Oscar Nominated Film to be shown at WRT

The Oscar-nominated documentary film War/Dance will be shown on Sunday, April 18 at Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale at 11 a.m., following a 10:30 a.m. breakfast.

Directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, “War/Dance” won the documentary directing prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and has gone on to win multiple awards. “A visually ravishing documentary,” according to the New York Times critic Stephen Holden, the film follows a group of schoolchildren from a refugee camp in northern Uganda to a national music competition. Many of these children, members of the Acholi tribe, have lost one or both parents to the violence of Uganda’s 20-year civil war. Some have been abducted from their camp by the rebel army and forced to serve as child soldiers.

Holden writes: “Through music, dance and drumming, the children transmute fear and pain into profoundly cathartic spiritual affirmation. When they perform the Bwola, the tribe’s intricate, 500-year-old royal dance, you feel its ritual power healing broken lives.”

The film will be introduced by Sister Rosemarie Milazzo, whose expertise regarding child soldiers and conflict in Africa comes from many years working in the Congo and other regions worldwide. At the conclusion of the film, Sister Milazzo will moderate a question and answer session.

This event is free and open to the public at Westchester Reform Temple, which is located at 255 Mamaroneck Road in Scarsdale, N.Y. For directions or information, call the Temple at 914-723-7727, email to office@wrtemple.org, or visit the web at www.wrtemple.org.