I saw two FLEFF films this week right here on the IC Campus. The first one was on Wednesday evening and called "Bound by Promises." It was a really short film, but it packed a powerful punch. The film was about contemporary slavery that is a big problem in rural Brazil. WITNESS (their website is witness.org and is definitely worth checking out to learn about what other kinds of human rights violations exist) says that 25,000 workers are being enslaved in rural Brazil. The film talked to men who had experienced this enslavement (more than likely they had escaped, since buying your way to freedom is meant to be an impossible goal) by being lured from their families in hopes of making more money to get out of poverty, only to find themselves in "debt bondage." The work is physically tough and the entire situation, especially separation from family, is emotionally hard. While Brazil is making more of an effort to find these landowners and end slave labor, there's still a lot of work. If you missed this movie and you want to see it (because you should), go to the WITNESS website and there are links to both excerpts and the entire video, as well as what you can do to help end the slave trade in Brazil through them.

The second film was longer and featured a lot of cute animals, but still focused on a problem that's facing us today. With all the Al Gore hype about global warming, this set of scientists went to Antarctica to study the penguins there and really start to understand the effects of climate change on their wildlife. While the penguins, seals and whales were adorable to watch, what struck me was how "The Return to Penguin City" was able to really show the daily work and jobs of the scientists (almost like the film crew wasn't there), but in a way that wasn't so technical people couldn't understand it or so flashed up for Hollywood that it lost it's message. Directed by an IC alum, the film was informative in addition to being visually beautiful (unlike most people here on campus, I never get sick of snow). A (shortened) version of it was played on Animal Planet, so try to be on the look-out for this film if you're interested in animals, environment or the unique work of some pretty cool scientists.

And be sure to head downtown for some films of the final FLEFF days!