Religious Hatred: Massacre in New Zealand

New Zealand: One of the darkest days of Newzealand unfolded on Friday, as a white supremacist walked into a mosque and shot down over 49 people. The Bangladesh cricket team, which escaped being a few meters away from the mosque described that the event looked like straight out of a film, with people running out of the building drenched in blood. The attack is even more disheartening when one realizes that the shooter live-streamed the event on his Facebook channel through a camera mounted on him. Online platforms were quick on taking down the video, as adviced by New Zealand Police. 

At this time of increasing prejudice and Islamophobia, films like 'Monsieur Claude and his daughters' encourage people how to deal with cultural and religious differences using humor and tolerance instead of violence. 

Monsieur Claude and his Daughters

World Students go on strike for Climate Change

Before the Flood

World: On Friday, Students from over 123 countries and 2000 cities all around the world went on strike against the irresponsibility of the governments in tackling climate change. The strikes unfolded as a part of a worldwide movement by school children, which was started by Greta Thunberg, a 16- year old Swedish climate activist. The Documentary film "Before the Flood" talks about the dangers of Climate Change and possible solutions. 

Chelsea Manning: Collateral Murderers walk free, revealer in prison

United States: Chelsea Manning has been sent back to jail again. This time for refusing to answer questions before the grand jury investigating Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. 

Manning was released after seven years into her 35-year sentence, as Barack Obama commuted her sentence three days before he left the office. She was convicted for disclosing hundreds of thousands of classified military documents to WikiLeaks. Most popular among them, the “Collateral Murder” footage. The footage shows US military helicopters with 30mm cannon fire, raining fires on a group of people, among whom were two Reuters news employees and children. 

The right to remain silent is given to all citizens in over 108 nations around the world, including the United States. Daniel Ellsberg, one of the most popular whistle-blowers, like Manning, responded saying this is an effort “to get her to contribute to incriminating WikiLeaks so that they can bring Julian Assange or WikiLeaks to trial on charges that would not apply to The New York Times.”

Assange's partner Jacob Appelbaum told us that Wikileaks expects to be treated like journalists and not like a foreign agent or a military unit.

The question remains for courts as well as  Senators and Congressmen as lawmakers in the US: why are the killers of civilians, journalists, and children not prosecuted, while the person who revealed the killings is sitting in jail? The US has introduced measures like the Magnitzki Rule of Law, for which Cinema for Peace supported Bill Browder, in order to prosecute killers from foreign countries, starting with Russia, but why do not the same standards apply in the USA?

Collateral Murder Footage

Nasrin Sotoudeh - Iran's Nelson Mandela?

Iran: Human Rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, the European Parliament Sakharov human rights prize honoree, has been sentenced by Iran to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. She was convicted for removing her mandatory headscarf and insulting Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini. 

Iran's justice system creates many female victims. Capital punishment through stoning, although not officially recognized by law, is still not completely abolished. Cinema for Peace honored two inspiring films in 2010 that talks about this issue, Women in Shroud about female lawyers fighting for justice in Iran, and The Stoning of Soraya M.

With the imprisonment of female lawyers and human rights activists, the regime in Iran provokes the West to follow US president Trump.

Women in Shroud

The Stoning of Soraya M