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International Human Rights Advocate, Film Director Comes to UC
Kujtim Cashku to Introduce Two Award-Winning Films
Written By Mary Davidson, PR Intern
Albanian award-winning film director and human rights advocate will speak to groups at Utica College Nov. 16 and 17.
Contact - cleogrande@utica.edu
Utica, NY (11/08/2006) - Albanian film director and human rights advocate Kujtim Cashku will present two of his internationally acclaimed films at Utica College.The films, Kolonel Bunker and Magic Eye, have each received awards internationally. Cashku will introduce each of the films prior to the screenings. The films will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16 and 17 in Macfarlane Auditorium in DePerno Hall on the Utica College campus. Both films are free and open to the public.
Cashku blends his passion for human rights, freedom, and anti-censorship with his natural filmmaking abilities to weave poignant films that are emotional and thought provoking. Cashku lived in Albania through the tyrannical rule of former Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha. Hoxha governed the small nation for four decades, his regime collapsing shortly following his death in 1985. Albania had been riddled with censorship, oppression and a strict rule of communism during Hoxha’s tenure. Cashku was motivated by this oppression to use the medium of film to share the tragedies that unfolded as a result of the dictator’s rule. Today he is not just an internationally acclaimed film director, but also a well recognized human and civil rights activist across the globe.
Cashku is an award-winning director, garnering acclaim at film festivals across the world. A member of the European Film Academy, Cashku is also the principal of the Marubi Film & Multimedia School in Tirana, Albania. This human rights advocate was a Fulbright scholar at Columbia University in 1993. He often uses the medium of film to expose human rights issues through his perspective.
Kolonel Bunker was filmed in France, Albania and Poland in 1996, winning awards in France, Turkey, Albania, Canada and the United States. This docudrama explores a government program known as “bunkerization” -- a controversial project in the early 1980s to create 700,000 underground concrete bunkers for the protection of Albanian citizens. Kolonel Bunker will be shown on Thursday, Nov. 16.
The second film, Magic Eye, will be screened on Friday, Nov. 17. Set in 1997 when a pyramid fund collapse created civil unrest, Magic Eye is the story of a photographer’s witness to tragic events, including the death of an innocent child, and his resulting decisions. This film has garnered awards at the 2005 Cairo International Film Festival and from the International Federation of Film.
Several Utica College professors have established a relationship with their peers in Albania over the last several years, offering field schools and teaching courses there in anthropology, human rights education, and art.
About Utica College – Founded in 1946, Utica College is a comprehensive private institution that grants the Syracuse University baccalaureate degree and the Utica College master’s and doctoral degrees. The College, located in central New York, approximately 90 miles west of Albany and 50 miles east of Syracuse, currently enrolls an approximated 2,900 undergraduate and graduate students in 31 undergraduate majors, 24 minors, 13 master’s and two doctoral degree programs.
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