Documentary Film on Acid Violence to Show at OSU

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5-11-09

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The documentary film, “Finding Face,” which recently premiered at The International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights in Geneva, will make its Northwest premiere at Oregon State University on Tuesday, May 26.

The screening will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Gilfillan Auditorium, 2601 S.W. Orchard Ave., Corvallis. It is free and open to the public.

The film, directed and produced by Skye Fitzgerald and OSU faculty member Patti Duncan, documents the controversial case of Tat Marina, a young woman who was attacked with acid in 1999. At 16, Marina was a rising star in Phnom Penh’s karaoke music scene. She was coerced into an abusive relationship with Cambodia’s Undersecretary of State, and subsequently attacked with acid. The film contextualizes acid attacks as both a human rights violation and a gendered form of violence. Marina, who was granted asylum to enter the United States, struggles to emerge from a shattered self-image and with hopes of gaining some form of justice.

The film took more than two years to make and involved multiple trips to Cambodia and to the Boston area, where Marina now lives. In addition to its premiere in Geneva, the film has also been screened at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego and the International Film Festival on Human Rights in Sucre, Bolivia.

Duncan, an associate professor in the Women Studies Program at OSU, wrote the script for the film. Fitzgerald, founder of Spin Film and producer and director of Bombhunters, (2006) co-produced the film and is the principal cinematographer. Both will be in attendance on May 26, and there will be a Q&A following the screening.

The film has already received international media attention, including features in The Cambodia Daily, The Phnom Penh Post, and World Pulse Magazine. Interviews with the filmmakers and/or subjects of the film have aired on ABC Australia, Voice of America, World Radio Switzerland, Air America, and the BBC.

The event is sponsored by OSU’s Women Studies Program and co-sponsored by a number of departments and programs on campus.

For more information about Finding Face, seehttp://www.spinfilm.orgorhttp://www.findingface.org

About the OSU College of Liberal Arts: The College of Liberal Arts includes the fine and performing arts, humanities and social sciences, making it one of the largest and most diverse colleges at OSU. The college's research and instructional faculty members contribute to the education of all university students and provide national and international leadership, creativity and scholarship in their academic disciplines.

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