Documentary Film & Human Rights: Filming the Grey Areas

Organisation: City Circle

Time: 29 October 2010 6:45pm -

Place: Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place, London W1

City Circle presents:

DOCUMENTARY FILM & HUMAN RIGHTS: FILMING THE GREY AREAS

SAEED TAJI FAROUKY 

Saeed Taji Farouky tells stories of human struggle through documentaries that took him to the depth of Gaza's trade tunnels and the heart of the Algerian desert passing by Lebanon, Burundi and his hometown, London. Unlike other human rights documentaries with a clear activist agenda or their opponents work to dismiss their claims, Saeed seeks grey areas where the moral ambiguities of such issues are found. His works document the stories of individuals and allows the audience to draw their own conclusions about their stories.

In this talk, Saeed will share with us his approach to creating human rights documentaries and the need to be critical of the causes we support. The talk will be illustrated with the screening of some parts of his films I See The Stars At Noon, Tunnel Trade, and his latest project, The Runner. The Runner is the story of Salah Ameidan, a world-champion long-distance runner from Western Sahara, who left behind his family, his athletics career and his citizenship to run for his nation's independence.

Friday | 29 October 2010 | 6.45pm

Abrar House
45 Crawford Place
London
W1H 4LP

For further information please visit:
www.thecitycircle.com

About the Speaker:
Saeed Taji Farouky is a Palestinian-British documentary filmmaker, journalist and photographer. His work has been broadcast by Channel 4, CBC (Canada) and Al-Jazeera English and published in The Observer, The Guardian, The Independent and The Telegraph. His work is concerned with human rights and social justice, with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa. In 2004 he founded Tourist With A Typewriter along with Gareth Keogh as a response to the scarcity of high-quality, accurate and personal documentary films. Saeed is a TED2010 fellow.