Award-winning filmmaker Callum Macrae visits Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) on Monday, February 2, for a screening of his documentary No Fire Zone. His investigation into the final days of the 26-year Sri Lanka civil war sheds light on the government's brutal military offensive and incorporates direct evidence of war crimes, summary executions, torture and sexual violence via footage recorded from within the zone.
Macrae incorporated footage of the horror of this war in a way almost never done before: both the victims and perpetrators used mobile phones and small cameras–powerful actuality from the battlefield, from inside the crudely dug civilian bunkers and over-crowded makeshift hospitals.
Macrae will also discuss his continuing efforts to raise awareness of these human rights issues—considering the lines between journalism and advocacy. His visit comes against the backdrop of recent elections in Sri Lanka that saw a change in government and an anticipated report due this spring from a UN war crimes inquiry.
No Fire Zone is one of five films to win the 2014 BRITDOC Impact Award, which celebrates standout documentary films that are changing the world. The documentary also was nominated for an International Emmy Award.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Macrae, Pulitzer Center senior editor Tom Hundley, and Kate Cronin-Furman, a human rights lawyer and political scientist whose research focuses on international justice and accountability for mass atrocities.
Reception to follow.
"No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka"
Monday, February 2
12:30-3 pm
School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)
Columbia University
420 W. 118th Street
Room 1512
New York, NY 10027
To RSVP, please click here.
Presented by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, in partnership with the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, the Human Rights Working Group, and the International Media, Advocacy, and Communications program at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.