How are you ... really?
All too often we ask, “How are you?” rhetorically and answer the same way. But in these confusing times, it’s important to ask and mean it -- to listen and let others be heard.
Consider asking a neighbor or a frontline worker, “how are you?” and just listen.
We hope you are safe and healthy during this period of staying home. Feel free to let us know what you've been doing and how you've been doing. Just email info@peacefilmfest.org with your thoughts and the subject line, “How are you?”
Stay Safe
As the country re-opens, remember to show you care by what you wear! Wearing a mask and washing our hands frequently protects those we love as well as vulnerable populations. GPFF celebrates everyone who supports organizations and individuals that provide resources to those in need. We are in this together!
June Programs
GPFF Lives Online June programs on Zoom & Facebook Live
Join us for one or all of these events and share this information with your friends and families. We look forward to seeing you online!
GPFF Lives Online:
Ron Bourke, director of Terror and Hope: The Science of Resilience
Tuesday, June 9 @ 7 p.m. EDT
Ron Bourke (Lessons of Basketball and War, 2015 GPFF) offers a unique view into the impact of war on children. Drawing on the pioneering work of an international team of scientists working closely with Mercy Corps’ team in Jordan, the film reveals how trauma affects the brains of youth and the critical work taking place to help point them towards a brighter future. If there’s hope for refugee children and youth, it’s due in large part to those putting science to work for the oppressed and vulnerable.
The 38-minute film will be available for free to view during the week of June 14 and on June 18, Ron will be joined by Mercy Corps team members and a Yale University professor of Anthropology. Sign up to see the film.
GPFF Lives Online:
Daniel Karslake, director of For They Know Not What They Do
Saturday, June 13 @ 3 p.m. EDT
Dan has long and deep ties with the GPFF community as we have presented three of his films in previous festivals. GPFF has also supported Dan’s work, acting as fiscal sponsor and promoting his work… work that brims with life and a deep and genuine empathy for his subjects – some of whom live locally in Central Florida.
His latest film, For They Know Not What They Do, will have its worldwide debut on Friday, June 12. You can watch it and support an independent theater at the same time! Head to www.fortheyknow.org to find a list of participating theaters, click on their virtual platform, and 50% of the ticket price will go directly back to the theater – a boost for local arthouses during a very difficult time for them.
GPFF Lives Online:
Lori Turchin, film curator for the FusionFest short film contest
Thursday, June 18 @ 7 p.m. EDT
FusionFest is a free, two-day festival that celebrates the people and the many cultures that make Central Florida awesome. The festival features music, dance, spoken word, fashion and international food. The Film Pavilion screens MYgration Films, short films made by local filmmakers that tell the stories of people from around the world who have made Central Florida their home. Find out more about FusionFest and hear from the film curator, people who have directed films and people who have been in films.
RSVP
Other Virtual Events
Online Film Premiere & Post-Screening Discussion
Swing State Florida: The Fields of Immokalee
Thursday, June 4 @ 7 p.m. EDT
Join the Bertelsmann Foundation, Global Peace Film Festival, American Documentary Film Festival, and our community partner, DC Shorts International Film Festival for the online premiere of a short documentary film immersed in the agricultural fields of South-Central Florida. While this film predates the COVID-19 crisis, the issues raised have come into even starker relief as society wrestles with the people – our neighbors – who have been deemed “essential workers,” yet are treated as disposable in terms of pay, access to healthcare, housing and services.
The film follows the daily lives of tomato workers: from 5 a.m. trips to the parking lot in hopes of finding day labor, to work sessions in the scorching midday heat, to child detention centers for migrant youth who have been separated from their families. Via these vignettes, the film offers insight into one of the most volatile political issues of our time—and one that will feature prominently in the 2020 election. Following the film, join the filmmaker, analysts, and representatives of the agricultural community for a live web discussion of the themes presented in the documentary.
Special Virtual Event
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
Tuesday, June 16 @ 7:30 p.m. EDT
Marion Stokes secretly recorded television twenty-four hours a day for thirty years. It started in 1979 with the dawn of the twenty-four hour news cycle and ended when Marion passed away in 2012. In total, Marion recorded on 70,000 VHS tapes, capturing revolutions, lies, wars, triumphs, and catastrophes that tell us who we were and how television has shaped the world of today.
The film will be followed by a special live chat via live stream Q&A with the filmmakers and one of the subjects of the film.
Online screening: 'Don't Drain the Swamp'
Don't Drain the Swamp! from Vicki Nantz on Vimeo.
Director: Vicki Nantz; Running time: 23 minutes
'Don't Drain The Swamp' screened at the 2017 Global Peace Film Festival.
The swamp is one of the most valuable ecosystems on earth and is vital to the health of the planet. So why would anyone - even metaphorically - want to "drain the swamp?"
Keep up-to-date on festival news
Our Story
The Global Peace Film Festival, established in 2003, uses the power of the moving image to further the cause of peace on earth.
From the outset, the GPFF envisioned “peace” not as the absence of conflict but as a framework for channeling, processing and resolving conflict through respectful and non-violent means. People of good faith have real differences that deserve to be discussed, debated and contested. GPFF works to connect expression – artistic, political, social and personal – to positive, respectful vehicles for action and change.
The festival program is carefully curated to create a place for open dialogue, using the films as catalysts for change.
