Adolfo Perez Esquivel: Rivers of Hope | |
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Directed by | Dawn Gifford Engle |
Written by | Dawn Gifford Engle |
Produced by | Jacque Gellein Rip Gellein Elizabeth Parmly Weber Ivan Suvanjieff (executive producer) |
Starring | Adolfo Perez Esquivel |
Cinematography | Elizabeth Holloway Dave Wruck |
Edited by | Elizabeth Holloway |
Music by | Amanda Guerreño |
Production company | |
Distributed by | R-Squared Films (2015, Worldwide, video) |
Release date |
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Running time | 78 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | English Spanish |
Adolfo Perez Esquivel: Rivers of Hope is a 2015 American documentary film produced by The PeaceJam Foundation about the life of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel. [1] [2] [3] The film focuses on the historical analysis of the 80-year period of Argentinian turmoil dating from Esquivel's birth in 1931 to 2014. [4] [5]
Nobel Peace Laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel grew up during one of the most unstable time periods in Argentinian history. He lived his early life as an artist and an activist. In 1974 he devoted his time to building nonviolent movements for change in Latin America, a left-wing peace organization. That same year, he was named secretary-general of the newly formed Servicio Paz y Justicia (Peace and Justice Service or SERPAJ) a group that coordinates nonviolent movements in the region. Esquivel regularly traveled the world both for his art and for his peace work.
In 1977 while attempting to renew his passport, Esquivel was arrested and held captive without trial for 14 months during the Argentine Dirty War. The Argentinian Dirty War was a name used by the Argentine Military Government for a period of state sponsored terrorism that took place from 1974 to 1983, in which the right-wing government hunted down and killed left-wing dissidents. [6] [7] During this time period, an estimated 30,000 people disappeared. [8]
Throughout the film the audience is shown archival footage and first hand accounts by Esquivel about the Dirty War Prison system. In one scene a reporter interviews one of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo during the Argentine 1978 FIFA World Cup. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo are a group of mothers whom walk around the outside of the Argentine capital in the thousands, asking to know where all their sons and daughters have gone. As one of the disappeared, Esquivel was imprisoned without trial. He was tortured regularly, and feared for his life every day. [9]
In 1978, Esquivel was named Amnesty International's Political Prisoner of the Year resulting in thousands of letters from the international community demanding his release. Due to the Global outcry, the Argentinian government was forced to release him in 1978. After his release he continued to work for SERPAJ. [10]
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel is an Argentine activist, community organizer, painter, writer and sculptor. He was the recipient of the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize for his opposition to Argentina's last civil-military dictatorship (1976–1983), during which he was detained, tortured, and held without trial for 14 months. He also received, among other distinctions, the Pacem in Terris Award.
Jorge Rafael Videla was an Argentine military officer and dictator who was the 42nd President of Argentina and as well as the 1st President of the National Reorganisation Process from 1976 to 1981. His rule, which was during the time of Operation Condor, was among the most infamous in Latin America during the Cold War due to its high level of human rights abuses and severe economic mismanagement.
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The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo is an Argentine human rights association formed in response to the National Reorganization Process, the military dictatorship by Jorge Rafael Videla, with the goal of finding the desaparecidos, initially, and then determining the culprits of crimes against humanity to promote their trial and sentencing.
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Servicio Paz y Justicia is a Human Rights Non Governmental Organisation in Latin America, founded in 1974. It is a Christian based and nonviolent organization, and is committed for the defense of political prisoners in the different South American dictatorships during the Dirty War in the 1970–80s.
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