“A Hero’s Journey” – A quest for peace in East Timor (Timor-Leste)

“A Hero’s Journey” – A quest for peace in East Timor (Timor-Leste)
Event: Film Screening and fundraiser for HOPE Orphanage in East Timor (Timor-Leste)
Monday, November 30th, 2009, 7:30pm-9:30pm
Resource Center for Nonviolence, 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz 95060

A Hero's Journey (78 mins), written, directed and produced by Grace Phan

This documentary film, featured in the 2008 Santa Cruz Film Festival (then titled Where the Sun Rises), reveals the world's newest nation to the world for the very first time. The current Prime Minister -- and first President -- of East Timor, Xanana Gusmao, and film crews travel the breadth of the nation across its rugged landscapes.

Throughout the film, Gusmao engages with people in remote villages, many of whom were victims or witnesses of massacres in 1999 when thousands of Timorese were killed. These massacres followed the successful vote for independence from foreign occupation in a U.N.-backed referendum.

This film is about the fight to build a new nation from ashes, and against poverty, incompetence, corruption and hatred. It is a story about the courageous journey from war and sacrifice to forgiveness and reconciliation. A trailer can be seen at http://www.luxlucis.sg/index2.htm.

In 2004 HOPE Orphanage in East Timor (Timor-Leste) became the home of 24 children whose parents were killed in the 1999 massacres. There is no adoption in Timor-Leste, and the children -- now 31 -- live together as an extended family. While their basic needs are provided for, they live in poverty.

A three-minute movie of the orphanage can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7rjCrrWFRA. The orphanage depends on private donations to operate. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, please send an email to jean_a_olson [at] yahoo.com.