the rescuers picturing moral courage
conference schedule 14-16 July 2011
Braenchild
C J R
design Konrad Adenauer Stiftung
Thursday, 14 July 2011 10:00am - 6:00pm Student Check-in at Hotel Hecco 6:00pm - 7:00pm Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) Promotional Event at Hotel Europe 7:30pm - 8:30pm Unveiling of “Rescuers” photography exhibition in
the BBI Centar - Opened by the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Mayor Alija Behmen, and German politician Mr. Stefan Schwarz 9:00pm - 12:00am Student Meet & Greet/Welcome Event at Hotel Europe
• Paul Lowe, Photographer and Course Director of the Master’s program in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communications • Anisa Sučeska-Vekić, Director of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network • Velija Hasanbegović, Photographer and survivor of the Višegrad genocide Panel - Option 2 - Media & Social Change - Film, TV, & Documentary Production Moderator - Stephen Smith, Executive Director of Shoah Foundation and Founder of Aegis Trust • Ahmed Imamović, Director of “Belvedere” and “10 Minutes” • Mirko Pincelli, Founder of PINCH Media, photographer, photojournalist and filmmaker • Maria Simanić-Arnautović, Journalist and magazine editor and host for TV Liberty
3.30pm - 7:00pm
Friday, 15 July 2011
Break
9:00am - 9:30am
Opening Remarks U.S. Ambassador Patrick S. Moon & Brigadier General Gary E. Huffman (NATO)
9:30am - 9:40am
Introductions by Organizers • Velma Šarić and Leslie Woodward, founders of the Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC) • Leora Kahn, founder of PROOF: Media for Social Justice
9:40am - 10:40am
Keynote Speaker Ervin Staub - “Heroic Rescue and the Prevention of Violence: Active Bystandership in Extreme Times”
7:00pm - 8:15pm
Screening of “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” Produced by Abigail Disney
8:15pm
Q&A Session with Abigail Disney
Saturday, 16 July 2011 9:00am - 10:20am
11:00am -12:30pm
Panel - Public Education Radio Projects: Using Radio Dramas to Prevent Violence and Promote Reconciliation in Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo. Moderator - Christi Sletten, Representative of the Post-Conflict Research Center
Panel (Option 1) - Education & Social Change Moderator - Alexandra Wald, Representative of the Post-Conflict Research Center • Goran Bubalo, Project Director of Catholic Relief Services, Sarajevo and Coordinator of the Network for Building Peace • Dino Abazović, Director of Human Rights, University of Sarajevo • James Smith, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of the Aegis Trust, both in the UK and Rwanda • Sanda Üllen, PhD candidate focusing on memory, identity, and belonging in post-war societies
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Panel (Option 2) - Education & Social Change Moderator- Elmina Kulasić, Representative of the Post-Conflict Research Center • Dinka Čorkalo Biruški, Head of the Postgraduate Program in Psychology, University of Zagreb • Sandra Sladaković, Executive Director of CIVITAS • Stefan Schwarz, German politician • Stephen Smith, Executive Director of Shoah Foundation and Founder of Aegis Trust
10:40am - 11:00am Coffee Break
Ervin Staub, Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Director of the Ph.D. concentration on the psychology of peace and prevention of violence Laurie Anne Pearlman, Co-Founder of the Traumatic Stress Institute/Center for Adult and Adolescent Psychotherapy and the Trauma Research, Education, and Training Institute George Weiss, Founder and CEO of Radio Benevolencija Humanitarian Tools Foundation and Head and CEO of Metropolitan Pictures
12:30pm - 1:30pm Lunch
10:20am - 10:35am Coffee Break
1:30pm - 2:15pm
10.35am - 11.15am
Keynote Speaker Abigail Disney, Filmmaker, Founder and President of the Daphne Foundation
2:15pm - 3:30pm
Panel - Option 1 - Media & Social Change - Photography & Journalism Moderator - Leora Kahn • Leora Kahn, Founder and Executive Director of PROOF: Media for Social Justice
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Panel - The Youth Speak Out Moderator - Sunshine Ison, Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina • Tatjana Milovanović • Kemal Karić • Hajrudin Ćoralić • Borislav Buljić • Luka Idžaković
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11.15am - 12.00pm
Student Breakout Sessions Option 1 - “Creating Dialogue through Drama,” run by Yosefa Forma (New York University) Option 2 - “Using Sports for Social Change,” run by Sara Brown (Clark University)
12.00pm - 1.00pm Lunch
Picturing Moral Courage: Stories of Survival
1:00pm - 1:30pm
Keynote Speaker Franjo Komarica, Bosnian Croat Roman Catholic prelate and Bishop of Banja Luka since 1985
Brigadier General Gary E. Huffman US Army, Commander of NATO HQ Sarajevo
1:30pm - 2:30pm
Panel - The Rescuers Moderator - Vanja Pantić, Representative of the Post-Conflict Research Center • Mina Jahić, Bosnian Rescuer • Suada Šešum, Bosnian Rescuer • Danilo Nikolić, Bosnian Rescuer • Fehrid Spahić, Saved by Mina Jahić
keynote speakers
Prior to taking command of NATO HQ Sarajevo, General Huffman was the Deputy Brigade Commander of the 155th Brigade Combat Team, Mississippi Army National Guard, Tupelo, Mississippi. As the Deputy Brigade Commander, his primary responsibility was to assist the Commander to ensure the BCT was a combat ready force capable of accomplishing federal missions assigned by a Combatant Commander or state missions assigned by the Adjutant General. He served as the Brigade Commander’s principal advisor on all matters and functioned as the Commander in the Brigade Commanders absence. He served as the primary coordinator for all administrative, personnel, and logistics functions, and was the primary resource allocator to accomplish all unit missions. In February 2003 General Huffman was assigned as Battalion Commander 2-114th Field Artillery. He deployed to Iraq with 2-114th Field Artillery, designated as a Provisional Infantry Battalion, from January 2005 through January 2006. His battalion served in the Karbala Province and the volatile Al Anbar Province where General Huffman was wounded in combat action November 2005. Upon his return from Iraq in January 2006, General Huffman was assigned as Chief of Staff 66th Troop Command until his assignment in February 2007 as Operations Branch Chief, Joint
2:30pm - 3:00pm
Keynote Speaker Lieutenant-General Roméo Antonius Dallaire, Canadian senator, humanitarian, author, retired general, and rescuer during the Rwandan genocide
3.00pm - 3.30pm
Presentation of “Višegrad Genocide Memories” by Velija Hasanbegović
3:30pm -5:30pm Break 5:30pm - 7:00pm
Screening of “Belvedere” Directed Ahmed Imamović
7:00pm
Q&A Session with Ahmed Imamović
Supporters • PROOF: Media for Social Justice • Braenchild Design & Media • North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) • Konrad Adenauer Stiftung • Hotel Europe • Vermont Youth Centre, Brcko • BIRN, BiH • Association of Concentration Camp Detainees, • Bosnia and Herzegovina • Association of Concentration Camp Detainees, Republika Srpska
• PINCH Media • Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) • The Center for Justice and Reconciliation (CJR) • Radio Free Europe • TV Liberty • Radio BIR • d!m - Dražen Grujić and Marko Pejović • Radio Sarajevo • BlackBox art&print
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Patrick S. Moon U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Ambassador Patrick S. Moon was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina on September 10, 2010. A career member of the Foreign Service, Ambassador Moon previously served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs; as the Coordinator and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Afghanistan. Other domestic assignments include Office Director for Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, and Office Director for Afghanistan in the Bureau for South and Central Asian Affairs. His overseas postings include Vice Consul in Beirut; Administrative Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Lubumbashi, Zaire; Executive Secretary of the U.S. Negotiating Group for Strategic Nuclear Arms Negotiations (START) in Geneva; U.S. Delegation to the negotiations on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) in Vienna; U.S. Mission to NATO and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia.
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panelists Force Headquarters Mississippi Army National Guard. In August 2007 he was selected as Deputy Commander 66th Troop Command and promoted to Colonel. Outside of the military, General Huffman has had a successful career in the private and public sector. After graduation from college he was a partner in the family’s cattle and row crop farm. He began service with the United States Postal Service in 1973, advancing to serve as the Postmaster in three different cities. He became a Federal Military Technician and worked full-time for the Mississippi Army National Guard until his retirement in May 2011. Brigadier General Huffman holds a number of awards and decorations, the most significant being the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal (with 1 Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster), the Army Commendation Medal, and the Army Achievement Medal (with 1 Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster).
Overcoming evil: genocide, violent conflict and terrorism and a number of edited books. He is the former president of the International Society for Political Psychology and of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence. His projects in field settings include a training program for the state of California after the Rodney King incident to reduce the use of unnecessary force by police, in the Netherlands to improve DutchMuslim relations, and in New Orleans to promote reconciliation after hurricane Katrina. Staub has also conducted trainings, seminars and educational radio projects in Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo to promote psychological recovery and reconciliation, workshops for raising caring and non-violent children, and a program for Training Active Bystanders in schools to reduce harmful behavior by students. Abigail Disney Filmmaker, Co-Founder & Co-President of the Filmmaker, Co-Founder & Co-President of the Daphne Foundation, and board member of Roy Disney Family Foundation, The White House Project, the Global Fund for Women, the Fund for the City of New York,& Peace is Loud
Dr. Ervin Staub Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, & Director of the Ph.D. concentration on the psychology of peace & the prevention of violence
Abigail Disney is a filmmaker, philanthropist, and scholar known for her documentary films focused on social themes. She launched Peace is Loud, an organization that supports female voices and international peacebuilding through nonviolent means. Peace is Loud organized a 2009 Global Peace Tour as part of the UN’s International Day of Peace. Co-Founder and co-President of the Daphne Foundation, which funds programs that confront the causes and consequences of poverty in the five boroughs of New York City with a particular interest in grassroots and emerging organizations. Her upcoming television project, “Women, War & Peace,”
Dr. Ervin Staub received his Ph.D. from Stanford. He taught at Harvard and was visiting professor at Stanford, the University of Hawaii and the London School of Economic and Political Science. He studied the roots of altruism, and the origins of genocide and mass killing as well as violent conflict, terrorism, their prevention, psychological recovery and reconciliation. His books include the two volume Positive social behavior and morality; The roots of evil: the origins of genocide and other group violence; The psychology of good and evil: Why children, adults and groups help and harm others;
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is currently in production for PBS Wide Angle by Fork Films, Disney’s production company which was established in 2007. Her films include “Pray the Devil Back to Hell”, “Playground”, and “Family Affair”. Dr. Laurie Anne Pearlman Co-Founder of the Traumatic Stress Institute/ Center for Adult and Adolescent Psychotherapy & the Trauma Research, Education, & Training Institute
Franjo Komarica Bosnian Croat Roman Catholic prelate & Bishop of Banja Luka since 1985 Franjo Komarica studied theology in Innsbruck in Austria, and was for a long time the youngest member of the Bishop’s Conference in Rome. He was President of the Bishops’ Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina for several years. During the Yugoslav wars he did a great deal to help people. For this work he has received numerous awards, both from the European Union and the Franz Werfel Human Rights Award.
Dr. Laurie Anne Pearlman received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Connecticut in 1987. She co-founded the Traumatic Stress Institute/Center for Adult & Adolescent Psychotherapy in 1986 and the Trauma Research, Education, and Training Institute (TREATI) in 1996. She is currently an independent trauma consultant based in Massachusetts. Dr. Pearlman is a member of the complex trauma task force of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, a fellow of the American Psychological Association, and senior psychological consultant for the Headington Institute. Dr. Pearlman has devoted her career to promoting the understanding of traumatic stress, its impact on survivors and those who work with survivors, and its amelioration. She has pursued these goals through research, psychotherapy, theory-building, professional training and consultations (including clinical and research supervision and organizational consultations), court evaluations, and community and crisis intervention work, at the national and international levels. She has worked with individuals, groups, psychotherapists, humanitarian staff, front-line social service providers, clergy, and others who assist traumatized populations.
Lieutenant-General Roméo Antonius Dallaire Canadian senator, humanitarian, author, retired general, & rescuer during the Rwandan genocide Lieutenant-General Roméo Antonius Dallaire is widely known for having served as Force Commander of UNAMIR, the ill-fated United Nations peacekeeping force for Rwanda between 1993 and 1994, and for trying to stop the genocide that was being waged by Hutu extremists against Tutsis and Hutu moderates. General Dallaire is a Senior Fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) and Co-Director of the MIGS Will to Intervene Project that recently released a policy recommendation report “Mobilizing the Will to Intervene: Leadership and Action to Prevent Mass Atrocities.”
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George Weiss Founder of Radio Benevolencija Humanitarian Tools Foundation & Head of Metropolitan Pictures
for the International Criminal Court. Leora curated an exhibition on child soldiers in collaboration with the UN’s Office on Children and Armed Conflict. It has traveled to Rome, New York, Vienna, Bonn, Mexico City and Japan. Leora’s film credits include “Rene and I”, an award-winning documentary about the life an extraordinary woman who was experimented on by Josef Mengele during the Holocaust. She also coproduced “Original Intent”, a documentary that explores the judicial philosophy promoted by President George W. Bush. Leora has been a fellow in the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University where she conducts research on rescuers and rescuing behavior and this year was the Cathy Cohen Lasry Visiting Lecturer at Clark University’s holocaust and Genocide Center. She lectures and teaches widely on topics in human rights and photography and transitional justice.
George Weiss founded Radio Benevolencija in 2002, and, as a result of his work for La Benevolencija Sarajevo in the early 1990s, he was inspired to set up media projects that would teach people to resist manipulation to violence, and to promote a solidarity pact between victims of hate violence. The project has gained international acclaim for its unique combination of applied psychology with education-entertainment techniques. In addition to running Radio Benevolencija, Weiss is also head of Metropolitan Pictures, a documentary production company based in Amsterdam. In the 1980s, he produced three feature films and was responsible for the worldwide distribution of blockbuster films such as “Dances with Wolves”, “Henry V”, and “Driving Miss Daisy”. Since then, he has produced more than 20 international documentaries. Originally from Austria, Weiss holds a BA in Communications and Media from the State University of New York.
Paul Lowe Photographer & Course Director of the Master’s program in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communications Paul Lowe is an award-winning freelance photographer and teacher living and working between Sarajevo and London. His work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, Life, Der Spiegel, The Observer and The Independent amongst others. He has covered breaking news the world over, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nelson Mandela’s release, the Rwandan genocide, the destruction of Grozny and the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, especially in Bosnia. He recently published his first monograph, entitled Bosnians, covering the war and post
Leora Kahn Founder and Executive Director of PROOF: Media for Social Justice Leora works on global projects with Amnesty International and the United Nations. Her 2007 book Darfur: 20 years of War and Genocide has won several awards and an exhibition of this work is traveling in the US under the auspices of the Holocaust Museum of Houston. Her book, Child Soldiers, features an introductory essay by Louis Moreno Ocampo, chief prosecutor
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war situation in Bosnia. He is currently developing an online educational program for developing-world photographers in conjunction with the World Press Photo Foundation in Amsterdam. Since 2004, Lowe has been course director of the Masters program in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication.
the best collection at the Exhibition of the Association for Art Photography BiH in Zenica in 2010. This exhibition will be presented for the first time at this conference. Ahmed Imamović Director of 10 Minutes & Belvedere Ahmed Imamović was born in Sarajevo in 1971. He majored in Directing at Sarajevo’s Academy of Performing Arts, and has worked as cameraman, assistant director and screenwriter for documentaries and commercials. In 2002, his film “10 Minutes” was awarded Best Short Film at the European Film Awards. His first feature film, “Go West”, won the Audience Award for Best Film at the 2006 BosnianHerzegovinian Film Festival in New York. “Belvedere”, his second feature film, was released in 2010 and is currently screening around the world. An emotionally rich portrait of the Bosnian war’s troubled aftermath, director Ahmed Imamović’s Belvedere paints an uncommon image of patience, faith, love, and above all, forgiveness.
Anisa Sućeska-Vekić Director of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) Anisa Sućeska-Vekić is the BosniaHerzegovina Director of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. Prior to that, she worked with several leading EU and UN institutions and donor groups, including the OSCE, the Election Department in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and the UN Development Program. In 2004, she moved to Iran, where, as Chief of Support, she worked on the International Organization for Migration’s Afghan and Iraqi Elections Program. From 2005 to 2007, she served as a Program Manager for Women for Women International BiH. A member of several development groups in BiH, Ms. Sućeska-Vekić has worked as a consultant and evaluator for projects on gender, civil society, sustainability, and social and cultural development in the region.
Mirko Pincelli Founder of PINCH Media, photographer, photojournalist & filmmaker Pincelli specializes in reportage photography and visual, character-led short documentaries. He graduated with a BA Honours in Photography from the University of East London at the department of Architecture and Visual Arts. He worked four years for an established media production company before starting his own creative company, ‘Pincelli Studio’.
Velija Hasanbegović Photographer & survivor of the Višegrad genocide Velija Hasanbegović, a survivor of the Višegrad genocide, was 16 years old when he escaped from the execution at the Višegrad Bridge. His work received the award for
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Marija Simanić-Arnautović Journalist and magazine editor & host for TV Liberty Marija Simanić-Arnautović began her career as a journalist in the Balkan region in 1998. From 2002 to 2003, she worked as an editor for the news agency MINA. In 2003-2004, she was a journalist and television news editor in Sarajevo Canton. Since then, she has worked in the Sarajevo office for Radio Free Europe as a journalist, reporter and news editor. Additionally, Ms. SimanićArnautović serves as a magazine editor and host for TV Liberty.
General of Atelier for Philosophy, Social Sciences and Psychoanalysis, Sarajevo. He has published a number of articles and chapters in South-Slavic languages.
Migration studies: Transnational Studies, Identity and Belonging; Anthropology of Violence: Genocide Studies, Human Rights; Political Anthropology; and Memory.
Dr. James Smith Co-Founder & Chief Executive of the Aegis Trust, both in the UK and Rwanda
Dr. Dinka Čorkalo Biruški Associate Professor & head of the Postgraduate Program in Psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb in Croatia
During the crisis in Kosovo in 1999, Dr. James Smith initiated the East Midlands Kosovo Appeal and worked with the International Medical Corps in Albania and Kosovo as a volunteer physician. (He is a medical doctor, qualified Leeds, 1993). Dr Smith worked with the Rwandan Government and Kigali City Council to develop the Kigali Memorial Centre in 2004. Hundreds of thousands of genocide victims are buried there. The site is now an internationally renowned educational exhibition and documentation center. He is also co-founder of the UK Holocaust Memorial and Educational Centre, where the lessons of history are applied to the prevention of mass atrocities and is visited by over six hundred students each week.
Goran Bubalo Project Director of Catholic Relief Services & Coordinator of the Network for Building Peace A Sarajevo native, Mr. Goran Bubalo is most well known for his excellent evaluation and policy research skills, coupled with a multitude of professional experience in the Western Balkan region. His main areas of focus are empowering youth, conflict prevention, development, civil society and good governance.
13) Sanda Üllen Ph.D. candidate focusing on memory, identity, & belonging in post-war societies
Dr. Dino Abazović Director of the Human Rights Center of the University of Sarajevo & Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Sarajevo
Sanda Üllen is currently obtaining her Ph.D. at the University of Vienna where she is working on her thesis dissertation entitled, “Contested Memories – Dynamics of individual and collective memories on (trans) national discourses, identities and belonging in post-war societies”. Additionally, Üllen was a Lecturer at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University Vienna. Her research interests include:
Dr. Dino Abazović’s research invterests include human rights culture, processes of democratization in post-conflict societies, Sociology of Knowledge and Sociology of Religion. He has been the first Chairperson of the Steering Board of Balkan Human Rights Network as well as the Secretary
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on civic education, youth activism, peacebuilding and interculturalism. Since 1996, CIVITAS has trained more than 35,000 teachers from all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and donated over 1 million textbooks to schools. CIVITAS also developed a module on intercultural education and implemented it in 60 elementary schools from all parts of the country. CIVITAS citizen competitions and Brčko summer camps connect more than 40,000 students from all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina annually. The CIVITAS program remains the only curricula, textbook and competition shared by all students in the country. With extensive media outreach (“News for Youth” TV show and Wake-up newspaper), the organization is bridging young people within Bosnia and beyond.
Dr. Dinka Čorkalo Biruški works in the Society for Psychological Assistance and her research interests are in the area of ethnic identity and inter-group relations, with an emphasis on divided communities. She has been investigating issues of ethnic/national identity and nationalism, the role of social context in trauma recovery and reconciliation, and post-war social reconstruction processes in divided communities. In 2003-2004, Dr. Čorkalo Biruški was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she was doing a research comparing the nature of patriotic and nationalistic identifications among American and Croatian students. In 2005, she received the annual National Scientific Award for the contribution to the understanding of social reconstruction processes in communities affected by the war trauma.
Stefan Schwarz German politician Stefan Schwarz is a German politician who belonged to the 12th German Bundestag from 1990 to 1994. Schwarz criticized Serbian war crimes during the Bosnian war and is an honorary citizen of Sarajevo. After his time in parliament, Schwarz worked as a lobbyist. Dr. Stephen Smith Executive Director of the Shoah Foundation & founder of the UK Holocaust Centre & Aegis Trust
15) Sandra Sladaković Executive Director of CIVITAS Sandra Sladaković was recently named Executive Director of Center for Democracy and Human Rights Education CIVITAS. Prior to her current appointment, Sladaković served 8 years as the Grant Compliance Manager and Project manager in CIVITAS, successfully leading numerous projects
Dr. Stephen Smith is a holocaust specialist who has started, operated and consulted on various Holocaust memorial and education centers including Lithuania’s ‘House of Memory’ and the Cape Town Holocaust Centre in South Africa. He
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exhibitions received his Doctorate from the University of Birmingham where he focused his postgraduate study on the ‘Trajectory of Memory’, examining how Holocaust survivor testimony developed over time.
Ferhid Spahić This brave man escaped his own execution and ran to the home of a woman named Mina, seeking help after being brutally beaten by his aggressors. Spahić hid in the garden to ensure no one would report his whereabouts, until he was brought inside to heal from the physical and mental trauma endured from his unforgettable experience.
Mina Jahić Bosnian rescuer U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton recognized several individuals and their families for their part in saving the lives of others during times of war and genocide. One of the honorees was Bosnia’s own Mina Jahić who, in 1994 during the war in Bosnia, saved the life of Ferid Spahić, who had been turned away by Mina’s neighbors.
organizers Velma Šarić Founder and Executive Director of the PostConflict Research Center
Suada Šešum Bosnian rescuer
Velma Šarić, has extensive academic and professional experience in the fields of sociology, genocide studies, and international law and war crimes. She is a journalist by training and has worked for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN). She has also worked as a researcher and fixer on numerous publications and films about the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, and has planned and implemented several successful Sarajevo-based international summer school programs, conferences, and workshops focusing on the themes of genocide, justice and reconciliation. Additionally, Šarić has worked with PBS on the film, “Women, War, and Peace”, which is scheduled for release this summer, and producer for the documentary “USPOMENE 677”, which reveals the legacy that concentration camp detainment has left behind in BiH, by observing the day-to-day experiences of 3 BiH teenagers and 3 former concentration
This courageous woman brought food, water, and supplies to a group of eleven prisoners being held captive in the basement of a home in her neighborhood during the war. She risked her life daily amidst many gunshots to bring these innocent civilians the necessary items they needed to survive. Danilo Nikolić Bosnian rescuer Nikolić was a hero to many families throughout the war. The Jewish community organized convoys from Sarajevo to Croatia during the height of the siege, but assisted members of all ethnic identities. 5,000 people were saved in these convoys and fortunately not one member was injured throughout the several journeys made by Nikolić to Croatia.
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“Višegrad Genocide Memories” by Velija Hasanbegović
camp detainees. Šarić recently coordinated the first UN workshop focusing on strategies for genocide prevention in Bosnia, and organized a conference on concentration camp detainment in coordination with the Association for Concentration Camp Detainees in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the summer of 2010.
“Bosnians” by Paul Lowe “The Rescuers” by Nicolas Axelrod, Sonia Folkmann, Riccardo Gangale, and Paul Lowe
Leslie Woodward Co-Founder and Project Director of the PostConflict Research Center
This exhibition presents the stories of ‘ordinary’ citizens, who, by choosing to rescue the ‘other’, became heroes in a time when their country was committing acts of genocide. The rescuers featured in this exhibition come from different countries and times; the Holocaust in Europe, Rwanda, Cambodia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Leslie Woodward holds a BA in Biology from Baylor University and an MA in International Studies, with a focus in strategic peacebuilding, research in developing contexts, and post-conflict development from the University of Denver. She has worked as a research manager for the Leadership Institute for New Sudan and as a researcher for the Center for Sustainable Development and International Peace on the development of peacebuilding and state building strategies for Somalia. Woodward recently coordinated the first UN workshop focusing on strategies for genocide prevention in Bosnia and cocoordinated a conference on concentration camp detainment in coordination with the Association for Concentration Camp Detainees in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the summer of 2010. Additionally, she is currently working as the creative developer for the documentary “USPOMENE 677”. Leora Kahn Founder and Executive Director of PROOF: Media for Social Justice The U.S. Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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films “Pray the Devil Back to Hell”
“Belvedere”
Pray the Devil Back to Hell chronicles the remarkable story of the courageous Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country. Thousands of women — ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim — came together to pray for peace and then staged a silent protest outside of the Presidential Palace. Armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they demanded a resolution to the country’s civil war. Their actions were a critical element in bringing about an agreement during the stalled peace talks. A story of sacrifice, unity and transcendence, “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” honors the strength and perseverance of the women of Liberia. Inspiring, uplifting, and most of all motivating, it is a compelling testimony of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations.
Belvedere is a film about the women of the Srebrenica who survived the genocide in Bosnia in the 1990s. It chronicles the consequences of war and tells the stories of women whose only goal has become to find the bones of their loved ones and give them a proper burial. Today, 15 years after the war, these women still only want one thing: the truth. This film also deals with the trivialities of everyday life in Bosnia, where people are characterized by their irresponsibility and superficiality.
A film by Abigail E. Disney The screening will be followed by a special Q&A session with Abigail.
A film by Ahmed Imamović. The screening will be followed by a special Q&A session with Ahmed.