Boston African Film Festival Various dates and times in February Remis Auditorium, MFA Tickets $6-9 (matinee vs. evening, members/students/seniors vs. general admission) On the heels of the successful Human Rights Watch Film Festival, the MFA brings us the 8th annual Boston African Film Festival. The films featured in this festival were all made in Africa, and all promise to be moving, transformative experiences for any audience. The festival opens this Friday, February 1, with Franco......

Update: Bostonist contacted the American University International Human Rights Law Clinic to see how people can help. They have contacted Senators Kennedy and Kerry, and you can let our senators know how you feel as well. Contact info, as well as information on what else the law clinic is doing to help Enwonwu after the jump! A Nigerian man who served as an informant for the United States' war on drugs might be deported to......

Human Rights International Film Festival at the MFA The Axe in the Attic: Review follows. Sunday, January 20, 2 pm Friday, January 25, 5:45 pm Saturday, January 26, 12:45 pm Thursday, January 31, 6 pm Hot House: A probing documentary that explores the emergence of a Palestinian national leadership within Israeli prisons. Screens Sunday, January 20, 2008, 10:30 am. White Light/Black Rain: A film exploring the threat of nuclear weapons today while looking at mistakes......

Old folks, church-robbin', and pregnancy: these are a few of our favorite things. That is, if you judge by the top box office movies. The Bucket List, First Sunday (Ice CUBE!), and Juno have been keeping butts in theatre seats across the nation. But these fine (?) films will be gettin' a run for their money, or tickets, by 27 Dresses, Cloverfield, and Mad Money. 27 Dresses, though (shockingly!) panned, takes the pregnancy theme of......

The Axe in the Attic Human Rights Watch International Film Fest Wednesday, January 16 at 7:30 p.m. Remis Auditorium, MFA Tickets: $10 MFA members, seniors & students; $12 others. Tonight, The Axe in the Attic opens the four-day Human Rights Watch International Film Fest at the MFA. This film follows two New Englanders on a post-Katrina road trip to New Orleans, depicting their interactions with evacuees and confronting difficult realizations about the many shortcomings of......

Books Ex-SNL writer Patricia Marx, who was also one of the first women to be elected to the Lampoon, will be at Borders Back Bay to talk about Him Her Him Again the End of Him, about a woman who cannot wash a supremely snotty, pretentious man out of her hair. Check out the first chapter, in which Marx's heroine describes her first encounter with "Eugene" and tries to remember what her dissertation was about......

Finally, finally, the National Treasure got the smack-down by two geezers, and ">The Bucket List won this weekend's box office. Juno is still high on the list. While we're happy for Juno's success, is it just us, or are people trying too hard to seem hip by talking about Juno all the time? And has anyone else noticed that Alvin and the Chipmunks isn't going away, either? Now, we'd pay to see the Alvin and......

Human Rights Watch International Film Festival Various Showings, January 16-20 Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Peabody Essex Museum It can be easy to get caught up in local and national news, especially when election coverage is hot and murderous Marines are being sought. But even in the face of exciting events, we shouldn't lose sight of larger, less glamorous issues like human rights. Human Rights Watch has been keeping an eye on international abuses......

Two people received skin-shock treatments at the Judge Rotenberg Education Center (JRC) in Canton after a former student made a prank phone call requesting the treatments. The incidents happened in August but are being reported now. The prank phone call led a frightening number of skin-shock treatments. According to the Globe, the school had delivered "77 shocks to one student and 29 shocks to another." The skin-shock treatments aren't the same as the shock therapy......

Update: The disorderly conduct charge against Hillel Neuer has been dropped. Remember that guy who freaked out the employees at the Stone Hearth Pizza after a 78-year-old man was beaten to death in Needham? Turns out that he was a perfectly normal guy who just happened to be changing his clothes in the bathroom. Franci R. Ellement at the Globe writes that Hillel Neuer is a human-rights activist who is the executive director of UN......

The Darfur/Darfur Exhibit will be at the Institute of Contemporary Art on Friday, September 7, in the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater. The exhibit of photographs will run from 10 am to 3 pm and is free with regular admission. Tickets to the lecture and Yo-Yo Ma performance are already sold out, but you will be able to hear it outside the ICA. Sometimes "awareness-raising" only goes so far, especially when it comes to......

Our familiarity with German legends is admittedly not what it's supposed to be, but we are familiar with the tale of Faust, the medieval alchemist who made a deal with the devil to acquire riches and earthly pleasures. The tale's already been updated and retold once in a baseball context, in Damn Yankees. Now, we're not suggesting that Indians pitcher Fausto Carmona has made his own deal with the devil, but there's certainly circumstantial evidence.......

Bruins 3, Buffalo 2 - Apparently whatever Coach Lewis told the Bruins in the parking lot worked. After three shootouts, they finally won when Marco Sturm broke through. Celtics 96, Atlanta 100 - Ouch. At least it was close, but it was a loss to another team lurking around the lower reaches of the Eastern Conference. To play the Celtics Glad Game, the Herald had a nice piece about Doc Rivers' relationship with the family......

Last month controversy erupted surrounding an invitation extended President Jimmy Carter to speak at Brandeis. The invitation was extended by a trustee with the suggestion that he make Waltham a stop on his book tour and have a little debate with Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. Carter gave the idea a thanks but no thanks response. Carter’s newest book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid was publicly criticized by Dershowitz who has asserted that the former President......

The Legislature passed the proposed amendment to ban on gay marriage on the 2008 ballot. Even though 134 legislators don't want the ban on the ballot, all it takes is 50 legislators to move the amendment forward, and 62 legislators voted "yes." This is a setback, not just for those who deserve the right to marry whomever they want but also for Deval Patrick, who took a strong stand against the amendment, using tough......

Time for a moment of news zen: Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, yesterday pledged to continue his country's program of providing discounted home heating oil to the poor in Massachusetts. Chavez, you may recall, is the Bush administration's public enemy number one in Latin America because he's, um, leftist. Not a dictator, not in power by undemocratic means, not giving support to terrorists; just leftist. Naturally, Republicans in this country are up in arms that U.S.......

Bostonist has been hearing lots of good things about the new Shotime series "The L Word". Unfortunately, we're too poor for premium cable. From what we understand, it's about a bunch of lesbians in LA who wear the lastest fashions, listen to hip music, and create drama in comical ways. Luckily, the wondering and second-hand information is over. The Roxy is hosting a free Season 2 premiere party tonight, with the help of the......

The MFA brings you the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival this week. Starting with the opening of Born into Brothels on Thursday there will be a number of films from the traveling series screened at Coolidge Corner and the Museum of Fine Arts. In the spirit of the MFA they’ll cost a little bit more than a movie anywhere else, but Bostonist promises that you’ll get more out of any of the films......

Bostonist spent yesterday listening to the “I have a dream” speech and watching clips of the good doctor fight for civil rights. Today there is a chance to see another modern great mind, only without the marching. Tonight at the First Parish Church in Harvard Square Noam Chomsky will speak. The $7 - $15 entry fee will benefit Mass Global Action and will discuss the negative effects of globalization on Massachusetts. Originally recognized as......