FPI YOUNG PROFESSIONALS FILM SCREENING:
Mugabe and the White African
Special Guest Peter Godwin
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
6:00 – 6:30 PM
Networking Reception
6:30 – 7:00 PM
Introduction by Peter Godwin
7:00 – 8:30 PM
Film Screening
8:30 – 9:00 PM
Audience Discussion
The Heritage Foundation
Allison Auditorium
214 Mass Ave. NE
Click here to RSVP [3]
Film Overview (trailer [4]) Michael Campbell is one of the few hundred white farmers left in Zimbabwe since President Robert Mugabe began his violent 'Land Reform' program in 2000. Since then, the country has descended into chaos. In 2008, Mike took the unprecedented step of challenging President Mugabe in an International Court; accusing Robert Mugabe and his government of racial discrimination and violations of basic human rights. This film is an intimate, moving, and often terrifying account of one man and his family’s extraordinary courage in the face of overwhelming injustice and brutality. Set against the tumultuous 2008 Presidential elections, Mugabe and the White African follows Mike and son-in-law Ben Freeth's harrowing attempt to save their farm, and with it, the homes and livelihoods of 500 black workers and their families. After months of frightening threats and a horrific attack, the Court’s judges finally rule on Mike’s case. What will Mugabe's reaction be towards them for daring to bring the case?
Peter Godwin was born and raised in Africa. He studied law at Cambridge University and international relations at Oxford. He is an award-winning foreign correspondent, author, documentary-maker and screenwriter. After practicing human rights law in Zimbabwe, he became a foreign and war correspondent and has reported from over 60 countries, including wars in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Somalia, Congo, Ivory Coast, Sudan, and the last years of apartheid South Africa. He served as East European correspondent and Diplomatic correspondent for the London Sunday Times and chief correspondent for BBC television's flagship foreign affairs program, Assignment. He has written for a wide array of magazines and newspapers including Vanity Fair, National Geographic, New York Times Magazine and Men’s Journal. He is the author of award-winning books such as 'Rhodesians Never Die' - The Impact of War and Political Change on White Rhodesia c.1970 - 1980, Wild at Heart: Man and Beast in Southern Africa (foreword by Nelson Mandela), Mukiwa, and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun.
For questions about this event, please contact Randan Swindler at RSwindler@foreignpolicyi.org [5] or (202) 296-3322.