News
 |
Rebecca Richman Cohen profiled in Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces in Independent Film as an “up-and-comer poised to shape the next generation of independent film."
|
|
HBO2 will broadcast "War Don Don" on Sept 29th, 2010
|
|
Photos from spring 2010 screenings, awards, and outreach activities (Boston, Freetown, Barcelona, New York)
|
|
In connection with the 2010 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Cinereach presents its annual Cinereach Award to Rebecca Richman Cohen for excellence in artful, vital storytelling
|
|
Read the Film Journal International's interviews with filmmakers invited to the Human Rights Watch Festival (with special focus on War Don Don - see link at the bottom to complete interview with Rebecca Richman Cohen)
|
|
"War Don Don" wins Special Jury Prize at the SXSW Film Festival
|
|
Listen to Texas Observer interview with filmmaker Rebecca Richman Cohen
|
|
"War Don Don" is awarded the Independent Filmmaker Lab Finishing Grant, the Women in Film (WIF) Finishing Fund Grant and named as a finalist for IDA's Pare Lorentz Finishing Fund (2009)
|
|
"War Don Don" excerpts screened at IFP's Independent Film Week (Sept 2009)
|
|
"War Don Don" production team participates in the IFP Independent Filmmaker Lab (April 2009)
|
|
Reviews
"The film supplies incredible visual power, is rhythmically precise in its pace and timbre, and presents the hard-won access these filmmakers had to its very best advantage for the viewer to weigh, ponder, listen and learn.... This is highly-nuanced, thought-provoking filmmaking, providing profound sustenance for both the mind, the conscience and the heart." Read Entire Article
— Pamela Cohn, Still In Motion
"'War Don Don' forces its audience to challenge preconceived notions of righteousness, justice and retribution. Even the seemingly secure concept of truth is quickly muddied, creating the most satisfying intellectual and emotional discomfort.... The film’s aesthetic, simultaneously stunning and disturbing, matches the tenor of the issues at hand. Refraining from voiceover and allowing the war, the court and Sierra Leone itself to serve as much of the soundtrack, Cohen deftly removes herself from the film. Instead, she elegantly allows the violence, the individuals involved, and, in the end, the lingering questions to haunt the viewer.” Read Entire Article
— Rebecca Agule, Harvard Law Record
" War Don Don is really just another great Rashomon-esque legal documentary, albeit one with global importance.... I don't think I've been more torn on whether or not an accused subject is truly guilty or not since The Staircase (if you haven't seen that one, Capturing the Friedmans may come to mind instead).... [Cohen] provokes and feeds discussion, one you'll be surely having with others or yourself for quite some time after seeing the film. And you must see it, whether or not you can catch it during HRW." Read Entire Article
— Christopher Campbell, Cinematical
"Remarkable... Again and again, the film underscores the recording per se, with shots of the courtroom camera swiveling and TV screens scritching. Mediated and multiply framed, truth remains elusive; what remain are images and reflections, narratives that speak to current needs as much as past events.... Throughout War Don Don, subtle visual compositions like these make one thing clear. The film is not about Sesay’s guilt or even the RUF’s many atrocities. It is about processes, pursuits and perspectives of order, ever limited views, and institutional efforts to “right history” that can never be complete. It’s about how difficult it is to understand." Read Entire Review
— Cynthia Fuchs, Pop Matters
“ War Don Don is one of the most thought-provoking documentaries you will see this year. It tells the story of the trial of accused war criminal, Issa Sesay, a leader of the rebel army in Sierra Leone during the country’s brutal civil war... It’s hard to imagine how Sesay could be a sympathetic character—the fact that he does is not the only surprising thing about this movie, which packs more information in 90 minutes than just about any other film like it.” Read Entire Article
— Michael May, Texas Observer
"I highly recommend checking out War Don Don... Rather than pushing a particular narrative, or view of the international justice system, War Don Don allows the individuals at the heart of the trial to speak for themselves... To the film's credit, it doesn't feel forced to answer the questions it raises. War Don Don is a way to start a broader conversation about international justice, not to end one. In sum: go, and take your interns with you!" Read Entire Blog Entry
— Amanda Taub, Wronging Rights
"The documentary's drama doesn't emerge from whether Sesay will be found guilty; we hear his sentence at the start of the movie and then at intervals throughout, as we watch different people react to the news. The dramatic arc is the change in our own reactions to the verdict.... As Cohen knits together a 360-degree view of Sesay... War Don Don gives us plenty to chew on." Read Entire Article
— Elise Nakhnikian, Slant Magazine
"An extremely well-made documentary... When a prosecutor says he sees pure evil in Sesay’s face and Sesay’s lawyer says he sees a good man, you want to look into the commander’s eyes and see for yourself." Blurb
— Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe
"Fascinating and complex... a remarkably sophisticated examination of the machinery of justice." Blurb
— The Independent Weekly, Raleigh, NC
|
|
|
