Film Series Explores Human Rights Issues, Opens With ‘The Last Mountain’

Repression and Resilience, the sixth annual Duquesne University Human Rights Film Series, kicks off Wednesday, Jan. 16, with a screening of The Last Mountain, a documentary that explores the impacts of mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia.

After the film, Dr. Lou Martin, assistant professor of history at Chatham University, will provide personal insight on mountaintop removal and answer questions from attendees. Originally from New Cumberland, W.Va., Martin is a dedicated activist fighting to end mountaintop removal in his home state.

In addition to The Last Mountain, the series will feature:

• Genocide: Worse Than War—focusing on the Holocaust, the Soviet gulags, Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur and Hiroshima
  Thursday, Jan. 24
• Saving Face and Killing Us Softly 4—exploring abuses of women both abroad and in the United States
  Tuesday, Jan. 29
• The Invisible War—an investigative documentary about the alleged rape of female soldiers within the U.S. military
  Monday, Feb. 4
• Nuclear Aftershocks—an investigation of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan and its implications for U.S. nuclear safety
  Wednesday, Feb. 13

To close the series, special guest speaker Dr. Samuel J. Hazo, McAnulty Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English and founder of the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh, will read selections of his own poetry after a screening of Poetry of Resilience on Thursday, Feb. 21.

All screenings are free and open to the public and begin at 7 p.m. in Room 105 of College Hall.

The Human Rights Film Series is presented by the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. For more information, call 412.396.6415.