New York-based documentary filmmaker Kathleen Foster will screen her films Afghan Women: A History of Struggle (2007) and 10 Years On, Afghanistan & Pakistan (2011). She will be joined by Pinar Kayaalp, Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern History (Ramapo College of New Jersey) for a discussion after the screening.
We will be screening the following works:
Program runtime 100 minutes
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle, 2007, 69 minutes
This timely documentary dramatizes the tale of a group of remarkable women, how their courage and commitment to change their lives and country has passed from one generation to the next. Their disturbing and amazing stories reflect the recent history of Afghanistan during a quarter-century of cataclysm: from proxy war to civil war, from a Soviet-backed regime to the oppressive rule of the Taliban, and to U.S. military intervention and the current sway of regional warlords and general instability.
“Foster challenges viewers to examine how Afghan women have continually borne the dual costs of American imperial ambitions on the one side, and the barbarity of feudal warlords on the other.” — Prerana Reddy, Director of Public Events, Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA.
10 Years On, Afghanistan & Pakistan, 2011, 30 minutes
Since 9/11, Americans have largely been kept ignorant of the human cost of the Middle East wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan. After more than a decade of fighting, Foster’s newest film provides an up to date account of the consequences of the War on Terror in Afghanistan and now Pakistan, as the US expands the war through the use of remote control drones fired over the Afghan border into Pakistan.
The new documentary updates, Afghan Women: A History of Struggle, which focused on the struggles of women and U.S. involvement over the past 30 years of conflict in Afghanistan.
As the civilian death toll mounts and economic conditions worsen the film shows how Afghans are struggling to change a world increasingly dominated by violence and corruption and how Pakistani workers and peasants are fighting back with militant strikes and protests across the country.
10 Years On, Afghanistan & Pakistan is a must see film for anyone interested in knowing the reality of the war from the point of view of those whose homes and lives are being destroyed.
10 Years On, Afghanistan & Pakistan ties the war, America’s longest military conflict, to the economic downturn at home and makes the connection between grass roots demands for economic and social justice in Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Occupy Wall Street movement here.
Kathleen Foster is a British born, New York-based documentary filmmaker. Since the mid-1980’s she has been making films for community organizations and producing independent documentaries that combine elements of history, current events and individual stories and focus on grass roots struggles for change.
Her films have received wide distribution and have been screened at such prestigious showcases as the Museum of Modern Art, the Asia Society, Queens Museum, Anthology Film Archives, and Brecht Forum. She has spoken and lectured at screenings of her films at universities around the country including NYU, Columbia, Boston, MICA, UCLA, Howard and Princeton.
She studied photography at the New School for Social Research with Lisette Model. Her photos appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Scholastic Magazines, Time, Village Voice, Food and Wine Magazine, Fortune Magazine, Institutional Investor and Z Magazine. Her work is represented in the collections of the Chase Manhattan Bank, The Museum of the City of New York, York College and private collectors.
Her photographs of Afghanistan were exhibited at the Leedell Gallery in Soho and portfolios were published in various photography magazines such as Creative Camera and British Journal of Photography.
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