Please join us for a film screening and discussion with special guests
ALEXANDRIA BOMBACH
Film Director
SIMONE MONASEBIAN
Director
UN Office on Drugs and Crime
5:30 p.m. | Registration
6:00 p.m. | Screening
7:30 p.m. | Discussion and Q+A
Note: screening begins promptly at 6 p.m.
Tribeca Screening Room (new venue)
375 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10013
ADMISSION
UNA Members: FREE
UNA Student Members: FREE
Non-Members: $15
The past four years of Nadia Murad’s life have been unimaginable.
On August 3, 2014, ISIS declared that the Yazidi people of Northern Iraq had long been a shame to their idea of Islam, and set out to commit genocide. An estimated 5,000 people were killed in the weeks that followed, and over 7,000 women and children were captured, forced to become sex slaves and child soldiers. Nadia was captured on the same day that ISIS killed her mother and six brothers. Eighteen members of her family were either killed or enslaved.
Today, twenty-three-year-old Nadia’s life is a dizzying array of exhausting undertakings — from giving testimony before the UN to visiting refugee camps to soul-bearing media interviews and one-on-one meetings with top government officials.
On Her Shoulders displays a deep compassion, with a formal precision and elegance, that matches Nadia’s calm and steely demeanor. Filmmaker Alexandria Bombach follows this strong-willed young woman who, surviving genocide and escaping ISIS, has become a relentless beacon of hope for her people, even when at times she longs to lay aside this monumental burden and simply have an ordinary life.
Director Alexandria Bombach on Nadia Murad
“When Nadia Murad walks into a meeting — whether with a politician, a journalist, or a diplomat — there is a sense of tension. Understandably, it seems that for many it’s difficult to know what to say, what questions to ask, how to express that they care but at the same time not promise too much. They most likely know her wrenching story before she starts, yet no matter how much detail she gives, they also know they couldn’t possibly, truly understand her experience.
“This is a film that explores that space: the distance between the victim and her voice, the fragility of human emotions that both provoke and hinder positive change, and the unbelievable resilience of a woman willing to sacrifice herself to play the media game that is modern advocacy.”
We invite you to join us for this limited screening, which will be followed by a discussion with Alexandria Bombach, the director of the film, and Simone Monasebian, director of UNODC's New York Office (UN Office on Drugs and Crime).
Nadia Murad
Nadia Murad is a human rights activist. She is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018, a recipient of the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize and the Sakharov Prize, and the UN’s first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. She has also received the Clinton Global Citizen Award, Peace Prize from the United Nations Association of Spain, and was named 2016 Woman of the Year by Glamour Magazine. Since 2015, Nadia has been working to bring ISIS before the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
Read: ’On Her Shoulders' documents the quiet persistence of Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad
Guest Speakers
ALEXANDRIA BOMBACH
Alexandria Bombach is an award-winning cinematographer, editor, and director from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her first feature-length documentary, Frame By Frame, follows the lives of four Afghan photojournalists who are facing the realities of building Afghanistan’s first free press. The film had its world premiere at SXSW 2015, went on to win more than twenty-five film festival awards and screened in front of the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani.
Alexandria continued her work in Afghanistan in 2016, directing the Pulitzer Center-supported New York TimesOp-Doc, Afghanistan by Choice, an intertwining portrait of five Afghans who must weigh the costs of leaving or staying as the country’s security deteriorates.
In addition to her feature documentary work, Alexandria’s production company RED REEL has been producing award-winning, character-driven stories since 2009. Her 2013 film Common Ground unearths the emotion behind a proposed wilderness-area addition for a community in Montana as heritage and tradition are seemingly defended on both sides. Her Emmy award-winning 2012 series MoveShake captured the internal conflicts of people dedicating their lives to a cause.
SIMONE MONASEBIAN
Simone Monasebian is currently the Director of the New York Office of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Monasebian coordinated the UN Secretariat's negotiations of the landmark UN Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2010, as well as each review thereafter and has worked closely with UN Goodwill Ambassadors including, Nadia Murad, UNODC Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking.
She has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Human Trafficking and the Law, and International Criminal Law at Seton Hall Law School's Zanzibar and Cairo programs.
Monasebian has additionally served as CourtTV's on air legal analyst on international criminal trials and terrorism, and as Principal Defender at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, as well as Trial Attorney at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she was one of the prosecutors responsible for the 2003 landmark convictions of three media executives who fanned the flames of genocide in their newspaper and radio station.
Monasebian’s work was prominently profiled in Dina Temple-Raston’s book, Justice on The Grass: Three Rwandan Journalists, Their Trial for War Crimes and a Nation's Quest for Redemption (2005).
In the 1990s, she practiced law in a New York firm specializing in complex national and international criminal and human rights matters.
Monasebian began her professional career in the early 1980s, as one of the first journalists to cover hip hop culture and rap music.
FROM THE REVIEWS
“A rare documentary that works equally effectively on the head and the heart, only making Murad’s heroism more remarkable in the process.” Screen International
“An intimate, empathetic documentary, made with discretion and power.” Los Angeles Times
“It’s one thing to tell a traumatic story, and another to capture how that trauma impacts a life.” Variety
“Bombach’s direction and editing are exceptional; she captures images that are both subtle and formidable.” New York Times
“On Her Shoulders offers some limited insights into the politics of international refugees, but the film keeps its focus on a woman of humble origins who willingly takes on the pain of millions.” Austin Chronicle
“This powerful and affecting documentary doesn’t rehash Murad’s suffering in painful detail. Instead, filmmaker Bombach… reveal(s) her to be a compelling and inspiring subject.” Washington Post
“This vital documentary is proof that it’s heroic enough just to be heard.” IndieWire
“On Her Shoulders is an essential documentary about an inspiring young woman and allies that still have a lot more work to accomplish.” Film Stage
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