Watchers of the Sky focuses on a daunting insight, that brutality can take many forms, from war making to banking. Just so, it revolves around the concept of genocide, as complicated as it is horrific. The film follows the decades-long effort of activist Raphael Lemkin — who invented the term “genocide” in order to make it a legal and political as well as moral issue — to convince nations that it’s in their interests to institute a tribunal to hold accountable those who commit the atrocity, even if this means all other nations might monitor their internal affairs. Inspired by US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem from Hell, Edet Belzberg’s documentary includes as well the stories of humanitarians including Luis Moreno-Ocampo (working on behalf of the International Criminal Court to prosecute Omar al-Bashir in Darfur) and Emmanuel Uwurukundo, working on behalf of Rwandan genocide survivors.
The film screens at the Doc Yard on 8 November, where it will be followed by a discussion with Belzberg, as well as Martha Minow, Dean and professor at Harvard Law School.
See PopMatters‘ review.