Calling the Ghosts: A Story about Rape, War and Women (1996), is a documentary film exploring the systematic use of rape during the war in the former Yugoslavia.

Last year's feature of Toronto International Film Festival, winner of the 1996 Human Rights Watch, Nestor Almendros Award, Calling the Ghosts is being recognized by Human Rights Watch for its original documentation of mass rape as a wartime tactic employed by military and civilian policymkers in the Balkans. The film is a moving testament to survivors of rape through out the ages that have not had the opportunity to seek retribution.

AWARDS:

• 1998 EMMY: Best Investigative Special
• 1998 EMMY: Directing
• 1998 Robert F Kennedy Journalism Award
• 1997 Cable ACE - Best International Informational Special
• 1997 Silver Apple - National Educational Media Market
• 1997 Special Prize - Sarajevo International Film Festival
• 1997 Special Prize - Minsk International Film Festival
• 1996 Nestor Almendros Award - Human Rights Watch International Film Festival
• 1996 Nomination - Best Feature Documentary, International Documentary Association
• 1996 Honorable Mention - Amnesty International European Film

Many of the persons featured in this film have given testimony to the International War Crimes Tribunal. Still it remains to be seen if rape, for the first time in history, will be prosecuted under international law. Amnesty International brought Ms. Cigelj and Ms. Sivac, film protagonists, on a tour of the U.S. cities in October 1996.

Calling the Ghosts was produced by Bowery Productions (New York) in association with Julia Ormond. Ms. Ormond participated in the launch and promotion of the film, including the opening of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York where Ms Ormond presented the Nestor Almendros Award to the filmmakers.

"Jadranka Cigelj and Nusreta Sivac believe that part of their healing process is for the world to hear their story. These women are helping to ensure that rape is prosecuted as a war crime for the first time in history." - Julia Ormond

• Representatives Tom Lantos and John Porter, co-chairs of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, and HBO to co-host a special event, at which Ms. Cigelj and Ms. Sivac will testify along with US Government, UN and other human rights expert witnesses in Washington D.C. on May 7,1997
• Senator Diane Feinstein and Senator Frank Lautenberg, to meet Ms. Cigelj and Ms. Sivac, May 7, 1997. Other members of Congress expected to meet with them.
• Greenwich Coalition for Peace in Bosnia to hold a series of events and screenings - featuring Ms. Cigelj and Ms. Sivac - in Greenwich and Yale, CT May 3-May 6, 1997.

Interviews Available: Ms. Cigelj, Ms. Sivac and CALLING THE GHOSTS filmmakers Mandy Jacobson and Karmen Jelincic will be in New York and available for interviews, May 3 through May 8, 1997.

For more information about distribution and sales:
contact: Mandy Jacobson, Bowery Productions
tel: (212) 677-2286	fax: (212) 529-2849