the Oscar Nomination. The petition to revoke the movie from the nomination, asserts that the movie glorifies the suicide bomber. I disagree, in fact the movie illustrated less violence then most movies of the era. The writer of the letter points out excellent human qualities of the bomber. He/she is human. They probably have doubts, and that they to may too be the victims of some type of injustice. It also explained how other forms of resistance could be the catalyst that could stop the deaths. If we and other Palestines, do not hear this from a group that represents them, they may not feel that change can be bought about differently.
I agree with the counter-petition, finally, we get a possible other side of the issue. We get to see who the bomber is and why he/she commits this act. This could also could provide us with a method or solution to change his/ her mind. Perhaps the solution is for Israelis to leave since it appears that they have used their power to force the Palestinians out of the location. Perhaps the suicide bomber must stop killing because it will not resolve the problem. Without a truce, both sides are wrong. I feel that this is the true theme of the movie, and this is why it deserves the Oscar Nomination and a chance to receive it. It is very complicated, and I am unsure of my total and proper understanding of the situation. Furthermore, an intellectual assessment can not be formed if the facts are not presented whether they hurt or not. And ,this movies allows people like myself to see what may be happening outside of their world.

The Fourth Journey ( Iran)

"What is a hero without love for mankind..." Doris Lessing
Zinat (1994), by Ebrahim Moktari

List three poignant scenes
that were impotant:

The scene where Zinat’s mother-in –law leaves
the clinic after Zinat has treated a male patient. The mother–in-law overhears other patients laughing about his partial nudity and she leaves. From the very beginning, Zinat is torn between serving her patients or her mother-in-law. The mother-in-law stomps away of angrily and although Zinat is not happy, she stares at the back of the leaving woman. She looks as if she has lost her best friend. But she remains in the clinic. I believe it is here that Zinat has decided that she would not be able to abandon her medical career. The next is when her father has forbidden her to work, but she sneaks off to treat a patient, when she returns he beats her and locks her in her room, she cries like she would rather be dead the abandon her patients. The last is when her father burns her uniforms, she stares are him with great disappointment, and she throws her medical bag on the fire too, as if she lost all hope.

I did not understand why her parents sent her to medical school only to stop her practice knowing that another doctor will not come to their village for two years. They were not concerned with the health of others?


I would re-create the roll of Zinat's husband by having him create a plan where she could work at the clinic half of the day. He could have some poor village children come in and assist his mother with the housework. Because he already stood up to his family when he said, “Zinat or nobody”.