Ráday Salon

"NO!" at MigHelp

Our long-time Salon friends have become very familiar with the powerful documentary about race and sexual assault, "NO!", made by Michael's daughter, filmmaker and activist Aishah Shahidah Simmons, as we have screened it at the Salon on many occasions over the years. This year, at the intersection of what is designated in the US as Women’s History Month (March) and Sexual Assault Awareness Month (April) -- and in the era of the #MeToo movement and an intense public focus on sexual harassment and sexual assault -- we took the opportunity to partner with Migrants Help Association of Hungary (MigHelp) to bring "NO!" to a new audience.

 

On Thursday, March 29,the documentary was screened at MigHelp, with a broadly diverse audience in attendance. The post-film Q & A and discussion on the ever-present problem of abuse against women was as intense and thought-provoking as ever, with a wide range of perspectives offered by participants from several different cultural backgrounds.

Celebrating MLK day with Eyes on the Prize

To commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, the "Documentaries and Discussion" series at the Greene Street Friends Meeting in Philadelphia invited Michael to host a screening and discussion of an episode of Eyes on the Prize.  This documentary, the seminal account of the civil rights movement filled with contemporary archival footage and in-depth interviews with numerous activists and participants in the movement, has been a Ráday Salon staple since our inaugural event -- see our Eyes on the Prize category for all our previous posts on the documentary, which include links to more information about the series.

Much of the discussion following the film focused on the work that still needs to be done to fight discrimination in the United States, and on the challenge of continuing to motivate young people to social and political activism today.  For an excellent overview of the event, see the article published by local writer and photographer Jenny Swigoda, Eyes still on the prize in Germantown, on Newsworks.org, a new source of Philadelphia area news produced by the public broadcaster WHYY.

Ráday Salon evening -- Murder on a Sunday Morning -- Thurs. Apr. 30, 7pm

For our April Salon we will bring back one of our favorite human rights films, Murder on a Sunday Morning, which we first showed in 2006. Winner of the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Film, Murder on a Sunday Morning tells the story of a 15-year-old African-American boy who is arrested and put on trial for the murder of a Florida tourist – even though the only thing he appears to be guilty of is being an African-American male walking near the neighborhood where the crime happened. The one piece of luck the young man has is that he is assigned a particularly sharp, determined, and committed public defender as his lawyer – and the story of how they take on a "justice" system with injustice at every level makes for suspenseful and often jaw-dropping watching. To repeat what we have said before about the film, regardless of what you think you know about the racism in the US, this film will both shock and uplift you.

RE: VERZIO Documentary Film Series

Each fall, Budapest is the site of Verzio, an excellent human rights film festival that brings to the screen dozens of human rights documentaries from dozens of countries around the world. The 2008 Verzio Festival included more than 50 films from over 27 countries -- and still, this leaves out many worthy films that do not make the final selection.

Fortunately for us, the Verzio organizers have introduced a spring film series to help fill the gap. The 2009 RE: VERZIO Documentary Film Series showcases seven films --  four audience favorites at the 2008 festival, and three new films that were not shown at the fall festival.

The first film in the RE: VERZIO Series is Anna, 7 Years on the Frontline, winner of the Audience Award at the 2008 Verzio Festival. The film (which we were able to see back in November) is a compelling portrait of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who became well known for her passionate commitment to reporting on the conflict in Chechnya, and whose October 2006 murder remains unsolved. The documentary includes interviews with Politkovskaya's colleagues and friends, as well as many conversations with the journalist herself, as she describes her work, its dangers and challenges, and what drives her to keep pressing on. 

Anna, 7 Years on the Frontline will be shown Wednesday, April 1, at 6pm, at the OSA Archivum, Arany János u. 32., (in the 5th district near Arany János metro stop). 

All films in the RE:VERZIO Series are shown in the original language with English subtitles.  

The series continues with a film every week for the next seven weeks.  To see the full schedule, keep reading below.

Fifth Annual Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, November 4-9, 2008

We are always happy to pass along news of Budapest events that we think would interest our Salon friends.  Today we would like to let you know about an excellent film festival that will be happening in Budapest this coming week. The Verzio Festival is an annual human rights documentary film festival held every fall in Budapest, offering a wealth of films from around the world. This year a special section of the festival is devoted to films focusing on China.

We have attended the festival every chance we have had in the last several years, and can highly recommend it. Tickets for individual films will cost 650-800 HUF, but Festival pass tickets can be purchased for just 4000 HUF through November 3rd. (Starting Nov 4th, the pass price goes up to 4500). Films will be shown at the Toldi and Cirko Gejzir cinemas in the V. district.

The festival runs from Tuesday Nov 4 to Sunday Nov 9, 2008.

We encourage you to check out as many of the films as you can -- and please help spread the word about the festival, too.

Ráday Salon Evening -- Screening of "Freedom's Fury" -- Thurs., Oct. 30

In 2006, in the context of the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, we held a special event at the Salon, focusing on personal stories of this momentous political and historical event. This year, in keeping with our interest in seeking out the "human" side of such events, we would like to mark the 1956 anniversary with the screening of a film that tells the story from an unexpected perspective.

Freedom's Fury is a US-made documentary film released in 2006 (audio in English, Hungarian, and Russian, with English subtitles). It follows the unfolding story of the '56 Revolution with a parallel focus on the Hungarian men's water polo team as they prepared to take part in that year's Olympics games in Melbourne, Australia – where, as fate would have it, they would meet their country's political nemesis, the Soviet Union, on a different field of battle, the water polo pool, in the Olympic semi-final match. The match that resulted still stands as probably the most famous water polo match in history, known for the "blood in the water" that resulted from the rough play between the teams, and especially the famous injury to one player that brought the game to an end. To tell their story, the makers of Freedom's Fury gathered together many of the players from both the Hungarian and Soviet sides of the match, and their interviews make the film a compelling look at the dramatic events of 1956.

We will be joined by journalist and human rights activist Balázs Nagy Navarro, who will offer a brief presentation and moderate our discussion. Balázs is a radio, TV, and newspaper journalist with extensive experience in international affairs, and spent ten years covering Asia and Europe for Hungarian public television. As an activist, Balázs has many years of experience working with many different organizations, including Amnesty International, and is a former Chair and current member of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International Hungary. He also brought and won an important discrimination lawsuit against Hungarian public radio on the issue of equal pay for equal work. Balázs can currently be heard as host of Mindenki joga (Everybody's rights), a weekly talk show on human rights issues on Civil Radio 98FM, airing every Monday from 10am to 12pm.

For more background on Thursday's salon, we invite you to explore the following links:

• Visit the official website of Freedom's Fury
• Read Wikipedia's page on the "Blood in the Water" match
• Visit Civil Radio on the web at http://www.civilradio.hu
• View the program webpage for Mindenki joga (in Hungarian)
• Read about our 2006 event on the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution
• Listen to the audio of our 2006 event – highly recommended!

Photos from recent Salons

Many thanks to all of you who attended the June 1st showing of Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ documentary film NO!. The event attracted a wide group of people – not just old friends but also some new faces – and the film itself generated an extremely active and spirited discussion, which lasted well after the end of the film. You can get a sense of just how much people were involved in the discussion from the photos, available here or by clicking the link in the Salon Photos menu to the left.

Also newly available in the Salon Photos section are a (very) few photos from our first Salon of the new cycle, when we showed the film Murder on a Sunday Morning. 

Further reading on Murder on a Sunday Morning

Thanks to all of you who were able to join us last week for the official "re-opening" of Ráday Salon.  We are glad to be back!  Photos from the evening will be up soon.

But first, we wanted to provide you with some links related to the case featured in the film.

For example, the notes at the end of the film mention that the Butler family was planning to file a civil suit against the Jacksonville Police Department.  That case was settled in 2002 for $775,000.   News items about the settlement can be found on a website called Injusticebusters.com.  (It is not clear who is responsible for the site, but the articles included there appear to be reprints of stories from various newspapers.)  Further information about the case can also be found by following the first few links at the top of the page. 

A review of the film available on the Guardian Unlimited website describes how the filmmakers came to focus on Brenton Butler's case, and, among other things, mentions that even after the acquital, the prosecutor wrote to the press saying she still believed Butler was guilty.

Brenton Butler's own book about the case was published in 2004. (The news item  about the book is found on the website of a Jacksonville newspaper that requires registration. If you would prefer not to register, first visit BugMeNot.com. This website is maintained by people who are opposed in principle to the idea of having to register to read news stories online -- functioning usernames and passwords are listed publicly here to be shared and used by anyone.)

Save the date! Thursday May 4th

Ráday Salon will be returning in just a few weeks!  Our second "season" will begin on Thursday, May 4th, with a showing of the film Murder on a Sunday Morning. 

Watch this space (or your email inbox) for more details very soon!!!