Series Description

This past December, TIME magazine named "The Protestor" as its 2011 Person of the Year. Instead of a well-known global leader, the publication pictured a bandana-clad woman from L.A. as a symbol of the myriad protesters who took to the streets and occupied public squares around the world, from the Middle East and Wall Street, to Moscow and China.

No matter what the cause, or where they took place, these protests had one fundamental, very human goal in common: They represented a plea for freedom and equality and united people of all nationalities and from all walks of life who, in their righteous search for basic dignities, have been treated with abasement and disgrace.

The University's fifth annual Human Rights Film Series intends to inspire all of us, as students, teachers, and citizens, to continue the dialogues initiated by these movements, and to consider those less well-off than ourselves-not only in financial terms, but in basic, fundamental human rights.

Our films address the global financial crisis directly (Inside Job), shed light on the environmental and human health impact of corporate greed (Bag It and Blue Gold), focus on the homeless (Lost Angels) and bring attention to women oppressed in patriarchal cultures (When We Leave).

To close out the series, we are extremely pleased to present the world premiere of Memory: A Holocaust Survivor's Story, a riveting documentary directed and produced by Duquesne's own Dr. Dennis Woytek. The film chronicles a Holocaust survivor's return to his native Poland and the concentration camp where he was imprisoned.

All these films share a common theme: Ordinary fellow citizens in search of human dignity who are all too often met with disgrace. Displaced American workers, the homeless on skid row in L.A., mothers who want to protect their children from carcinogens in the environment, farmers in Asia and Africa trying to protect their depleting water supplies from exploitative corporations, and women whose very lives are in danger because they dare to question the male-dominated order of their cultures.

It is our hope that the people we have encountered in these films will continue to occupy our own hearts and minds in the days ahead. May they encourage us to make a difference, each in our own way, in order to promote the dignity of all.

2012 Human Rights Film Series Committee

Edith Krause, Ph. D.
Karl J. Skutski, M. A.
Mark Frisch, Ph. D.
Timothy M. Lessick
Pittsburgh Human Rights Network (www.pittsburghhumanrights.org)