Saturday, June 14, 2008

Human Rights Watch International Film Festival 2008: A Promise to the Dead: The Journey of Ariel Dorfman

Peter Raymont’s documentary “A Promise to the Dead: The Journey of Ariel Dorfman,” while not my top pick at the Human Rights Watch festival for mesmerizing subject matter (that would be Katrina Browne’s “Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North”), nor for formal artistry (see Maria Ramos’ “Juizo (Behave)”), does have something these other films lack—a famous North/South American, writer/exile (the film is partially based on Dorfman’s best-selling memoir “Heading South, Looking North”) whose “Death and the Maiden” catapulted him to fame. Think Salman Rushdie with a picture deal instead of a fatwa.

To read the rest of my review visit The House Next Door.

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