Dunedin International Film Festival

It's been a long week.

Passed up a MANV assignment which I had to shrink from 2500 words to the limit of 1500 words. Had a bowling nite out with the Nations worship team last night, watched a great film "The Road to Guantanamo" at the Dunedin International Film Festival the afternoon before, then had a round of shopping. Bought another pair of sunnies! =P Jamming session lasted for a few hours just now, felt really energised after that since I haven't been practising any keys for a whole week. Eeeks.

Back to the film I mentioned about. I went to the Regent Theatre not expecting much. But the moment Sarah and I sat down at the extremely red plushy seats and stared at the red, blue, and green lightings illuminating the theatre, it felt like a totally different world.

The film is based on a true story depicting British citizens who were wrongly accused as al-Qaeda members and kept in the Guantanamo prison for 2 and a half years, tortured and forced to admit doing something they did not commit. As they were Muslims, they immediately became the "suspects" of Osama's followers, and it was such an eye-opener to see the story from another perspective. I saw how the US army used deceit, threats, and violence in treating the Guantanamo prisoners, and I'm sure everyone who watched the movie had somehow grown a dislike or at least a different view to the US army in the middle east. Of course, not all of them are dishonest and inhumane, but it's just sad to know that this situation is still happening in Afghanistan, where innocent citizens are accused of being linked to the terrorists.

No wonder I wasn't surprised when we were asked to sign a petition of some sort to the US government to pay more attention to the Guantanamo prisoners just outside the theatre.

The irony was, since that movie, I came in contact with HEAPS of Americans. Gah. Right afer the movie during shopping, the only 2 shop assistants at a local departmental store that spoke to us were Americans. Then at the Link (central library), we saw a booth promoting a summer job in USA. Just today, we had a new Biochem lecturer who had an American accent but (fortunately) turned out to be a Canadian. Well, you get what I mean. It's just plain creepy.

Anyway, for those who want to know more about the movie, here's the link to the synopsis.