As a participant in the 2009 Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival, the Leitner Center will screen three of its films, one each in September, October, and November.

The selection for November is AFGHAN STAR. After 30 years of war and the Taliban’s repression, Afghan Pop Idol is taking the nation by storm. But this is more than just a TV show. In Afghanistan you risk your life to sing.

Pop culture has returned to Afghanistan. Over 2,000 people are auditioning for Afghan Pop Idol and even three women have come forward to try their luck. But in this troubled country, even music is dangerously controversial. Many of those taking part are literally risking their lives. Yet millions of people watch the show and vote by text from their cellphone for their favorite singers. We meet Rafi, a boy from Mazar-e-Sharif with a strong voice and a pretty face, Lima, a young woman from Kandahar who fears for her life every time she goes home, Hammeed, a young musician and classically trained singer from the Hazara ethnic group, and Setara, a controversial figure from Herat who wears the latest fashions and Bollywood make up.

We welcome 2004 HRW Prizewinner Habib Rahiab who will introduce the film with a short lecture on his life and work. Mr. Rahiab is a human rights activist who was forced to flee Afghanistan because of his work documenting human rights abuses and advocating that Afghan warlords implicated in past war crimes be brought to justice.