TOTAL DENIAL FILM SCREENING WEDNESDAY (10/17)

OIL COMPANIES AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN BURMA
Total Denial Film Screening
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Film will begin at 7:15
Langdell North

Please join us for a screening of Total Denial, a film about the events leading up to the landmark Alien Tort Statute case Doe v. Unocal. The movie is 92 minutes long. Please join us for snacks starting at 6:45pm.
Sponsored by HLS Advocates for Human Rights - Human Rights and the Environment Group, HLS Burma Campaign, APALSA, Human Rights Journal, Environmental Law Society and HCS Advocates for Human Rights.

Total Denial is the inspiring story of fifteen villagers from the jungles of Burma whose quest for justice eventually leads them to bring suit in a U.S. court against two oil giants - UNOCAL and TOTAL - for human-rights abuse. For five years producer/director Milena Kaneva collected accounts from Burmese villagers of forced labor, re-location of villages, rape, and murder associated with construction of the Yadana pipeline. Her "guide" during this journey was Ka Hsaw Wa, described by Kerry Kennedy in her book "Speak Truth to Power" as "A man of incredible courage and commitment, with the firm belief that one man can make a difference." A member of Burma's Karen ethnic minority, Ka Hsaw Wa, was one of the leaders of the student movement for democracy in Burma in 1988, which was violently suppressed by the Burmese government. For more than a decade, he has gathered testimonies and other evidence on numerous cases of human rights and environmental abuse. Wanted by police in both Burma and Thailand, he is now based in the U.S., traveling back to both countries periodically at considerable personal risk, to document further abuses. In 1995, along with the co-founders of Earth Rights International, Katie Redford and Tyler Giannini, Ka Hsaw Wa brought a landmark lawsuit against UNOCAL and TOTAL that drew international attention to the pervasive abuses in Burma. (HRW)

For more information on the film, visit www.totaldenialfilm.com or www.earthrights.org