the-apology

Kicking off this month at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center is the 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, spotlighting vital issues across our world and bringing them to light through a stellar line-up of documentaries. One of the highlights of this year’s line-up is The Apology, directed by Tiffany Hsiung. Ahead of screenings next weekend, we’re pleased to debut an exclusive clip.

The documentary follows three women — one from South Korea, one from China, and one from the Philippines — who were sexually exploited by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and now 70 years later are speaking out about their harrowing experience in a search for justice and peace.

“Given the rise of nationalism, xenophobia, and misogyny in the world today, the women’s stories in The Apology are very powerful reminders of why these attitudes are dangerous, and tell us how they destroy real people’s lives,” says HRW’s Maya Wang.

Check out the exclusive clip and trailer below.

Hsiung’s documentary is an emotionally riveting portrait of 3 elderly women who were amongst thousands of girls and young women who were sexually exploited by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, many through kidnapping, coercion and sexual slavery. Some 70 years after their imprisonment, and after decades living in silence and shame about their past, Grandma Gil in South Korea, Grandma Cao in China, and Grandma Adela in the Philippines are speaking out. The wounds are still fresh for these three former, now elderly, “comfort women” despite multiple formal apologies from the Japanese government issued since the early 1990s. There has been little justice; the courageous resolve of these women moves them to fight and seize their last chance to share first-hand accounts of the truth with their families and the world to ensure this horrific chapter of history is neither repeated nor forgotten.

The Apology screens on June 10 at IFC Center and June 11 at Film Society of Lincoln Center.

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