Juneteenth is an annual holiday that commemorates the abolition of slavery in Texas. On June 19, 1865,- two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect- Union soldiers sailed into Galveston, Texas, announced the end of the Civil War. They read aloud a general order freeing the quarter-million slaves residing in the state and that day has become known as Juneteenth.

Top 10 Films to Watch on Juneteenth:

1) To Kill A Mockingbird

Based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning book of 1960, this film tells the story of Atticus Finch, a lawyer in a racially divided Alabama town in the 1930s. He agrees to defend a young black man who is accused of raping a white woman.

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Lucien Samaha is uneasy about Beirut. Sadly, for more than thirty years there has been plenty to be uneasy about in the city that once upon a time was known as the “Paris of the Middle East.” The exhibition “Lucien Samaha is Uneasy About Beirut,” currently in its final week at the Sara Tecchia Roma New York gallery, showcases Samaha’s haunting imagery from the capital of war torn Lebanon. Since 1975, this beleaguered country has witnessed a 15+ year Civil War, been used a proxy battleground by both neighboring countries and global powers, and still teeters on the brink of plunging back into chaos as sectarian strife continues.

The artist, who was born in Beirut and now resides in the United States, used a mix of film and digital processes to obtain the eerie images of a city that has been repeatedly pushed to the brink. Grainy, foreboding street scenes take on the weight of history amidst the bombed out buildings of this once peaceful and prosperous place.

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Mediarights.org has a great interview with Lisa F. Jackson, director of the film The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo which will premiere on HBO April 8th. The film, which won a Special Jury prize from Sundance this year was shot in the war zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006. The documentary breaks the silence surrounding the tens of thousands of women and girls who have been kidnapped, raped and sexually tortured in that country’s intractable civil war.

Just viewing the short trailer below sent chills through my body. I feel infuriated and disgusted by the horrors these poor victims of war have faced and continue to face. I can only imagine the powerful impact this film will have on viewers.

and visit the links page for The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo which features a comprehensive list of organizations working to help women in the Congo.

Robert Capa & Gerda Taro join Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins, Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee, and Lucie & Raymond
Aubrac, in receiving one of my Valiant Valentines Awards for couples who love each other and the world, and work with each other to change the world. Robert Capa, one of the most famous, if not the most famous, war photographers of the last century, is best known for his photo Falling Soldier, which captures a shot soldier falling to his death during the Spanish Civil War. Gerda Taro, the less known photojournalist, is best known for being Capa’s artistic and romantic partner, not for her exceptional bravery and photography. The two brilliant photographers shared much in common: born Andre Friedmann, Capa, who was Jewish, fled the antisemitism of Hungary and went to Paris; born Gerda Pohorylle, the Jewish Taro escaped Germany’s antisemitism and moved to Paris, where she would meet Capa. They began collaborating artistically and Robert Capa was the name they created to sign their shared work. It was their shared love of freedom which brought the two to Spain, where they would document the Civil War– the bombed cities, the deaths and destruction– in the hopes of gathering support and raising awareness of the anti-Fascist cause and of the rising fascism, which they had known so well. Sharing a love for each other as well, they would photograph not just the war, but each other.

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