It’s Baaack: 12th Annual Global Peace Film Festival returns to Orlando

The Global Peace Film Festival (GPFF) celebrates its 12th annual event fromSeptember 16 through September 21 in various locations in downtown Orlando, FL and Winter Park, FL.  This unique event draws together filmmakers and filmgoers from all walks of life into a community of people inspired to take action in their daily lives to leave the world a more peaceful place than they found it.

Two of the 45 films included in this year’s Festival are of local representation.  The film program begins on Tuesday, September 16 with a free screening of CinemAbility on The Green at Rollins College at 8:30 p.m.  UCF class of 1994 graduate and film director, Jenni Gold, will return to Orlando for the screening.  Narrated by Jane Seymour, the film is a thought-provoking and humorous journey through the history of disability portrayals in film and television and their impact on society.  It features Ben Affleck, Jamie Foxx, Marlee Martin, Helen Hunt and Geena Davis – to name just a few of the featured celebrities. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet Gold and talk with her about the film.

Southwest Orlando producers, Sheri and Mark Dixon, partnered with Sundance Film Festival-nominated director, Daniel Karslake, to create a documentary about the potential of five individuals ranging from age seven to 80 to make a difference to end extreme poverty and hunger, called Every Three Seconds.  The film can be viewed on Saturday, September 20 at 4:30 p.m. at the Winter Park Public Library and on Sunday, September 21 at 5 p.m. at Rollins College Bush Auditorium.  The Sunday screening will be followed by a panel discussion about taking action to end poverty and hunger with the Interfaith Council of Central Florida.

FILM LINE-UP

From Wednesday, September 17 through Sunday, September 21, films will be presented in the Bush Auditorium and the SunTrust Auditorium at Rollins College and at the Winter Park Library in Winter Park.  In downtown Orlando, films will be shown at the Cobb Plaza Cinema Café. Many filmmakers, producers and subjects will be in Central Florida for the Festival; and discussions can occur after the screenings.

OTHER GPFF EVENTS 

In addition to the film screenings and discussions, below are additional events that occur during the GPFF which are free and open to the public:

Monday, September 15, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.: Reception/Awards Ceremony for the Orange County Public Schools/GPFF Peace Art Exhibit of work by K-12 students.  For the ninth year, the Orange County Public Schools Service Learning Program and the GPFF partner to present the Student Peace Art Exhibit. The project allows the students the opportunity to discuss and reflect upon conflict resolution and peace; express their view of what peace means to them through art; and offer their own ideas f how to promote peace in their schools. Selected work will be on display in the Rotunda of Orlando’s City Hall throughout the week. Last year, more than 200 pieces of art was on display during the entire of week of the GPFF.

Friday, September 19, 6 – 8 p.m.: Party at Ten Thousand Villages, 329 N. Park Ave., Suite 102, Winter Park.  Shopping party with filmmakers and special guests.  A percentage of sales benefit the GPFF.  Light refreshments.  FREE and open to the public.

Panel Discussions: 4 p.m., Wed., Thurs. and Fri., Sept. 17 – 19 and Sat., Sept. 20 at 11 a.m. at The Alfond Inn, 300 New England Ave., Winter Park.  Free and open to the public.  (Please visit www.peacefilmfest.org for specific details.)

2014 Global Peace Film Festival Line-Up

Below are brief descriptions about each of the films being shown in this year’s GPFF. Dates, times, locations and fuller descriptions of each of the films can be seen at www.peacefilmfest.org.

The Film Festival opens with a free outdoor screening on The Green at Rollins College of CinemAbility (USA, 2013, 100 mins.) – a star-studded documentary exploring the evolution of “disability” portrayals in film and television. Hosted by Jane Seymour, interviews include Ben Affleck, Jamie Foxx, William H. Macy, Marlee Matlin, Geena Davis, Beau Bridges, Gary Sinis – and many more.

Additional features focused on issues of civil and human rights as relates to gender and abilities include:

• One – The Story of Love and Equality (USA, 2014, 102 mins.) is about the constitutional amendments banning gay marriage
• Pretty Old (USA, 2012, 85 mins.) looks into what it truly means to age beautifully
• Voices (USA, 2014, 70 mins.) offers a uniquely intimate, honest and raw glimpse of lives which are frequently confined to the shadows of society
• Weight Problem: Cultural Narratives of Fat and “Obesity” challenges the notions about the so-called ‘obesity crisis’ and ‘epidemic.’
• Short films include How to Touch a Hot Stove: Thought and Behavioral Differences in a Society of Norms (USA, 2014, 24 mins.) which points to complex variations in human experience and differences in perception; and Variations (USA, 2013, 24 mins.) conveys varied human experiences and disability as part of human diversity.

Films on the environment include:

• Connected by Coffee (USA/Central America, 2014, 70 mins.) a thought-provoking look into the lives and history of the people who grow the coffee we drink that will be shown with Kawomera: Plant, Pray, Partner for Peace (USA/Uganda, 2013, 16 mins.) that explores a new way of peace – through coffee
• Oil and Water (USA/Ecuador, 2014, 77 mins.) explores the fair trade of oil and cleaning up of one of the world’s dirtiest industries, shown with The Sacred Place Where Life Begins – Gwich’in Women Speak (USA, 2013, 19 mins.) that explores native people in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge protecting their sacred land from oil and gas development.
• Dear Governor Hickenlooper (USA, 2014, 70 mins.) looks at the world of hydraulic fracking in the state of Colorado and its concurrent environmental issues (shown with We Are the Land (USA, 2013, 14 mins.) about fracking on native homeland).
• A local community’s recovery from Superstorm Sandy is explored in This Time Next Year (USA, 2014, 90 mins.).
• From the Cabin to the Forest: A Portal into the Timeless Wisdom of Archie Carr (USA, 2013, 18 mins.) is a short local film that shows the distinctive ecological values of the Ocala National Forest. This will be shown withwith The Marion Lake Story: Defeating the Mighty Phragmite (USA, 2013, 30 mins.) which follows one woman who rallies her skeptical community to undertake the largest citizen-led invasive species eradication project in New York.
• Adelante (USA, 2013, 51 mins.) explores the renewal of a community located outside of Philadelphia, Pa.
• Beyond the Divide (USA, 2014, 85 mins.) is about healing old wounds and reaching across polarizing divides
• Lessons of Basketball and War (USA, 2013, 64 mins.) is about young Somali immigrants who come to the U.S. and the issues they – and the school they attend – face
• Pictures from a Hiroshima Schoolyard (USA/Japan, 2013, 82 mins.) tells the story of reconciliation and the power of the exchange of gifts.

Films from around the world include: 

• 17 Not Required Indians (India/United Arab Emirates, 2013, 75 mins.) is about human rights and modern day slavery, with short At a Distance (Australia/Pakistan, 2014, 7 mins.) shows a family trying to remain intact in a tumultuous community
• African Exodus (USA/Israel, 2014, 73 mins.) explores the issue of non-Jewish African refugees in Israel
• Women becoming Muslim leaders in Morocco is revealed in Casablanca Calling (UK, 2014, 69 mins.) shown with Madame Parliamentarian (USA/Lebanon, 2013, 16 mins.) that depicts women’s active participation in Lebanon’s political life.
• I’m Not Leaving (Rwamda/USA, 2014, 42 mins.) explores the journey of an American who stayed in Rwanda through the genocide and will be preceded by short film Stomp Out Genocide (USA/Africa, 2013, 7 mins.)
• Humanitarian aid in Haiti through laughter can be seen in Send in the Clowns: Changing the Face of Humanitarian Aid (USA/Haiti 2014, 82 mins.).
• The narrative drama Sold (India/Nepal, 2014, 95 mins.) explores child sex trafficking.
• 1971 (USA, 2014, 75 mins.) reveals the identities of some of the activists who broke into an FBI office in Media, PA, and stole hundreds of secret files to share them with the public.
• Cesar’s Last Fast (USA, 2014, 100 mins.) takes a first-hand look at Cesar Chavez’s legacy on today’s generation of farmworkers
• The need for election reform is explored in Pay 2 Play: Democracy’s High Stakes (USA, 2014, 87 mins.)
• Narrative short Moses on the Mesa (USA, 2013, 18 mins.), tells the story of a Jewish immigrant from Germany who became the leader of a Native American tribe during the days of the Wild West.
• Solutions are discovered in Every Three Seconds (USA, 2014, 99 mins.) when five regular folks decided to engage to end extreme poverty
• Paper City (USA, 2014, 87 mins.) explores how youth programs can keep children out of prison
• Unafraid: Voices from the Crime Victims Treatment Center (USA, 2014, 44 mins.) explores the impact of rape and the capacity of ordinary individuals to effect change.

Films about criminal justice include:

• The Cooler Bandits (USA, 2013, 112 mins.), which looks at two thieves and their reintegration into a world foreign to them
• The Other One (USA, 2013, 98 mins.) is a fictional narrative about the impact of violence on a family
• Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall (USA, 2013, 40 mins.) is an Academy Award nominated/HBO film about the last days of a prisoner; and short Alone (USA, 2014, 21 mins.) investigates youth in solitary confinement.