Search Results for "political prisoner"

The story of how, in 1970, the social activism of young UCLA philosophy professor Angela Davis led her to become involved in a failed kidnapping attempt that ended in a shootout, four deaths, and her name on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

I am Kepler, an exile from the planet Guarding. A long time ago, I asked myself a question: "What am I?" Since then, I began a long search for the meaning of my existence. When I finally got the answer, the day of exile was approaching...

The late Farouk Abdel-Muhti was born in Ramallah, Palestine in 1947. His mother died when Israeli Occupation forces refused to let his family through a checkpoint to reach a hospital. He came to the U.S. in the late 1970s. A well-known figure in the activist community who has worked hard for the cause of human rights, Farouk was one of several Palestinian activists across the country who have found themselves in immigrant detention after protesting Israel's military operations in the West Bank and Gaza. Farouk was arrested April 26, 2002 by a team of task force officers as a result of a January 2002 Justice Department initiative directing agents to arrest immigrants with outstanding deportation orders, specifically targeting those from the Middle East and Pakistan.

Into the Current tells the story of Burma's unsung heroes -its prisoners of conscience -and the price they pay for speaking truth to power in a military dictatorship.

Memories of a Dreamer is a first person account of the hardship suffered by a political prisoner from Chile's 1973 cruel dictatorship. Felix Mora recounts shocking details of the torture he endured, his escape from the dictatorship and the challenges he has faced as an exile in Italy and Canada. The question is has Felix allowed torture and exile to shatter his dreams of obtaining justice and being able to return to Chile? Or has he used that suffering as a force to accomplish that dream?

Vahid, an Azerbaijani auto mechanic, was once imprisoned by Iranian authorities. During his sentence, he was interrogated blindfolded. One day, a man named Eqbal enters his workshop. His prosthetic leg creaks, and Vahid thinks he recognizes one of his former torturers.

“Entre el grito y la celda” is a film adaptation of the theatrical monologue “Lolita", which has been performed locally and internationally for the past 11 years, with over 60 performances in 5 countries, 5 states in North America, and more than 40 municipalities in Puerto Rico. The story is set in late 1954, when political prisoner Lolita Lebrón had already been sentenced to 50 years in prison at the federal prison in Alderson, West Virginia, for leading an attack on the United States Congress. The film explores Lolita's life and patriotic thoughts through poetic language, intertwining her three most significant aspects: her fervent religiosity, her fight for justice from the perspective of a young woman and mother, and her patriotic bravery to risk her freedom for causes and values she firmly believed in. The movie highlights the themes of national identity and the struggles of a resilient woman who became, for many, the Mother of the Puerto Rican Nation.

A prison in Valencia hosts an event recognizing political prisoners jailed during Franco’s reign. The reunion proves more raucous than the organizers intended.

Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.

A chronicle on the days without Jorge Julio López, key witness and complainant on the first trial on genocide in Argentina, dated in 2006. López, who had survived through concentration camps on the late seventies argentinian dictatorship, disappeared for the second time the day the court decision meant to condemn his kidnappers was about to be read.

When Russian neo-nationalists hijack Air Force One, the world's most secure and extraordinary aircraft, the President is faced with a nearly impossible decision to give in to terrorist demands or sacrifice not only the country's dignity, but the lives of his wife and daughter.

Valentín, a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina, a window dresser convicted of public indecency. The two form an unlikely bond as Molina recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite silver screen diva, Ingrid Luna.

In the summer of 1977, a political prisoner, living in exile, recounts the circumstances of his escape to a journalist: in April 76, a group of ETA members planned to escape from prison, but the project fails when, due to a tip-off, the guards discover the tunnel they are digging. The inmates, far from being discouraged, start a second tunnel.

It’s the last dictatorship of Europe, caught in a Soviet time-warp, where the secret police is still called the KGB and the president rules by fear. Disappearances, political assassinations, waves of repression and mass arrests are all regular occurances. But while half of Belarus moves closer to Russia, the other half is trying to resist…

A moving portrait of Chilean singer-songwriter and political activist Victor Jara (1932-73) that chronicles the life of the talented artist who was imprisoned, tortured and machine-gunned by the country's dictatorship.

An intimate exploration of the circumstances surrounding the incarceration of Native American activist Leonard Peltier, convicted of murder in 1977, with commentary from those involved, including Peltier himself.

A Cuban emigre, living in Miami and involved in an affair with the American seaman who rescued her and her daughter years earlier, must face her husband after he is unexpectedly released from a Cuban prison.

COINTELPRO 101 exposes illegal surveillance, disruption, and outright murder committed by the US government in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. “COINTELPRO” refers to the official FBI COunter INTELigence PROgram carried out to surveil, imprison, and eliminate leaders of social justice movements and to disrupt, divide, and destroy the movements as well. Many of the government's crimes are still unknown. Through interviews with activists who experienced these abuses first-hand, with rare historical footage, the film provides an educational introduction to a period of intense repression and draws relevant lessons for the present and future.

The ocean contains the history of all humanity. The sea holds all the voices of the earth and those that come from outer space. Water receives impetus from the stars and transmits it to living creatures. Water, the longest border in Chile, also holds the secret of two mysterious buttons which were found on its ocean floor. Chile, with its 2,670 miles of coastline and the largest archipelago in the world, presents a supernatural landscape. In it are volcanoes, mountains and glaciers. In it are the voices of the Patagonian Indigenous people, the first English sailors and also those of its political prisoners. Some say that water has memory. This film shows that it also has a voice.

Told through the stories of five former prisoners, this is the story of political activists sent to the notorious Robben Island prison in the 1960s by the apartheid regime, who rise above their incarceration by creating a football league and finding an outlet for their passion and commitment to discipline through the Beautiful Game.

In the summer of 2001 the Taliban strategically captured 24 Shelter Now International Aid hostages that captured the attention of the world for more than three months. With representatives from the United States, Australia, Germany and Afghanistan, the Taliban set out to create an insurance policy against the pending attacks of September 11th. What transpired through their story was an overwhelming journey of faith, grace and endurance. Based on the true story as told by the captives, Kabul 24 captures the gantlet of their 105 days in captivity and the cruel treatment of the Muslim co-workers at the hands of the Taliban who accused them of converting to Christianity. Revisit their journey from the grueling interrogation to their sham "trial" before the Taliban Supreme Court, to the dangers endured during the bombing of Kabul and a crushing sense that the world had abandoned them.

In this adaptation of the critically acclaimed debut novel by Iranian American author Dalia Sofer, a secular Jewish family is caught up in the maelstrom of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

A South African political prisoner is tortured to obtain information on apartheid conspirators. Ten years later, the head officer in charge of the questioning is similarly held as prisoner and questioned about his past offenses.

Youssef Soltane, a 45-year-old Tunisian intellectual, is the product of a generation that lived the era of euphoria and great ideologies in the sixties, and their subsequent failure. He was incarcerated and tortured for his political opinions. Furthermore, his relationship with Zineb, a young, beautiful bourgeois, only brings him more trouble. During one long winter night, Youssef wanders in search of an emotional haven, prey to all the questions that flood his memory.

The never-before-told story of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love – a spiritual group of surfers and hippies in Southern California that became the largest suppliers of psychedelic drugs in the world during the 1960s and early 1970s. Bonded by their dreams to fight social injustice and spread peace, this unlikely band of free-spirited idealists quickly transformed into a drug-smuggling empire and at the same time inadvertently invented the modern illegal drug trade. At the head of the Brotherhood, and the heart of this story, is the anti-capitalistic husband and wife team, who made it their mission to change the world through LSD.