1.

7 Days in Syria

Dir. Robert Rippberger
Produced. Robert Rippberger, Scott Rosenfelt, Janine di Giovanni, Matthew VanDyke, Nicole Tung

USA | 2016 | 75 mins | Language: Arabic with English subs.

A documentary feature unlike any other as Newsweek middle east editor, Janine di Giovanni, risks it all to show us the human side of war in Syria.

2.

DAZE OF JUSTICE

Dir. Michael Siv
Produced. Donald Young

USA | 2016 | 69 mins | Language: Central Khmer, English subs.

What happens when a 1.5-generation Cambodian American seeks answers about the Khmer Rouge — the ugly reign of terror under Pol Pot’s brutal regime? Filmmaker Mike Siv, finds himself behind the camera on a journey from California to the Khmer Rouge Trials.

Siv is a trusty narrator as he follows a feisty professor who corrals survivors to travel to Cambodia to testify in the trials. Siv is himself a survivor, having fled Cambodia at age 3.

The silence over the decades — Siv says that his own mother, a survivor, never talks about the past — is broken by the brave Cambodian American survivors. Yet, the true hero of the film is an unlikely one. The documentary takes an unexpected turn when the son of a high-profile convicted war criminal, who oversaw the killings of thousands, joins the Cambodian American refugees on a journey to seek justice.