Please join us for our next Coffee Talk Film Viewing: Voices in Exile

“Voices in Exile,” which chronicles the struggle of the Tibetan people for their culture and for their very lives, is the most important film you can see this year…a mini-masterpiece”

-Norman Shoaf, City Editor, Antelope Valley Press

When: Thursday, November 15 at 7 p.m.

Where: Classroom 2A

Popcorn will be served. We look forward to seeing you all there!

Click here to view the Flyer.

Please join us tomorrow, Thursday September 11 at 7 p.m. in Classroom 1 for our first Coffee Talk of the Semester: The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.

We will be showing the film, with a short discussion afterwards. Also, you will have the opportunity to sign an online petition.

Popcorn will be served.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Please join us on Wednesday, July 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Classroom 1 for our second Coffee Talk of this semester: “Gaza Strip.”

A refreshingly unfettered look at the Israeli-Palestinian situation in the occupied territory, Longley’s documentary is a unique experience, a film which gives a voice to a population largely ignored by the mainstream media. Shot almost entirely in a cinema vérité style and presented without narration, the film focuses on ordinary Palestinians rather than politicians and pundits. GAZA STRIP is an extraordinary and painful journey into the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip struggling with the day-to-day trials of the Israeli occupation.

In January of 2001, Longley traveled to the occupied territory. His plan was to stay for two weeks to collect preliminary material for a documentary film on the Palestinian Intifada. It was during his stay that Ariel Sharon was elected as Israeli Prime Minister. As violence erupted around him, Longley threw away his return ticket and filmed for the next three months, acquiring nearly 75 hours of footage. GAZA STRIP follows a range of people and events following the election, including the first major armed incursion into “Area A” by IDF forces during this intifada. More observation than political argument, GAZA STRIP offers a rare look inside the stark realities of life under Israeli military occupation.

Click here for a PDF version of the flyer.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the Coffee Talk: Darfur Diaries last night.

For those of you who did not have a chance to send an email to President Bush to speak out against rape and sexual violence in Darfur, please click here now.

We look forward to seeing all of you again at our next Coffee Talk!

Please join us on Thursday, June 28 at 7 p.m. in Classroom 1 for our first Coffee Talk of this semester: “Darfur Diaries.”

After decades of oppression, marginalization and increasing violence at the hands of the Sudanese government, the Sudanese Liberation Army in Darfur (the western region of Sudan) took up arms in 2003. The government and allied militias, known as Janjaweed, answered the rebellion with large-scale murder of civilians, mass rapes of women and girls, and destruction of villages—resulting in one of the world’s largest current political and humanitarian crises.

In October, 2004 three activists snuck across the Sudanese border into rebel-held territory to document the atrocities in Darfur. They returned with some of the first footage exposing the massive war crimes being perpetrated by the Sudanese government.

“Let us use [Darfur Diaries] as a wake-up call.” – Paul Rusesabagina

Click here for a PDF version of the flyer.

Please join us on Thursday, March 15 at 7 p.m. in Classroom 2A for our first Coffee Talk of this semester: “Where a hospital becomes a war zone.”

We will be watching a movie titled, “Baghdad: A Doctor’s Story,” and discussing it afterwards.

Popcorn will be served. We look forward to seeing you there!

Here is the description:

Baghdad: A Doctor’s Story
Filmed exclusively by an Iraqi doctor, This World reveals the terrible conditions of a civilian emergency room in Baghdad.

Al Yarmouk Hospital is in the most dangerous area of Baghdad.
Sectarian violence is tearing the city apart and ambulance crews go from one dangerous mission to another.
Talking on camera is dangerous, but here patients and doctors speak out.
Wherever they go, the doctor is there with his camera.
“People don’t know what is going on in Iraq,” he says, “they can’t hear the Iraqi people screaming.”
In the constant stream of news reports from Iraq, the voice of ordinary people seems to have been lost.
In this film, we hear from them directly… and get a harrowing insight into everyday life in Baghdad.

For a longer description, visit here.