In the U.S.? Watch Alias Ruby Blade Online - One week only!

Alias Ruby Blade: A Story of Love and Revolution tells the tale of Kirsty Sword Gusmao as a young Australian activist who adopts the alias Ruby Blade while working for the underground Timorese resistance in Indonesia. It is currently showing during the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC.

You will need to create a Tribeca account and log in you can watch three Tribeca Film Festival  2013 feature films and four short films.

Then go to http://www.tribecafilm.com/online/competitions/film/513238201c7d76a6bb000084-alias-ruby-blade-a-story- . 

All films expire at 11:59 pm on April 28.

Please note: All TFF features and shorts are restricted to viewers in the United States only.

SYNOPSIS of Alias Ruby Blade

Veteran documentary editor and producer Alex Meillier takes a turn in the director’s chair to tell the remarkable story of documentarian-turned-activist Kirsty Sword Gusmão. Beginning with only a simple curiosity in the islands to the north of her native Australia, she becomes a forceful advocate for the tiny nation of Timor-Leste and a lynchpin in its harrowing, decade-long struggle for independence. Meillier turns Gusmão and her team’s firsthand footage of the revolution into an insider’s guide to the personalities and secret networks that kept it alive. Along the way, we meet the charismatic leader of the resistance, Xanana, whose relationship with Kirsty would redefine the cause for which they both were fighting. 

Alias Ruby Blade is an engaging portrait of a revolution with deep resonance in the events of the Arab Spring. By focusing his film on the movement’s most unlikely member, who in turn becomes one of its most indispensable agents, Meillier gives a personal edge to the individual sacrifices and courage needed to create a new democracy in modern times.  ­Arthur Ryel-Lindsey for Tribeca Film Festival

more info www.aliasrubyblade.com

2012 | 78 minutes | Documentary Feature

For details about upcoming showings in the New York-area at the Tribeca Film Festival and Montclair Film Festival go to http://etanaction.blogspot.com/2013/04/nyc-showings-of-alias-ruby-blade-story.html

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Copies of Kirsty Sword Gusmao's book, Woman of Independence, are available from ETAN. http://etan.org/resource/books.htm#B47Copies of Kirsty Sword Gusmao's book, Woman of Independence, are available from ETAN. http://etan.org/resource/books.htm#B47

Nobody forgotten! Papuan Behind Bars

Papuans Behind Bars just launched. This valuable online resource "aims to raise awareness about West Papuan political prisoners so that nobody is forgotten." The project is an initiative of the Civil Society Coalition to Uphold Law and Human Rights in Papua. 

"The site seeks to provide accurate and transparent data, published in English and Indonesian, to promote debate, campaigning and policy change in support of increasing democratic space in West Papua.

"It includes comprehensive lists of current prisoners and former prisoners as well as monthly Updates on arrests, releases and trials. Detailed profiles of individual prisoners can be obtained by clicking on their entry in the prisoner lists or on their photo wherever it appears on the site."

Papuans Behind Bars also contains useful links and action suggestions for those inside and outside Indonesia.

NYC showings of Alias Ruby Blade: A Story of Love and Revolution

UPDATE 2: Watch Alias Ruby Blade online - one week only (until April 28). Details here

UPDATE: Alias Ruby Blade is also showing at the Montclair (NJ) Film Festival, Saturday, May 4, 2013, 1 pm. Also showing is the Act of Killing, the widely acclaimed documentary about the killings in 1965-66 Indonesia: Sunday, May 5, 6:15 pm.  

http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/513238201c7d76a6bb000084-alias-ruby-blade-a-story-

Alias Ruby Blade:
A Story of Love and Revolution

SCREENINGS

FRI     4/19    8:30 PM AMC Loews Village 7 - 3        
 BUY TICKETS
SAT     4/20    4:00 PM AMC Loews Village 7 - 2       
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TUE     4/23    3:30 PM Clearview Cinemas Chelsea 6 
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SAT     4/27    3:00 PM AMC Loews Village 7 - 1      
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Q and A with Director Alex Meillier after all screenings.

SYNOPSIS

Veteran documentary editor and producer Alex Meillier takes a turn in the director’s chair to tell the remarkable story of documentarian-turned-activist Kirsty Sword Gusmão. Beginning with only a simple curiosity in the islands to the north of her native Australia, she becomes a forceful advocate for the tiny nation of Timor-Leste and a lynchpin in its harrowing, decade-long struggle for independence. Meillier turns Gusmão and her team’s firsthand footage of the revolution into an insider’s guide to the personalities and secret networks that kept it alive. Along the way, we meet the charismatic leader of the resistance, Xanana, whose relationship with Kirsty would redefine the cause for which they both were fighting.

Alias Ruby Blade is an engaging portrait of a revolution with deep resonance in the events of the Arab Spring. By focusing his film on the movement’s most unlikely member, who in turn becomes one of its most indispensable agents, Meillier gives a personal edge to the individual sacrifices and courage needed to create a new democracy in modern times.   --Arthur Ryel-Lindsey

Program: World Documentary Competition

2012 | 78 minutes | Documentary Feature

Directed by: Alex Meillier
Premiere: North American
Cinematographer Shane Sigler
Cast Kirsty Sword Gusmão, Xanana Gusmão, José Ramos-Horta
Director Alex Meillier
Screenwriter Tanya Ager Meillier, Alex Meillier
Producer Tanya Ager Meillier, Richard Keddie
Editor Tanya Ager Meillier, Alex Meillier
Director of Photography Shane Sigler
Executive Producer Abigail E. Disney, Gini Reticker, Silvio Salom
Composer Paul Brill

Film website: www.aliasrubyblade.com





Copies of Kirsty Sword Gusmao's book, Woman of Independence, are available from ETAN. http://etan.org/resource/books.htm#B47

West Papua Report April 2013

West Papua Report April 2013
Challenges in West Papua, New Roads, Military Impunity, Freeport, New Governor, MSG


CONTENTS: This edition of the West Papua Report offers the PERSPECTIVE of a longtime observer of West Papua who recently traveled to the Central Highlands, who reports the growing militarization of the region and the negative impact of that military build up on human rights and in stoking rising communal tensions. In UPDATE we note that the Indonesian military will shortly begin a massive road project which will likely service military rather than Papuan interests. New contract negotiations between the central government and the Freeport-McMoRan mining operation are proceeding absent West Papuan participation and without regard for their interests. The new Governor of Papua province appears not to understand problems of development and security facing the region. Papuans have again called for an end to the presence of the notorious "Special Forces" (Kopassus) in their homeland.  Indonesian and international calls for an end to the impunity accorded Indonesian military leaders and personnel for human rights abuses are growing. That impunity gives license to continuing abuse and criminal activity by the military. WPNCL pressed it case to have West Papua join the Melanesia Support Group at a meeting with Fiji Prime Minister Banimarama. CHRONICLE highlights two first-hand accounts of the Wamena area and a review of Eben Kirksey's Freedom in Entangled Worlds: West Papua and the Architecture of Global Power.

Timorese groups call for right to justice for victims of Indonesia occupation

Read whole statement here: Joint Statement on International Day for the Right to the Truth and Justice for Victims: ANTI demands for the State of Timor-Leste to not ignore the rights of victims

excerpts:

The demand for victims’ rights to truth and justice is not only aimed at satisfying victims, but also for the current generation and future generations. The truth is a historical treasure of a country that prevents the reoccurrence of such incidents in the future. History does not just concern heroism displayed during a violent struggle, but it should also encompass the suffering of victims, so that we can all understand this human suffering to prevent further suffering.

...

“This principle of justice must be firmly upheld and cannot be modified in accordance with the desire of the ‘elite’ and especially not because of authority wielded by perpetrators. The problem that there is no capacity to achieve justice is not a reason to ignore and violate these principles. The capacity to achieve justice is relative and it is the responsibility of the entire international community”; said  Sisto dos Santos, Coordinator of ANTI.   

Read the rest here