The real horrors of our world
Amnesty International’s campus club hosts movie night to show the horrors of war
Sophie Long
News Writer
The University of Regina’s Amnesty International group organized a Halloween event on Oct. 29 called the “Real Horrors” movie night. The movie night showcased some of the planet’s more prominent and continuing human rights issues, and focused on the Shell oil spills in Nigeria. The movie was coupled with the 1954 culture classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon to parallel the current issues facing Nigeria.
Halena Seiferling, a member of the University of Regina’s Amnesty International campus club, said the movie night had an overall fun atmosphere, despite the heavy topic.
“People could come and watch this really old movie and laugh at how it was supposedly scary back in the day, and have some popcorn, some treats and some drinks, and have an enjoyable evening for Halloween,” she said.
While the movie night was a fun alternative around Halloween, it did touch on some big problems. Seiferling said that the goal of the evening was to get people to talk “about the environmental destruction [in Nigeria], and how the people in the area feel, [with] their water being polluted and everything.
“There’s actually some really bad things happening, and they’re really scary and happening in the world today.”
The University of Regina’s Amnesty International group has decided to make the Shell Oil spills a focus for the upcoming months.
“There’s actually some really bad things happening, and they’re really scary and happening in the world today.” – Halena Seiferling
“One of the ongoing campaigns we’ve agreed to work on is raising awareness about Shell Oil both in Nigeria and here,” Seiferling said. “[That’s] a pretty common thing up in Northern Alberta in one of the indigenous communities, and so we’re trying to link this issue back to Canada.”
Amnesty International will be gearing events and awareness campaigns towards tackling this issue. The focus will be on creating awareness on campus regarding the challenges this creates and how many people the issue affects.
Seiferling said that the group will be encouraging conversation regarding the oil problem, explaining that the group will encourage students to “talk about the problems with these accidents that happen with oil companies and how to hold them accountable, and how to talk about the negative effects [they have,] and how we can rally around it”.
The group plans to host another event on Dec. 10 in relation to International Human Rights day. The event, called “Write for Rights”, encourages students to write letters and notes to promote freedom and justice for human rights. The aim of the event is to take action against worldwide oppression. For students interested in taking part in the Amnesty International campus club, Seiferling encouraged students to sign up to their mailing list at aiuregina@gmail.com or join the Facebook group “Amnesty International University of Regina Campus Club”.
She also adds that interested students can join the group or be added to their mailing list. The group also holds meeting on Sundays at 5 p.m.
Photo courtesy leonidpetrov.files.wordpress.com
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