The University of Wyoming Amnesty International Film Festival will present a day of human rights videos for its sixth year this weekend.

“The film festival is a great opportunity to learn about a variety of human rights and social justice issues, all in one place and on one day, simply by watching a bunch of films,” UW’s Amnesty International Chapter President Dan May said.

The festival begins at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and will feature seven different films shown back-to-back.

“We’ll [also] have petitions and other actions available at the film festivalso that people can get involved in the individual issues they learn about,” May said.

Because there’s no cost of attendance for any of this year’s films, seating is on a first come, first served basis.

Maggie Mullen, a freshman majoring in art, got involved with Amnesty International at UW at the beginning of the year and is helping out with this year’s festival.

“It feels good to actually feel like I’m making a difference,” Mullen said. “It’s also a good way to meet new people as an incoming freshman.”

The festival will begin with the film “Darfur Diaries” which follows three activists who snuck across the Sudanese border to document what was going on in Darfur in October 2004, speaking with some of the women and children who have lived through the genocide.

“Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World” is the festival’s second film and focuses on the lives of non-western gay and lesbian individuals and the ups and downs that they’ve experienced in their respective countries.

The festival continues with the film “Daughter from Danang,” the story of a woman brought to the United States as a child during the Vietnam War and reunited with her mother 22 years later.

The 145-minute film “The Corporation” marks the halfway point of the festival, starting at 2:35 p.m. and “charts the spectacular rise of an institution aimed at achieving specific economic goals,” according to the official film festival flyer.

A showing of “Invisible Children,” a documentary about child soldiers in Uganda, will be shown next at 5 p.m.

Following “Invisible Children,” will be a film that explores Saipan and its exemption from labor and immigration laws titled “Behind the Labels: American Garment Workers in Saipan.”

This year, the UW chapter of Amnesty Internationl is focusing on sweatshops and child labor and will continue to do so with the final film of the festival, “Stolen Childhoods.” The film is a documentary that “examines the cost of child labor to the global community, probes the cause of this complex phenomenon and recommends actions that can be taken to eliminate this gross human rights violation of our lifetime,” according to a press description.

“Our group is especially interested in these issues, as our main focus this year is trying to get UW to strengthen its anti-sweatshop oversight program,” May said. 

“Stolen Childhoods” director Len Morris will be available after the showing for a Q -and-A session with audience members.

Students who want to get involved in future activities with Amnesty International at UW are encouraged to come to their meetings at 8 p.m. every Thursday night in Hoyt Hall Room 212.

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