Special Screening of “Miral” to benefit the Middle East Program of the Resource Center for Nonviolence, Sunday April 10, 11:00 a.m., Del Mar Theatre, 1124 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz $10-$25 suggested donation.
From Julian Schnabel, director of “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” “Before Night Falls” and “Basquiat,” comes “Miral,” the visceral, first-person diary of a young girl growing up in East Jerusalem as she confronts the effects of occupation and war in every corner of her life. Schnabel pieces together momentary fragments of Miral’s world-how she was formed, who influenced her, all that she experiences in her tumultuous early years-to create a raw, moving, poetic portrait of a woman whose small, personal story is inextricably woven into the bigger history unfolding all around her.The film shows a starkly human search for justice, hope and reconciliation amid a world overshadowed by conflict, rage and war.
Miral’s story, which shifts sinuously through layers of time and emotions, begins with the woman who will become her teacher. Hind Husseini (HIAM ABBASS, “The Visitor,” “Amreeka”), who in 1948 turned her father’s home into the Dar Al-Tifel Institute, an orphanage and school for Palestinian children. What would you do if you found 55 orphans wandering the streets in the middle of a war-torn city? For Hind, the answer was to protect them, draw a line around them and make a safe haven where they could not be harmed, and where they could learn in safety and begin to imagine a more peaceful world.
In 1978, years after Hind starts the school, a 5 year-old girl arrives at the Institute in the wake of her mother’s tragic death.This is Miral (FREIDA PINTO, “Slumdog Millionaire”), and this is her story. She will grow up sheltered inside the protective walls of Dar-Al-Tifl, but then at the age of 16, on the cusp of the Intifada, Miral is assigned to teach at a refugee camp where she is awakened to the anger and struggles that seem to be her legacy.When she falls for a fervent political activist, Hani (OMAR METWALLY, “Munich,” “Rendition”), Miral is drawn into a personal dilemma: to choose a path of violence or to follow Mama Hind\’s hard-fought belief that education is the only way to pursue lasting peace.
The screenplay is by Rula Jebreal, based on her semi- autobiographical book of the same name.The producer is Jon Kilik. Francois Xavier Decraene is the executive producer.This film is a French-Israeli-Italian-Indian Co-Production of Pathe, ER Productions. Eagle Pictures and India Take One Productions, with the participation of Canal + and Cinecinema. RATED PG-13.

For more information about the film screening, call 831-423-1626, www.rcnv.org,  For more info on the film: www.miralmovie.com

Sunday, April 10, 7:00p.m. AT: Resource Center for Nonviolence, 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz

Co-sponsored by Pax Christi and the Diversity Center.

James Loney served in Baghdad 3 times with Christian Peacemaker Teams. Loney responded to his commitment to nonviolence by training to enter war zones and engage a peacemaking role in Iraq, to stand with Iraqis during the United States invasion.  On November 26, 2005, James Loney was captured in Baghdad with 3 other CPT members. After two and a half months in captivity, one of his companions, Tom Fox, was killed by the captors. Six weeks later British soldiers freed Jim and his remaining two companions.
James Loney has just published, Captivity: 118 Days in Iraq and the Struggle for a World Without War.  Loney will reflect on the commitment to nonviolence in times of war. What can we do when the United States leads its international relations with military means? What are the dilemmas, fears, and hopes we face in practicing nonviolence?
Suggested sliding scale donation $8-15. For more info: 831-423-1626.

James Loney will also preach during worship at
First Congregational Church, Sunday, April 10, 10:30 AM.

Audio of Professor Galtung’s talk and the Q and A session recorded from the microphone on Thursday have been uploaded to Indybay.org.  Click Here to go the page for the downloads.

Thursday, February 17, 7:30-9:30p.m.

Meet and Hear Professor Johan Galtung, the founder of Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies, speaking on “Popular Uprising in the Middle East and the Decline of Empire”
Location: Zachary’s, 819 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz

Proceeds to benefit “IF” & the Resource Center for Nonviolence

*7:30 Reception & Presentation: $25-$100 suggested sliding scale donation; Couples $40-100 sliding scale (includes appetizers, wine & nonalcoholic beverage)
*8:00 Presentation only: $10-$25 suggested sliding scale donation
Johan Galtung is the founder of the field of peace and conflict studies. He has spent the past half-century pursuing nonviolent conflict resolution in international relations. His latest book is called “The Fall of the US Empire-And Then What?: Successors, Regionalization or Globalization? US Fascism or US Blossoming?,” in which he predicts the collapse of the American empire in ten years, by 2020. Johan was featured on “Democracy Now” in an interview with Amy Goodman in June, 2010.
Born 1930 in Oslo, Norway, Prof. Johan Galtung holds PhDs in mathematics and sociology. Galtung is widely known as the pioneering founder of the academic discipline of peace studies. He has served as a professor for peace studies and peace research at the universities of Oslo, Berlin, Belgrad, Paris and Hawaii, just to name a few, and has mediated in about 50 conflicts between states and nations since 1957.
Prof. Galtung currently lectures in a Masters Course at the World Peace Academy associated with the University of Basel and is director of the Transcend Peace University, the world’s first online Peace Studies University and a global non-profit network Transcend International dedicated to high level mediation and conflict resolution through nonviolent means and methods. “Transcend International” connects about 400 experts active in concrete peace and reconciliation work across the globe.
For more information, call 831-423-1626 or 831-724-4108.

Audio of Captiola Book Cafe event available for listen or download from Indybay.org.  Click Here to go to the page for the audio!

Title: “Understanding Islam: 50 Questions” with Imam Dr. Amer Araim
TWO events/ Location: 12:30 p.m.-Messiah Lutheran Church, 801 High Street, Santa Cruz AND 7:30 p.m.- Book Reading & Discussion . Capitola Book Café, 1475 41st Avenue, Capitola

12:30p.m., Luncheon & Talk p.m., Messiah Lutheran Church, 801 High Street, Santa Cruz

7:30 p.m., Book Reading & Discussion , Capitola Book Café, 1475 41st Avenue, Capitola

Dr. Amer Araim was born in Iraq, earned his B.A. in law in Baghdad and M.A. and Ph.D in New York and teaches at Diablo Valley College in dthe East Bay. Araim served in the Iraqi Foreign Service and then for more than two decades as a foreign policy specialist with the UN, specializing in global movements against Apartheid and Colonization. Araim has served as an Imam since 1999. Following 9/11, he spoke widely about Islam and discovered that many Americans want to know more about Islam. Araim has devoted his life to improving Americans’ understanding of Islam and US relations with Moslem countries.

Luncheon and copy of Araim’s book: $20. Luncheon only $10.00. Evening program at Book Café free.

12:30 p.m. event: Lunch $10; Book $10; Lunch & Book $20. $5-10 sliding-scale donation suggested for event.

7:30 p.m. event free of charge.

Space limited. Reservations suggested to 831.423.1626 or imamaraiminsantacruz@yahoo.com

Sponsored by (List in formation) the Resource Center for Nonviolence
For more info: www.rcnv.org or 831.423.162
&
Palestine Israel Action Committee
www.palestineisraelactioncommittee.com/home

MP3 audio of Stephen Zunes’ talk and Q and A session is available for download or live stream at Indybay.org ! Click Here for Link!

Title: Nonviolent Revolution in Tunisia and Egypt with Dr. Stephen Zunes
Location: Resource Center for Nonviolence, 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA
Description: 7:30p.m., Thursday 2/3

Nonviolent Revolution in Tunisia and Egypt with Dr. Stephen Zunes

The successful unarmed resistance in Tunisia and the ongoing struggle
in Egypt has not only once again demonstrated the power of strategic
nonviolent action, but is bringing long-overdue democratic change to
the Arab world. These popular uprisings have enormous ramifications
for US-backed dictatorships and other autocratic regimes, US policy in
the Middle East, and the future of the entire region. Stephen Zunes,
politics professor and of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of
San Francisco and a leading authority on Middle Eastern and North
African politics, nonviolent action, and U.S. foreign policy, will
share his thoughts on these dramatic developments and lead the
discussion. For more information, www.rcnv.org or 831-423-1626.