Submitted by admin on Thu, 2007-03-22 08:00. ::
“We seek to empower everyone with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a very real difference,” said an advertisement from the Jesuit University of San Francisco.
The advertisement announced that the university was hosting a Human Rights Film Festival from March 19-21. The festival offered selections from the Human Rights Travelling Film Festival, which, this year, featured films that “help to put a human face on threats to individual freedom and dignity, and celebrate the power of the human spirit and intellect to prevail,” said the advertisement.
Some of the films shown at the festival might aid the human spirit. There was Yaipota Nande Igui-Queremos Nuestra Tierra (We Want Our Land), which details the struggles of indigenous peoples in Argentina against exploitation by a multinational company. Another, Maquilapolis, is about two Mexican women who fight labor rights violations and environmental degradation caused by foreign-owned maquiladoras (factories).
The university’s LGBTQ Caucus prepared a March 21 program, “Many Faces of Queer Civil Rights,” for the festival. One of the offerings, A Civil War, details a child custody battle between “two mothers” (one, the biological mother and a former lesbian, the other, “the child’s non-biological parent.”) “Child custody fights are commonplace but with two mothers now residing in separate states and fighting for custody of a minor child, this particular case holds significant political and social ramifications for the LGBT community,” says the festival advertisement.
The Caucus’ program featured as well One Wedding and a Revolution about San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom’s 2004 granting of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. “This 20-minute film reveals the inspiration, motivation and political challenges behind the mayor's landmark decision,” says the festival advertisement. “It contains now-historic footage of the tearful exchange of vows between long-time lesbian activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon who, celebrating their 51st anniversary, were the first couple to tie the knot.” The film has won awards from several homosexual film festivals.
Listed among the sponsors for the Human Rights Film Festival were not only the University of San Francisco’s College of Arts and Sciences, Performing Arts and Social Justice group, and Gender and Sexualities, but the office of the university provost and University Ministry.
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