*You are cordially invited to* * * *Sunday High, 10 January 2010 -* Film screenings
*The Color Purple* (based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer prize winning story) 154 min, English *Director:* Steven Spielberg *Cast:* Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Avery, Oprah Winfrey *Synopsis:* *The Color Purple* follows the life of Celie Johnson as she struggles through life in the early 1900s. The film begins with Celie about 17 years old, giving birth to her second child, sired by her father. Her father takes the second child away from her and tells her never to tell anyone about it. Time passes and a local farmer, "Mister", comes by to marry Celie's younger, prettier sister, Nettie. Her father refuses to let Nettie marry and gives the man Celie instead. Mister neglects and abuses Celie until Nettie comes by asking to stay with them, because the father can't keep his hands off her. When Mister is unable to lure Nettie, he sends her away, leaving Celie more distraught than ever. Nettie promises to write unless death keeps her from it, but Celie never receives a letter. Meanwhile, Mister's lover, Shug Avery, comes to visit and befriends Celie, helping her to understand that she is more than Mister's servant. The movie culminates in Celie leaving Mister with the threat that everything he touches will fall apart until he does right by her. Mister finds compassion and goes to the INS to help Celie's sister Nettie prove that she is a US citizen and return from Africa where she has been living with Celie's two children who had been given to a missionary and his wife. Celie is reunited with Nettie and her two children in a heartfelt ending to an extraordinary film. *Paragraph 175 - *gay survivors of the Nazi persecution because of the German Penal Code of 1871 speak out for the first time 81min, English *Directors:* Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman *Narrator:* Rupert Everett *Synopsis: *By the 1920s, Berlin had become known as a homosexual eden, where gay men and lesbians lived relatively open lives amidst an exciting subculture of artists and intellectuals. With the coming to power of the Nazis, all this changed. Between 1933 and 1945, 100,000 men were arrested for homosexuality under Paragraph 175, the sodomy provision of the German penal code. Some were imprisoned, others were sent to concentration camps. Of the latter, only about 4,000 survived. Fewer than ten of these men were known to be living at the time of this film. Five of them came forward to tell their stories for the first time in this powerful new film, among them: the half-Jewish gay resistance fighter who spent the war helping refugees in Berlin; the German Christian photographer who was arrested and imprisoned for homosexuality, then joined the army on his release because he "wanted to be with men"; the French Alsatian teenager who watched as his lover was tortured and murdered in the camps. Their moving testimonies, rendered with evocative images of their lives and times, tell a haunting, compelling story of human resilience in the face of unspeakable cruelty. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Time:* 5 pm to 9 pm, with a 15-minute intermission after the first film. *Venue:* The Humsafar Trust's Drop-in Centre, 4th floor, Municipal Transit Building (Vakola Municipal Market Building), Near Raheja Point and Vakola Masjid, Santacruz (East), Mumbai. *Getting there:* It's approximately minimum fare by auto-rickshaw from Santacruz station (East). You could also take routes 311 or 313. The same routes also operate from Kurla (West) station.. *Space courtesy:* The Humsafar Trust. Note: Programme subject to change without notice in unavoidable circumstances. *Keep in touch with Bombay Dost via:* The Bombay Dost Wiki (http://bombay-dost.pbworks.com/) OR The Facebook Fan Page (http://www.facebook.com/Bombay-Dost<http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Bombay-Dost/52817999936> ) OR follow Bombaydost on Twitter (http://twitter.com/bombaydost OR subscribe to our Google SMS Channel ( http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/BombayDost) OR E-mail us: bombaydost2...@gmail.com OR Google Wave: bombaydost2...@googlewave.com
