For immediate release
February 28, 2012
Washington, D.C.—Pax Christi USA’s received news that its film, Cite Soleil: Sun, Dust, and Hope, was selected for participation in the 5th Annual New York Peace Film Festival. Yumi Tanaka, the film festival’s creator, invited PCUSA to submit this short documentary on the current conditions of Cite Soleil and Pax Christi Port-au-Prince’s peace education work taking place there.
The Peace Film Festival is on Saturday and Sunday, March 10 and 11, 2012 at All Souls Unitarian Church located at Lexington Avenue and 80th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side (1157 Lexington Avenue, NY, NY 10075). The festival is being co-sponsored by the Peace and Justice Task Force of the Church.
Cite Soleil: Sun, Dust, and Hope will be playing at 1:55 pm, Saturday, March 10th at the above address. To see the entire schedule for the film festival, click here.
This year’s festival theme is “Reconciliation Efforts Throughout the World”. Pax Christi USA and Pax Christi Port-au-Prince both feel that our film perfectly reflects this theme.
Cite Soleil: Sun, Dust, and Hope tells a story about “SAKALA,” a peace education program started in 2007 by Pax Christi Port-au-Prince. It is a story of optimism and faith in the face of extreme poverty and hardship–the story of a program that challenges the way we see Haiti and Haitians see themselves. Our Pax Christi brothers and sisters in Haiti are in the act of promoting active nonviolence in one of the most marginalized neighborhoods in the Western hemisphere every day. Reconciliation, for them and for us, starts right in our own communities by bridging the divide of the perception of our differences and the reality of our collective humanity and interdependence. Yet these bridges must also be built between communities local and international. Pax Christi USA and Pax Christi Port-au-Prince are engaged in just this kind of relationship-building with each other in the hope that it will provide inspiration for others to do the same.
“I am thrilled the New York Peace Film Festival will be amplifying the voices of those in Port-au-Prince who are so passionately building a culture of peace,” stated film co-director Manuel Padilla. “As the film festival is traditionally focused on the plight of those negatively affected by nuclear weapons and nuclear pollution, we are especially honored that the festival has selected our film in its expansion on exploring broader themes of justice and peace. We hope those who view the film are moved toward acts of solidarity with Pax Christi Port-au-Prince.”
For more information, contact: Amy Watts and Manuel Padilla, Pax Christi USA Haiti Collaboration Coordinators: Amy@paxchristiusa.org and Manuel@paxchristiusa.org
First – when was a nuclear device detonated in Port au Prince and Second – am i correct that so much of those hundreds of millions collected by Bill Clinton never reached the poor & displaced & suffering in Haiti ….??
@Frank – It says nothing about a nuclear device in Port au Prince. It says that the film festival usually focuses on those affected by nuclear devices. And this film has absolutely nothing to do with Bill Clinton. Way to be so negative about a film that promotes peace and optimism.