by Kelsey Pennington

    The Orange County chapter of the United Nations Association-USA held its 2nd annual Film Festival on October 9th at the Folino Theatre, in Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Last year’s festival focused on the rights of children around the world. This year’s theme was UN Millennium Development Goal #3: Promoting gender equality and empowering women. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez was present to give a few opening remarks about how Congress works in conjunction with the UN to ensure that those people who seek change in the world have that right protected.
The festival opened with “Sarabah,” an upbeat film from Senegal that features Sister Fa, who is trying to reach the people of Africa through her music. Rapping about empowerment and political issues, she is working with considerable success to end traditional Senegalese practices that endanger the lives of women and girls.
    Student filmmaker Taylor Capretz was at the festival to answer questions after her documentary “Suffer Little Children” was screened. Capretz was only fourteen years old when she began trying to break stereotypes about AIDS by traveling to the countries with the highest AIDS rates and making documentaries about the endemic problem. She began in Nepal, where she found that the root cause of the problem in that country was sex trafficking.
The Invisible Children organization sponsored guest speaker Nancy Acii, a woman from Northern Uganda, who is currently on scholarship and studying nursing in the United States. Acii lived through much of the 25-year war in Uganda and witnessed countless atrocities, including seeing both her parents killed when she was just seven years old. The trauma of helplessly watching her father die in her arms gave Acii her passion for medicine so she would be able to help her people. She encouraged audience members to “do more than just listen,” because “this war is only going to end if we all do something about it.”
    “Fighting the Silence,” a film from the Congo, set out to educate people around the world about the use of rape as a weapon of war. It sends a positive message about the power of speaking up. “Night Bloom,” a short film about sex trafficking made by Chapman graduates Laura Sands and Trent McGee, was screened next. Although not a documentary, the film got its point across by giving viewers a glimpse of what being forced into sex trafficking might be like. That film was followed by a documentary from Ghana, “Giving Women Credit,” about micro-financing and the education of women. Women in Ghana who lack an education cannot work in cities, so they may end up doing manual labor in rural areas. Women’s Trust is a grassroots nonprofit loan program that enables women to buy what they need to get started in small businesses. The women are expected to pay back the loans eventually, not immediately, so they have enough time to stabilize themselves. Thus far, the payback rate has been 100% and Women’s Trust is a real success story for women.
    The afternoon ended with closing thoughts from the festival coordinator, Jaclene Roshan, who thanked the audience for coming and being so receptive to the films and ideas presented throughout the day. All films seemed to be well received and during Q&A periods people offered encouragement to the filmmakers who were present and asked how regular people could be more involved in making the necessary changes around the world to empower women. The 2nd annual UNA-OC Film Festival was a successful and enlightening event for all who attended.