William Woo:

10-25-01

Story Two – Public Issue Reporting

By Fang Fang

Tonight[wfw1], With long applause for the screening of documentary “Long Night’s Journey into Day”, began the fourth annual United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF) got underway last night in the Cubberley Auditorium at Stanford University’s School [wfw2]of Education.School.

“I am very much moved by the power of this film,” said Stephen T. Magagnini, a viewer and also a senior writer of local [wfw3]newspaper, after watching this first documentary of this year’s UNAFF.

“The stories are shocking and the pictures and music is moving,” said another [WW4]viewer.

Long Night's Journey Into Day studies South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) set up by the post-apartheid, democratic government to consider amnesty for perpetrators of crimes committed under apartheid's reign. through [WW5]four emotional stories. Told through four emtional stories, the film begins with the one The film begins with the story about Amy Biehl, a Fulbright scholar and also a Stanford graduate, who was murdered duringin a 1993 riot in South Africa, just before the nation’s first democratic election.

The [WW6]filmmakers accompanied Biehl's parents as they attended the hearings in South Africa and testified in support of the Commission's goals, stating, to the surprise of many, that they would not oppose amnesty for the four young black South Africans who were convicted for her murder. The other three stories in the film similarly depict the complexity of finding truth of the lives deprived in apartheid and reaching forgiveness.

“It’s [WW7]tremendous work to choose these fore stories form 7000 similar case,” said producer and director Frances Reid after the showing, “and it took us $700,000 and two and a half years to finish the film, during that time, we flew to South Africa seven times.”

“Among the 31 documentaries that will be presented this time, Long Night's Journey Into Day is surely one of the most powerful,.” said [WW8]Jasmina Bojic, the founder and executive director of UNAFF,, said. She said also [WW9]mentioned that this documentary has received Sundance Grand Jury Award. But Bolic soon added, “in fact, for us, it’s not the most important thing to present films which has been awarded; for us, it’s very important to present the topics.”

Under the general theme “Dialogue Among Civilizations”, the this year's festival will particularly focus on three topics: agenda [WW10]and women issues, war and peace and immigration issues in refugees, and environmental issues and health and disabled people, which will be showed respectively on this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Thirty-one documentaries made by international filmmakers will be presented, which from Afghanistan, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Cuba, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Laos, Lebanon, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Slovakia, Turkey, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, the United States and Zimbabwe.

Bolic said she was is very pleased that the festival is growing tremendously and is increasingly getting more attention. catch more and more attention in the past four years. “

In 1998, we had only 42 films submitted; this year, we have 162,” said Bolic, “And we are extremely proud to receive the national Earl [WW11]W. Eames Award March this year.”

Among this year’s films, one about three women fleeting Taliban [WW12]could be very eye-catching. The timely documentary, “ Where Women are Banned[WW13]”, is talking about the tearing away ofdenial women’s freedom and the human rights abuses inflicted on women by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The sStories show clearly that for these women, there was no option but to flee and seek refuge in another country. The women in this film unveil a chilling and dark tale., after [WW14]which nobody could question the validity of their plight. This film will be shown at 9:15 p.m. Friday in the Annenberg [WW15]Auditorium at Stanford University’s Cummings Art Building.

As [WW16]Bolic said that , “Today, more than ever, we have been painfully reminded of the world around us and our exposure to its unresolved problems. There’s no easy answer for those questions, but the first step to any answer is learning. So we just want to bring outstanding filmmakers to help us to learn about the issues happening around the world.”

The [WW17]festival will run for last four days, from tonight to thisuntil Sunday. For a full schedule of films and to purchase tickets, go to

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Editor's notes: I lked the conciseness of this story. You kept it to what it was worth and did not inflate the material. I appreciated that discipline. I want you to work on writing plainly and simply. Just let the facts tell the stories. You don't need to prompt or lead the reader. See particularly my note 14.

[wfw1]1For a newspaper story, this needs to begin with last night. After all, the paper is not being published on the same day as the filming. See how I’ve edited it.

[wfw2]1If you’re capitalizing the name, make sure it’s the official name. Otherwise it’s Stanford’s school of education.

[wfw3]1What’s the paper? That’s not a hard fact to get and it tells the reader something. Isn’t Steve a Knight Fellow from the Sacramento Bee? If that’s the guy, I.D. him correctly.

[WW4]1Who is this viewer. Ask the name. If there's a reason not to use it, tell the readers. A name and sense of who the person is will give authority and credibility and perhaps extra meaning to the quote.

[WW5]1As written, it suggests that the crimes were committed through four stories. We need to recast it -- as shown above.

[WW6]1New graph here.

[WW7]1Good quote.

[WW8]1Usually, we shouldn't place the name after the verb. But in this case, with a long title and identification following the name, it's better to invert the verb and noun.

[WW9]1 Save words.

[WW10]1 No need to italicize this.

[WW11]1No need to boldface. But somewhere you need to tell what this award is. Most people, myself included, aren't familiar with the Eames Award.

[WW12]1What, who, were they actually fleeing. The Talaban itself or Talaban-ruled Afghanistan. Make it clear.

[WW13]1Comma goes inside the quotation mark.

[WW14]1This is an editorial assumption on your plight. Someone from the Taliban seeing this might well have a different idea -- they might question its validity.

[WW15]1This is misspelled. It's on our campus and we'd look foolish putting the name incorrectly into the paper.

[WW16]1The word "As" here has an editorial meaning. It tells the reader, we're agreeing with Bolic.

[WW17]1New graph here and thanks for the on-line information. Things like this make it easier for our readers.