Professor Safia Swimelar’s POL389 class on International Human Rights is screening films for their Human Rights Film Festival. The fifth of their film series is “Darwin’s Nightmare” and will be shown in McEwen 011 auditorium on Monday, Nov. 12 at 7:00 p.m. This is a great opportunity to get cultural event credit while learning about human rights.
To get a glimpse of the movie, click on the link to the right.
Or read the synopsis below:
Only the fittest survive in this moving documentary by Hubert Sauper about hard-scrabble life in Tanzania. While hungry Tanzanians are left to fend for themselves on whatever they can get their hands on — fish heads, scraps — their waters are emptied of perch that’s imported to wealthier nations. Weapons are brought in far more often than food and clothing for the needy, as the country teeters on the brink of devastation. (From Netflix)
Darwin’s Nightmare is an interesting, intertwined look at the relationships between the illicit arms trade, civil wars, environmental damage, poverty, AIDS and African relations with the West. “Darwin’s Nightmare” won a European Film Award for Best Documentary in 2004.
If you have any questions at all, please contact Katie Meyer (kmeyer3@elon.edu) for more information!
Swimelar’s International Human Rights course (POLS 389) has organized this human rights film series in order to spread awareness at Elon of diverse and global human rights issues and to examine the role of images and film in our understanding of human rights. As part of their course requirements and for educational purposes only, students will briefly present on different aspects of the film and will lead a discussion with the audience.