Watchers of the Sky

Inspired by Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem From Hell, Oscar-nominated director Edet Belzberg presents an artistic and intellectually rigorous film on the history of genocide. Beginning with the story of Raphael Lemkin, the unsung hero who coined the phrase “genocide,” the film explores Lemkin’s passionate writing and fervent fight to have genocide recognized as a global crime. His story is told alongside four other remarkable individuals: Samantha Power, US ambassador to the United Nations; Luis Moreno Ocampo, chief prosecutor with the International Criminal Court; Benjamin Ferencz, Nuremberg prosecutor; and Emmanuel Uwurukundo, UN refugee officer. All of them are inspired by Lemkin to work towards ending the systematic elimination of a people. Spanning Bosnia, Darfur, the Nuremberg trials and the extermination of the Armenians, this film presents one of the most comprehensive and compelling looks at the history of genocide. Heather Haynes, Hot Docs