SHSS to Host 8th Annual Common Ground Film Festival

Founded in 1982, Search for Common Ground (SFCG) works to transform the way the world deals with conflict – away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving. The organization works with local partners to find culturally appropriate means to strengthen societies’ capacity to deal with conflicts constructively: to understand the differences and act on the commonalities

Each year SFCG holds an annual film festival in Washington, DC, and a national student film competition to encourage a common ground ethos among future filmmakers. The films presented at the festival demonstrate that workable solutions can be found to contentious problems. Each year the films travel to colleges and universities throughout the United States.

SHSS has hosted the Common Ground Film Festival since 2002. This year, SHSS will showcase films as follows:

Pray the Devil Back to Hell—72 minutes

Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 6:00 p.m.

This film tells the gripping account of a group of brave and visionary women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to shreds by a decades-old civil war. The women’s historic achievement finds voice in a narrative that intersperses contemporary interviews, archival images, and scenes of present-day Liberia together to recount the experiences and memories of the women who were instrumental in bringing lasting peace to their country.

War Dance—105 minutes

Thursday, February 17, 2011, 6:00 p.m.

Since the 1980s, Uganda has been in a state of civil war, with the nation’s leadership contested by a revolutionary force-the Lord’s Resistance Army (L.R.A.). In Patongo, a group of students struggle to rise above the violence. When the students of the Patongo Primary School are invited

to compete in a student music festival for the first time, the children are both thrilled at their opportunity and determined to prove that in a place of violence and want, creativity and talent can still take root.

Peacing It Together—65 minutes

Sunday, February 20, 2011, 6:00 p.m.

Converging on a secluded island off the west coast of Canada, a group of Israeli, Palestinian, and Canadian teenagers participated in a unique peace and filmmaking camp. Organized by the Peace It Together Society, the three week experience brought together enemies from across the globe to the forests of British Columbia where they learned to live in harmony. During the Peace it Together summer program, award-winning filmmakers Erik Paulsson and Nova Ami followed Israeli and Palestinian youth to produce this powerful documentary.

Holy Wars—84 minutes

Monday, February 21, 2011, 7:30 p.m.

This film follows two deeply committed men of faith—one a Muslim, the other a Christian—as they travel the world spreading messages they both feel represent the truth. The Muslim, an Irish convert living in London, advocates for a global jihad that will ultimately render his faith dominant. The Christian, living in the American heartland, sees Muslims as the enemy and considers it his duty to convert the unenlightened.

Beyond Belief—92 minutes

Monday, March 7, 2011, 6:00 p.m.

Susan Retik and Patti Quigley are two ordinary soccer moms living in the affluent suburbs of Boston until tragedy strikes. Grief compels these women to focus on the country where the terrorists who took their husbands’ lives were trained: Afghanistan. Over the course of two years, they dedicate themselves to empowering Afghan widows. As Retik and Quigley make the journey from their comfortable neighborhoods to the most desperate Afghan villages, they discover an unlikely kinship with widows halfway around the world.

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