World Focus Shorts I
The Bitter Root and Oscar-nominated Hunger Ward
The Bitter Root
David Ocitti was among the tens of thousands of children abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and inducted into their brutal army over the last three decades. He escaped after six months only to be greeted with deep skepticism by his village on the assumption that he was a rapist and killer. In the years since, he has worked to reunite other deeply traumatized escaped abductees with their equally traumatized families. Redemption for those who were forced to commit atrocities does not come easily.
World Premiere
Hunger Ward
Fueled by years of war that seems to be forgotten by the international community, the people of Yemen suffer as they sit on the brink of an unfathomable famine and humanitarian catastrophe. With unprecedented access, Oscar-nominated director Skye Fitzgerald takes us into the heart of two of the most active therapeutic feeding centers in Yemen. Here, two healthcare workers, Dr. Aida Alsadeeq and nurse Mekkia Mahdi, provide care to malnourished and hunger-stricken children in the throes of need. The third film in Fitzgerald’s refugee trilogy, Hunger Ward challenges us to absorb this heart-wrenching and intimate portrait of the bravery and courage required in the face of deep human suffering. The result is a work that paints the true realities of war — which is so often unseen and overlooked — and asks us to not look away.