Pamela Yates Movies

Filmmaker Pamela Yates follows charismatic International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo as he fights to make powerful perpetrators pay for their reprehensible crimes against humanity and struggles to ensure that the ICC emerges as a powerful and effective means of fighting for human rights in this documentary shot over three years and across four continents. Created in the waning days of the 20th century as a response to the increasing number of horrific atrocities across the globe, the ICC was conceived by more than 60 countries. Its primary goal is to holding those responsible for war crimes and genocide accountable for their crimes, and the man leading this fight from the front-lines is Moreno-Ocampo. In this film, viewers are given the unique opportunity of following Moreno-Ocampo and his team to Uganda as they issue arrest warrants for Lord's Resistance Army leaders, convince the U.N. Security Council to assist in indicting Sudan's president for the Darfus Massacres, jolt the Columbian justice system, and ensure that Congolese warlords get their day in court. But while Moreno-Ocampo may have a well-defined mandate, he and the ICC have no official police force. Determined to make up for this by rallying the international community to lend some political clout, Moreno-Ocampo and his team in the Hague work to forge a new paradigm for justice. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

When the violent actions of Peru's Shining Path guerilla cult prompted a savage response from the country's democratically elected government in 1980, the resulting power play by Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori laid the groundwork for a corrupt political institute that used the threat of terrorism as a means of maintaining absolute power. The resulting cycle of violence proved to many who witnessed the situation firsthand that the situation was only exacerbated by the use of continued force, and that democracy, not more violence, was the most effective means to taking on terrorism. Twenty-five years later, filmmakers Pamela Yates and Peter Kinoy use this Peruvian political nightmare to paint a cautionary picture of the potentially damaging effects of the seemingly unending global war on terror. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

When the Native peoples of the U.S. are shown to possess something that government or big business wants, long-standing treaties and trust arrangements going back for centuries pose no obstacle; the Indians must go. That was as true in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Reservation as it was in the early 19th century, when the discovery of gold in the Appalachians resulted in the displacement of the Cherokee and other tribes from North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina. In 1975, the object of the second land-grab in less than a century directed against the Oglala Sioux was once again mineral wealth. The U.S. government grew alarmed at efforts by members of the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) to protest the sale of tribal lands to corporations and instituted a number of subversive actions using the government-controlled tribal government as its proxy. During the resulting conflicts, two F.B.I. agents were killed, quite possibly by gangs funded by the government. However, these killings supplied the pretext that it had long sought for the government to arrest many of A.I.M.'s leaders. Leonard Peltier was one of those leaders, and he was convicted on what even the government prosecutors later admitted were trumped-up charges. Despite that incredible fact, he remains in prison serving two consecutive life sentences. This documentary tells his story and includes interviews with Peltier himself, as well as author Peter Mathiessen and others either involved with or knowledgeable about America's best-known political prisoner. It differs from the other well-known documentary covering many of these same issues Incident at Oglala by providing a more wide-ranging overview. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This documentary on human rights abuses in Guatemala is narrated by Rigoberta Menchú, winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace prize for her courageous struggle against the military regime in her country. Menchú is a Native American and in this documentary, it is explained that three of her family members were killed during the long fight against the repressive government. One segment of the film shows the bodies left in the wake of a government massacre of civilians. Menchú maintains that as long as the U.S. continues to support the Guatemalan government with military or economic aid, the lives of civilians will continue to be the cost of that support. Two fictional segments in the film illustrate U.S. concerns about business and corporate interests, rather than with human rights. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This political documentary illustrates the turbulent history of El Salvador from the1920s-1970s, and the role of the U.S. government in that history. As the title suggests, the presence of U.S. military advisors in a military dictatorship fighting guerrilla factions that are labeled communist is highly reminiscent of the beginnings of the U.S. escalation of the war in Vietnam. Although El Salvador is a dot on the map compared to the much-larger Vietnam, the potential for escalation and/or the deaths of American soldiers was not discounted. Material for the documentary came from European and North American sources, historical footage, and interviews with the dissidents -- some subsequently murdered. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide