Saturday, March 9th at The Carnegie Institution for Science
2:00 pm – 3:50 pm

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Tickets also available at the door

Facing the Dragon

Directed by Sedika Mojadidi
Afghanistan / 2018 / 80 mins

In a year fraught with uncertainty, filmmaker Sedika Mojadidi followed several Afghan women to tell the story of what happened to them when the Americans left. Through Mojadidi’s special insider access, we see the day to day realities of Afghan women on the front lines struggling to maintain the hard-won rights in a place where lawlessness, political instability, suicide bombs, and civil war are a way of life.

Dr. Nilofar Ibrahimi is a successful country doctor-turned-member of Parliament in her home province, Badakhshan, an area under siege by the Taliban and insurgents. After eight years of reporting, Shakila Ibrahaimkhel, a top investigative reporter, is at a personal crossroad. Her reports on violence against women and corruption within the new government have put her life in danger and made her job tenuous.

Followed by a panel discussion with director Sedika Mojadidi.

Visit this film’s website

Post- Screening Panel Discussion with:

Dr. Leslie Dwyer, Associate Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of Gender and Conflict at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR) at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia. She is a cultural anthropologist with a Ph.D. from Princeton University whose academic work addresses issues of gender and violence in conflict and post-conflict contexts.

Sedika Mojadidi is an independent filmmaker and producer. In addition to directing Facing the Dragon, she directed the feature film, Motherland Afghanistan, (2006, Independent Lens) and has worked as a producer and camera woman for ABC News, A&E, Discovery, TLC, Guardian Multi Media and Human Rights Watch.

Agnieszka Paczynska is Associate Professor and Director of the MS Program at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR), George Mason University and Nonresident Fellow at the Stimson Center. She is co-editor of Studies in Conflict, Justice, and Social Change book series at Ohio University Press and a Board Member of Saferworld USA. Her research focuses on the relationship between economic and political change and conflict, globalization and local conflicts, post-conflict reconstruction policies and pedagogy.

Join the panelists and the filmmaker at the festival bar to continue the conversation.

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