Fifth Annual
Common Ground Film Festival

Sponsored By
Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Download the Official 2006 Festival Poster Here

Click Here to RSVP

is an international, nongovernmental, nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC, dedicated to conflict resolution and prevention, in cooperation with European Centre for Common Ground in Brussels. http://www.sfcg.org

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES (SHSS) at NSU offers interdisciplinary graduate programs in conflict analysis and resolution, family therapy, college student personnel administration, college student affairs, peace studies, health care conflict resolution, medical family therapy, family studies and joint programs with the Criminal Justice Institute and the Shepard Broad Law Center. http://shss.nova.edu. SHSS’s Department of Conflict Analysis & Resolution (DCAR) is one of only two programs in the U.S., and one of few in the world, that offers both master’s and doctoral degrees in conflict analysis and resolution. http://shss.nova.edu/DCAR/ .

The Context

Since 1987, Search for Common Ground has been producing award-winning films and TV programs that embody the values of what we call common ground media: to demonstrate, in informative and entertaining ways, that contentious problems have workable solutions.

These productions take a balanced approach and emphasize the common humanity shared by people in conflict. They reveal why adversaries think, feel, and act as they do—stressing commonalities among peoples without ignoring the differences that distinguish them.

This Festival includes an impressive group of feature and documentary films that demonstrate how films can have a major impact in inflaming or defusing conflict.

What sets the Common Ground Film Festival apart from other film festivals is the way that the filmmakers tell their stories. The films selected are balanced in their portrayal of conflicts and issues; they avoid stereotyping by focusing on people as individuals rather than as representatives of groups; the promote understanding of the issues and people involved; they give audiences a broader context of the issues involved; and they show the commonalities among people while not ignoring the differences that divide them. The power of the media-- and of film-- can be used to develop greater understanding and tolerance, and can contribute to defusing conflict rather than inflaming it.

We hope that you will come to as many of the screenings as possible, participate in the dialogues, and have a rewarding experience.