November-December | 2022
News & Updates
Spotlight
Rights! Camera! Action! Film Series
Now in its thirteenth year, the Duke Human Rights Center’s Rights! Camera! Action! film series features documentaries focused on human rights-related themes across the globe. Our Fall 2022 films The Law in These Parts and Mossville: When Great Trees Fall, as well as our planned Spring 2023 screenings of Reversing Roe and Nasrin, aim to provide an opportunity to connect the Rubenstein Library’s extensive holdings on human rights and social justice to the Duke and Durham community.
The Law in These Parts
On October 26th, the Duke Human Rights Center held a film screening of The Law in These Parts. The documentary explores the story of military occupation in Palestine through testimonies of the military legal professionals who were the architects of the military court system and helped run it in its formative years. Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, internationally-acclaimed director, screenwriter, and editor of The Law in These Parts, took time after the film to answer questions from the audience. He discussed the artistry and strategy that went into his film and how he focused on testimonies from military legal professional so not to only point a camera at Palestinian suffering. He also described the aftermath of his film and how it elicited both support and disdain from those he interviewed.
Mossville: When Great Trees Fall
On November 10th, the Duke Human Rights Center held a film screening of Mossville: When Great Trees Fall. The documentary, directed by Alexander Glustrom, premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in 2019, where it won The Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights. The film focuses on Mossville resident Stacey Ryan, whose family lived for generations in the small, predominantly black community in southeastern Louisiana. Ryan refuses to leave his home in Mossville, despite the town being poisoned by the Sasol chemical plant. After the film, Mossville's Executive Producer, Michelle Lanier, talked with DHRC co-director Dr. Erika Weinthal about the role of documentary film in activism and the environmental justice movement.
The Rights! Camera! Action! Film Series continues in the Spring semester with Reversing Roe on January 19 and Nasrin on March 8. More information about these films can be found on our website.
In Case You Missed It . . .
Miss any of our Fall 2022 events, such as the "Recalling Warren County: The Birth of a Movement" panel discussion or the "Environmental Justice in the Latinx Community" webinar? You can watch these recordings and more on our YouTube Channel.
You can also check out our website for past publications about our Fall 2022 events, including a write up about the Ar-Razzaq Islamic Center exhibit at Perkins Library and an interview with rapper/activist Brother Ali, who performed in Durham last October.
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The Duke Human Rights Center @ the Franklin Humanities Institute brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, staff and students to promote new understandings about global human rights issues.