Here’s a festival that’s attempting to spread peace across the world through film. Hey, can’t blame them for trying, right? It’s the Global Peace Film Festival and it’s going down in Orlando, Florida at the Loews Cineplex Universal CityWalk, December 10-14.
Among the topics and issues Festival organizers will present at this premiere event are Arms Build Up and War Reparations, Conflict and Resolution, Environmental Peace, Global and Community Mediation, Interfaith Efforts Towards Peace, Media and its Role in a Democracy, Peace Activism, Protecting Women and Children, Providing Safe Environments For Innocents and Non-Combatants.
The films will be divided up into the following four thematic areas: War and Peace, Community, Family and The Middle East.
A fifth section will be made up of Films OF Conflict and Resolution (a selection of the films from the 2003 Hamptons International Film Festival, programmed by HIFF). There will also be a section of Shorts.
The Global Peace Film Festival will open on Wednesday, December 10, 2003 with “PeaceJam” (US, 65 min., documentary) directed by Dennis Flippin and Dawn Engle. The film follows five teens over a six year period as they face the stark realities of growing up in the USA today, and as they work side-by-side with leading Nobel Peace Prize Laureates – including the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, and President Oscar Arias – and learn how to become leaders in their own communities. The 1987 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former President of Costa Rica, Dr. Oscar Arias, will be the Festival’s honored guest on this inaugural night.
The inaugural GPFF closes with “I Am David” (US, 90 min., narrative) directed by Paul Feig, adapted from Anne Holm’s internationally acclaimed novel North to Freedom. It is the story of a 12-year-old boy, David, who escapes a Communist concentration camp with little more than a compass, a sealed letter, a loaf of bread, and instructions to carry the letter to Copenhagen, Denmark.
In between, GPFF will present will present 10 narrative features, 22 documentaries and 23 shorts from over 30 countries.
For more info, visit the Global Peace Film Festival website.
