Editor's Note: Mary Elizabeth Murphy from 360 Degree Communications contributed to this blog post.
On October 17th, the documentary film Watchers of the Sky by 360 Degree Communications, opened in theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The film takes viewers on a provocative journey from Nuremberg to The Hague, from Bosnia to Darfur, from criminality to justice, and from apathy to action.
Inspired by Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book A Problem From Hell, this documentary interweaves Raphael Lemkin’s struggle with the courageous efforts of four individuals keeping his legacy alive: Luis Moreno Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the ICC; Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Ben Ferencz, a former Nuremberg prosecutor still tenaciously lobbying the UN for peace, and Rwandan Emmanuel Uwurukundo, UN Refugee Agency Field Director in Chad.
Watchers of the Sky tells the stories of these five remarkable people who are trying to end the international community’s political paralysis and make “never again” a reality. These individuals’ actions and choices demonstrate that people can effectively challenge the axiom that nothing can be done to end genocide.
The activists highlighted in the film share a common ambition: to create widespread change to end genocide and other cycles of violence. The film has received the Editing Award and Special Jury Award for Use of Animation US Documentary, Sundance Film Festival 2014 Courtesy of Music Box Films.
Enough co-hosted a pre-screening of the film in New York last May.