A special screening of the documentary, “State of Fear,” with husband-and-wife filmmakers Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís, will be held Friday, April 7 at 1:30 p.m. in Old Chapel at Union College.
Filmed in English and Spanish with English subtitles, this award-winning 2005 documentary chronicles Peru's desperate search for security and the harrowing assaults on democracy following a terrorist threat.
Yates, the director, and de Onís, producer, will answer audience questions and provide commentary after the screening, which comes two days before a scheduled presidential election in the Andean nation.
The screening, part of the Feminist Film Series, is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the College's Women's and Gender Studies as part of the Sadock Endowment for Women and the Arts. Co-sponsors include the Latin American Studies Program and the Department of Political Science.
Yates, de Onís and film editor Peter Kinoy used archival materials from the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission to trace two decades of terror, brutality and oppression that left an estimated 70,000 people dead.
“State of Fear” was broadcast to 154 countries and translated into 45 languages by National Geographic Channel. It received the Amnesty International Film Festival Audience Award, the Film Critics' Award of the Chicago International Documentary Film Festival and the Council on Foundations Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film & Video.
Yates received an Academy award for “Witness to War,” a 1985 documentary about an American doctor behind rebel lines in El Salvador. She also directed or co-directed “Poverty Outlaw” (1997) and “Takeover” (1991), both finalists for the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize, and “When the Mountains Tremble” of 1993, winner of the Sundance Special Jury Award.
De Onís has produced documentaries for Bill Moyer, Michael Moore, National Geographic and New York Times Television.
For more information, call Lori Marso at (518) 388-6423.