2007年VOA标准英语-Human Rights Watch Opens 18th International Fil

By Carolyn Weaver¹
New York
25 June 2007
 

The 18th annual Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, now underway in New York, is a collection of often harrowing films, both fictional² and documentary. They run the gamut³ of subjects, from environmental destruction to voting rights, to genocide and sexual assault as a weapon in war. 

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Bruni Barres, the Human Right Watch film festival director, says judges look for films with wide relevance

The 20 feature-length films and several shorts now playing at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater were culled⁵ from a field of more than 500, festival director Bruni Barres said in a recent interview. She said the festival looks for films with wide relevance, “that we hope really give a breadth of looking at some of the most important contemporary human rights issues of a particular year -- as well as the strongest, artistically-made documentary and fiction films. Because we think that's the strongest way to get a strong human rights message out."

This year’s festival opened with a French/Belgian film, Mon Colonel, directed by Laurent Herbiet, and co-written by famed filmmaker Costa-Gavras. It’s a drama set against the brutal⁶ history of France's 1950s war with pro-independence Algerian insurgents⁷.

Mon Colonel, a drama, is set against the history of the French war against Algerian insurgents

"The issue that it deals with,” said Barres, “a colonel who is asking those underneath⁸ his leadership, to use any means, [even] to torture, to get information from their captives, is really a universal issue that is quite important for everything that's happening in the world today. So, we thought that was very resonant⁹.”

The other opening night film also looked at government power. Lynn Hershman Leeson's Strange Culture uses cartoons, documentary footage, and dramatized re-creations to tell the not-yet-concluded saga¹⁰ of a Buffalo¹¹, New York political artist. When Steve Kurtz's wife died at home of a heart ailment¹² in 2004, emergency workers saw scientific equipment that the Kurtzes had been using for an art exhibit about genetically-modified food. They called the FBI. Terrorism charges were not filed, but Steve Kurtz still faces 20 years in prison if convicted on federal fraud charges stemming from how he obtained the supplies. 

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Strange Culture examines the government's investigation of American political artist Steve Kurtz

The festival features several other films set in the United States, including Election Day, a glimpse of 12 ordinary citizens around the country set to cast their votes for president on November 2nd, 2004. Another documentary, Everything's Cool, styles itself as a "toxic¹⁴ comedy," taking on the issue of global warming. Films from Africa include Lumo, a portrait of one of the thousands of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo whose bodies and lives were devastated¹⁵ by the use of rape¹⁶ as a weapon of war.

Carla's List, by Marcel Schupbach, is about the obstacles facing chief prosecutor¹⁷ Carla Del Ponte, head of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Her work must be concluded by September of this year, but some of its main targets, including Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, have not been apprehended¹⁸. The film suggests that is primarily because the Hague tribunal has no police power and depends on Serbia, Croatia and other members of the international community to make arrests.

Danish director Eva Mulvad's Enemies of Happiness tells the story of 28-year-old Afghan feminist¹⁹ Malalai Joya. She is a member of Afghanistan's parliament and has been the target of four separate assassination²⁰ attempts. She became famous in 2003 when she spoke²¹ up in Afghanistan's constitutional assembly to condemn²² the power of those she termed warlords. Enemies of Happiness, whose director and cinematographer are both female, shows Joya's life both at home and in the public sphere over many months.

Enemies of Happiness won the Human Rights Watch film festival's annual Nestor Almendros prize for courage and commitment in human rights filmmaking. "To travel and film Malalai Joya for that amount of time in Afghanistan, deciding not to have any bodyguards²³, so they would have freedom to travel wherever she went, took incredible courage,” said festival director Bruni Barres. 

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

3 gamut   

n.全音阶，(一领域的)全部知识

参考例句：

• The exhibition runs the whole gamut of artistic styles.这次展览包括了所有艺术风格的作品。
• This poem runs the gamut of emotions from despair to joy.这首诗展现了从绝望到喜悦的感情历程。

4 relevance   

n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性

参考例句：

• Politicians' private lives have no relevance to their public roles.政治家的私生活与他们的公众角色不相关。
• Her ideas have lost all relevance to the modern world.她的想法与现代社会完全脱节。

5 culled   

v.挑选，剔除( cull的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The herd must be culled. 必须有选择地杀掉部分牧畜。 来自辞典例句
• The facts were culled from various sources. 这些事实是从各方收集到的。 来自辞典例句

6 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

7 insurgents   

n.起义，暴动，造反( insurgent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The regular troops of Baden joined the insurgents. 巴登的正规军参加到起义军方面来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Against the Taliban and Iraqi insurgents, these problems are manageable. 要对付塔利班与伊拉克叛乱分子，这些问题还是可以把握住的。 来自互联网

8 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

9 resonant   

adj.(声音)洪亮的，共鸣的

参考例句：

• She has a resonant voice.她的嗓子真亮。
• He responded with a resonant laugh.他报以洪亮的笑声。

10 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
• The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。

11 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

12 ailment   

n.疾病，小病

参考例句：

• I don't have even the slightest ailment.我什么毛病也没有。
• He got timely treatment for his ailment.他的病得到了及时治疗。

13 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

14 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

15 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

16 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

17 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

18 apprehended   

逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解

参考例句：

• She apprehended the complicated law very quickly. 她很快理解了复杂的法律。
• The police apprehended the criminal. 警察逮捕了罪犯。

19 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

20 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

21 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

22 condemn   

vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑

参考例句：

• Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他，而有些人谴责他。
• We mustn't condemn him on mere suppositions.我们不可全凭臆测来指责他。

23 bodyguards   

n.保镖，卫士，警卫员( bodyguard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Brooks came to Jim's office accompanied—like always—by his two bodyguards. 和往常一样，在两名保镖的陪同下，布鲁克斯去吉姆的办公室。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Three of his bodyguards were injured in the attack. 在这次袭击事件中，他有3名保镖受了伤。 来自辞典例句