Janine di Giovanni – International War Correspondent and author, (“Against the Stranger” 1993; “The Quick and the Dead: Under Siege in Sarajevo;” “Madness Visible; A Memoir of War”), will be an artist in residence October 12-14th at the SLC FILM CENTER kicking off a two month series of films and discussions that examine the role of the correspondent and of human rights in times of war. Di Giovanni has covered fighting in the Balkans, the Middle East, Chechnya, Algeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and East Timor for The Times of London and Vanity Fair. She won awards from the Columbia School of Journalism (National Magazine Award), two awards from Amnesty International (for coverage of human rights abuses in Kosovo and Sierra Leone) and was named Britain's Foreign Correspondent of the Year (2000). She has also written and spoken extensively about gender issues in covering war. She is most recently known to US audiences as a subject of two time academy award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple's latest film BEARING WITNESS, which has inspired a feature film to be made about her life. Charasmatic, compassionate and uncompromising di Giovanni will talk about the human costs of war and the challenges of covering war as a journalist, author and most recently as a mother.
We are delighted to host di Giovanni and have her curate some of her favorite films that illustrate the life and struggles of the war correspondent. We are also grateful to share her stories with SLC audiences and with the Bosnian refugee community here. Di Giovanni is widely regarded as one of the most relentless journalists covering the Bosnian conflict. It is our hope that her example will encourage some of the newest members from the Bosnian community to also "bear witness" and share their stories.
SCHEDULE
OCTOBER 12 The Larimer Center at Rowland Hall St. Marks - SLCFC Filmmaker Residency 4pm & 7pm screenings
4:00PM — A CRY FROM THE GRAVE – Directed by Leslie Woodhead, Narrated by Bill Moyers, Followed by a master class with Janine di Giovanni Srebrenica, Bosnia, the world's first United Nations Safe Area, was the site of the worst case of genocide in Europe since World War II. In July 1995, the Bosnian Serb army staged a brutal takeover of the small, intimate spa town and its surrounding region. Over a period of five days, the Bosnian Serb soldiers separated Muslim families and systematically murdered over 7,000 men and boys in fields, schools, and warehouses. This compelling film includes previously unreleased footage and first-hand personal accounts of the 1995 Bosnian massacre. This film documents the massacre and how the UN allowed it to happen on their watch. Janine was their covering this massacre and was inspired to write MADNESS MADE VISIBLE as a result.
7:00PM — BEARING WITNESS – Directed by Barbara Kopple
Followed by a Q&A with Janine di Giovanni
Janine di Giovanni is one of five women journalists featured in this powerful documentary from two-time ACADEMY AWARD® winner Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, USA; Wild Man Blues; The Hamptons), three-time EMMY AWARD® winner Bob Eisenhardt and Marijana Wotton. The film chronicles five female journalists who go into the line of fire during the War in Iraq and other perilous assignments. This film intimately examines the personal and professional lives of these journalists at different stages of their careers as they attempt to put a human face on otherwise impersonal tragedies. Each of these women has covered the world's most incredible stories. We will tell their personal stories of triumph and sacrifice. Filmed over the course of one year, BEARING WITNESS weaves together the stories of these five incredible women into a revealing cinematic tale about the women behind the stories.
Biography of Janine di Giovanni:
Janine di Giovanni is one of Europe’s most respected and experienced reporters covering war and conflict. Her reporting has been called “established, accomplished brilliance” and she has been called “the finest foreign correspondent of our generation”. Born in the United States, she began reporting by covering the first Palestinian intifada in the late 1980s and went on to report nearly every violent conflict since then. Her trademark has always been to write about the human cost of war, to attempt to give war a human face, and to work in conflict zones that the world’s press has forgotten. Janine di Giovanni is an author and foreign correspondent. Starting in 1987 she became a regular contributor to The Times of London, and is now a senior correspondent. She also contributes to Vanity Fair and other publications, and writes a bi-weekly column for Military Week. She was the only reporter to cover the fall of Grozny, Chechnya.
She continued writing about Bosnia long after most people forgot it. In 2000, she was one of the few foreign reporters to witness the fall of Grozny, Chechnya. She has tirelessly campaigned for stories from Africa to be given coverage, and she has worked in Somalia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, as well as Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, East Timor and Chechnya. She was won four major awards, including the National Magazine Award, one of America’s most prestigious prizes in journalism, for her work in Kosovo. She has won two Amnesty International Awards for Sierra Leone and Bosnia. And she has won Britain’s Grenada Television’s Foreign Correspondent of the Year for Chechnya. She also writes books, the latest being: Madness Visible: a Memoir of war, which has been called “one of the best books ever written about war.” di Giovanni is one of the characters of a documentary about women war reporters, BEARING WITNESS, a film by three-time Academy Award winning director Barbara Kopple. In 1993, she was the subject of another documentary about women war reporters, No Man's Land, which followed her working in Sarajevo. But her proudest accomplishment is to be the mother of a 16-month old boy, Luca Costantino who was born after she reported the war in Iraq. She lives in Paris with her husband, the French journalist, Bruno Girodon, and continues to work on human rights projects while raising her son.
