Film Screening: "All Static and Noise"

The event begins at 7PM (EDT) with opening remarks by Professor Ralph Litzinger (Cultural Anthropology). Following the documentary screening, stay for a conversation with producers Jewher Ilham and Janice Englehart, moderated by Professor Litzinger.

About the film:
Jewher, a Uyghur teen from China with little English, lands in the U.S. after she is violently separated from her father at the Beijing airport as he is detained. Abduweli, a linguist and poet, imprisoned and tortured for teaching Uyghur language to 6-year-olds, makes his way to Istanbul upon his release. Testimony and action from survivors of China's network of "re-education camps" and their families, in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Europe and the United States, infuse the film with an urgency that exposes the mass brutality of state-sponsored oppression in Western China.

Together these voices highlight the moral dilemma between risking the safety of families back home by speaking out and the necessity of exposing atrocities in the hope that global awareness will bring change. Each voice brings us closer to one of the most egregious human rights disasters of our moment. The film honors those willing to speak out and poses difficult questions that are imperatives in our inter-connected global economy of the 21st century.

About the speakers:
Jewher Ilham (Associate Producer) is an author and advocate for the Uyghur community and for her imprisoned father, economist Ilham Tohti. She facilitated community engagement and advised the team on important aspects of the Uyghur experience. She has testified before the U.S. Congress and Senate Foreign Relations Committee, published op-eds, and received numerous international awards on behalf of her father including the Sakharov Prize. She recounted her experiences in her book, "Jewher Ilham: A Uyghur's Fight to Free Her Father." Her second book, "Because I Have To: The Path to Survival, the Uyghur Struggle" was released in 2022. She is a Forced Labor Project Coordinator at the Worker Rights Consortium and serves as a spokesperson for the Coalition to End Uyghur Forced Labour.

Janice Englehart (Writer, Producer) brings together 10 years of collaboration with visual and performing artists in China, previous experience as a therapist and rights advocate, and the belief that creative storytelling is an essential tool to challenge power dynamics that threaten our collective wellbeing.