Notes from the Field: Creating a New Story Through Art in Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina

Notes from the Field: Creating a New Story Through Art in Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina

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By Janine White, Program Coordinator for the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University From May 23-28, 2013, I participated in the Most Mira-Humanity in Action (HIA) International Exchange. Most Mira (Bridge of Peace) is a peacebuilding NGO in northern Bosnia, and its founder, Kemal Pervanic, was a 2012 participant ISHR’s Human Rights Advocates Program. HIA is a human rights education NGO based in the US and with offices in several European countries, including Bosnia. Through this project, HIA Senior Fellows supported Most Mira’s annual youth arts festival, involving children in a drama program that culminated in a rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. During the 5-day festival, Senior Fellows and Most Mira staff, along with other experts in this field, also came together to discuss the challenges and opportunities that this local NGO faces within the current political context in post-conflict Bosnia. This blog post, previously published here, is a summary of my impressions and reflections from this...
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Granito: How to Nail a Dictator

Granito: How to Nail a Dictator

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An Interview with Filmmaker Pamela Yates By Jennifer Wilmore, student at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs  Pamela Yates is an American documentary filmmaker and co-founder of SkylightPictures, a company dedicated to creating films and digital media tools that advance awareness of human rights and the quest for justice.  In 1982, at the age of 24, she traveled to Guatemala to shoot footage of the hidden war unfolding there between the military government and guerrilla forces. While in Guatemala, Yates also witnessed the government’s genocidal campaign being carried out against the Mayan people mostly, in which at least 200,000 individuals were killed, “disappeared” or forced into exile.  Skylight Pictures used this footage to create a film called When the Mountains Tremble, which won the Special Jury Award at the 1984 Sundance Film Festival. Since then, Yates has created films on a variety of issues, including poverty and homelessness in the United States, terrorism, and the International Criminal Court. Her current Sundance offering, Granito: How To Nail a Dictator, takes viewers...
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