SOLD OUT- THIRD PARTY EVENT Remembering Anna Politkovskaya – A special event and screening of A Bitter Taste of Freedom
RAW in WAR: Remembering Anna Politkovskaya – and a screening of “A Bitter Taste of Freedom” by Marina Goldovskaya
On the 7th of October 2006, Russian investigative journalist, who exposed the truth about the war in Chechnya, Anna Politkovskaya, was killed in Moscow. On the eve of 7 October, to mark the anniversary of her murder and to honour Anna and other women like her in the world, RAW in WAR presents the annual Anna Politkovskaya Award. The RAW in WAR Anna Politkovskaya Award celebrates women human rights defenders from conflict zones in the world who, like Anna, stand up for the victims, often at great personal risk. Anna lived a life of courage and truth-telling in the face of grave danger, just like her friend and the first recipient of the Anna Politkovskaya Award, Natalia Estemirova, who was murdered on 15 July 2009.
This year, the 2011 recipient of the Anna Politkovskaya Award will be announced on 6th October, and a week later, a special event honouring Anna, on the fifth anniversary of her murder, will be held at the Frontline Club. We will be remembering Anna and her work in pursuit of the truth with Anna’s sister, Elena Kudimova, John Sweeney, Marina Goldovskaya, Leila Alikarami, Mariana Katzarova, (founder of RAW in WAR), and many others in the audience, who knew Anna and her work.
We will be showing the film “A Bitter Taste of Freedom” about the life of Anna Politkovskaya, filmed by renowned Russian filmmaker, Marina Goldovskaya, who made this film by following and filming her friend, Anna Politkovskaya, over 20 years. “A Bitter Taste of Freedom” is a very personal portrait of Anna, which allows us to gain an understanding of her life beyond her profession. Interviewing Anna, but also her family and friends, Mariana Goldovskaya’s film gives an insight into Anna Politkovskaya’s ideas and motivations. An investigative journalist for Moscow’s Novaya Gazeta, Anna Politkovskaya was determined to uncovering the crimes committed in the North Caucasus and became a spokesperson for the victims of the Chechen war.
A special reading from Anna’s last articles published in English in 2011 (“Is Journalism Worth Dying For?: Final Dispatches”, Melville House Publishing, New York) and in 2010 (“Nothing But the Truth: Selected Dispatches, Harvill Secker: London) will be performed by members of the Committee of Supporters for the Anna Politkovskaya Award. The audience will join with the acclaimed musicians from Cellorhythmics and others in remembering Anna and celebrating the courage of extraordinary women human rights defenders who had received the Anna Politkovskaya Award. Listen to Cellorhythmics here: http:// www.cellorhythmics.co.uk/current_work.html
RAW in WAR (Reach all Women in WAR) is an international human rights organization, which aims to support women human rights defenders working in countries in war and conflict, and to help end abuse and persecution against them, as well as to strengthen their work in areas of conflict, or “forgotten conflict”, where there is limited or no support from the major humanitarian agencies and organizations. Mariana Katzarova founded RAW in WAR in 2006, after working as a journalist and human rights advocate in the war zones of Bosnia, Kosovo and Chechnya, including 10 years as the Russia Researcher for Amnesty International.
Committee of Supporters for the Anna Politkovskaya Award. A group of more than 100 influential cultural, media and political leaders from around the world joined the Committee of Supporters for the RAW in WAR Anna Politkovskaya Award. Among them are: President Vaclav Havel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the 6 women Nobel Peace Prize laureates, the late Elena Bonner, Terry Waite, Jon Snow, Jeremy Bowen, Vladimir Bukovsky, Tom Stoppard, Sergey Kovalyov, Lyudmila Alekseeva, Sister Helen Prejean, Lord Frank Judd, Baroness Helena Kennedy, Baroness Shirley Williams, Mariane Pearl, Gillian Slovo, Eva Hoffman, Vanessa Redgrave, Gloria Steinem, Ariel Dorfman, Susan Sarandon, Monica Ali, Azar Nafisi, Naomi Klein, Eve Ensler, Anne Nivat, Joan Baez and many others. For the complete list of supporters see http://www.rawinwar.org/content/view/65/202/.
