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 BLUE HELMETS: PEACE AND DISHONOR (73 minutes) Canada/Congo Director: Raymonde Provencher Producers: Raymonde Provencher, Patricio Henriques, Robert Cornellier Description: Their blue helmets symbolize hope. They are sent to countries where entire populations have been devastated by bloody conflicts. Soldiers from every corner of the world serve as representatives of their countries and work on behalf of the United Nations. Their role is to keep belligerent factions at bay, and to protect civilians. At least, that is their official mandate. Recently, a steady stream of accusations has been directed to some of the peacekeepers, ranging from paying for sex, sexual abuse and rape of underage girls, to the abandonment of thousands of newborn babies. In Blue Helmets victims and witnesses speak out. Filmed mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this documentary looks at the consequences of this behavior-women being turned away from their homes, children suffering the effects of trauma, and families bearing the burden of social shame. Biography: Raymonde Provencher has been roving the world, led by her passion for international issues, for over twenty-five years. Her reporting career began in the Radio-Canada newsroom in 1973. For the next ten years, she worked on a number of TV programs at Radio-Canada and Télé-Québec. In 1995 Raymonde and her colleagues, Patricio Henriquez and Robert Cornellier formed the production company: Macumba International. They developed Living in the City, the first major documentary series to spotlight some of the most fascinating cities in the world through citizens' personal accounts. In 2001, as part of the Extremis series-which won three Gémeaux awards-Raymonde directed documentaries on child workers in the Philippines and on the pilferage of water in Palestine. Her film War Babies, on the fate of children born to victims of wartime rape won critical acclaim and four Gémeaux awards (2003) for Best Documentary, Research, Editing and Sound, the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Hot Docs! Canadian International Festival in Toronto, the Best Documentary award at the Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival in Saskatchewan and the Human Rights award at the Docupolis International Documentary Festival in Barcelona, Spain. She is researching two other projects: the first about violence against women and the other, about one of the first American GIs killed in Iraq. Contact Information: Melanie Lasnier Macumba International 3862 Parc Lafentaine Montreal Qc H2L3176 Canada E-mail: info@macumbainternational.com Web site: http://www.macumbainternational.com |
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