In a bit of a coup for DMU, Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave is coming to the university to present a film about the economic crisis in Bosnia.
Ms Redgrave, CBE, who has dedicated much of her life to human rights causes, will show the film Bosnia Rising alongside her son and director of the piece, Carlo Nero, on Thursday 5 February.
The documentary focuses on the reasons behind violent protests which erupted across Bosnia in February 2014. Protestors said it was a reaction to years of privatisation and stripping of assets, leading to mass unemployment and the collapse of Bosnia & Herzegovina's economic infrastructure.
It is the first time the film has been publicly shown since its recent premiere in London.
There will be a Q&A afterwards with Ms Redgrave, Mr Nero, Dr Damir Arsenijevic, a Leverhulme Fellow at DMU, and Dr Kenneth Morrison, reader in Modern Southeast European History at DMU, who has organised the event. The esteemed economist Fred Harrison, who is featured in the film, will also join the panel.
Dr Morrison said: “It is a great coup for the university to have both the producer Ms Redgrave and the director Carlo Nero at DMU to talk about the important issues raised in the film.
“The film focuses on the protests in Bosnia & Herzegovina and the social and economic conditions that fuelled them, and proposes how they could possibly be improved. Hopefully the film will stimulate debate about the serious economic problems that afflict not only Bosnia but many countries in the world."
Ms Redgrave should prove to be a fascinating and passionate speaker about the issues the film raises.
She is a Special Representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund and since 1993 she has worked in Sarajevo, Belgrade, Zagreb, in Slovenia and Macedonia during the war; and in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999 with UNICEF and the Mother Theresa Society.
She is a long standing supporter of a number of Russian human rights societies, including MEMORIAL, The Sakharov Foundation and ‘For Human Rights’.
In 1999, with her brother Corin, she founded the International Campaign for Peace and Human Rights in Chechnya.
Ms Redgrave works for the rights of asylum seekers and refugees with the UN. And she is a passionate supporter of the West East Divan Orchestra founded by Daniel Barenboim and Professor Edward Said. The orchestra brings together Arab and Israeli musicians, defying fierce political divides in the Middle East.
She has been nominated six times for an Oscar, won best supporting actress in 1977 for 'Julia', is a 2003 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee, and received the 2010 BAFTA fellowship. Legendary American playwright Arthur Miller called Ms Redgrave "the greatest living actress of our times".
The film showing will be at 4pm in Hugh Aston 0.08 on Thursday 5 February and will then be followed by the Q&A. Refreshments will be served in the Hugh Aston atrium.
The event is supported by the DMU Jean Monnet Centre for European Governance and The DMU Centre for Adaptations.
Posted on Monday 2 February 2015