Solving for X. A Quantitative Approach to Human Rights Data

Description

Solving for X is a feature-length documentary about the quantitative approach to human rights data. The film documents the work of Dr. Patrick Ball, leader of the Benetech Human Rights Data Analysis Group. Based in Silicon Valley, Ball and his team travel the world helping human rights supporters apply sophisticated computer analysis to human rights events. Three examples of this quantitative approach are explored in the film. First, the massive migration of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo during the war in Yugoslavia is examined. Dr. Ball conducted statistical analyses of this event and presented his findings at the trial of Slobodan Milosovic at The Hague. Second, we look at how the statistical report produced for Guatemala's UN Commission for Historical Clarification changed the public's understanding of the military's role in that country's thirty-six year conflict. Previously the military was seen as protecting the country from communism; later it became understood the military had targeted indigenous Mayans for genocide. Finally, Ball and his team work with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Liberia to analyze and interpret victim and perpetrator narratives. Through a painstaking examination of thousands of statements, Ball and his team are able to answer the basic question surrounding the Liberian conflict: who did what to whom?

Runtime

71 min

Subjects

Genre

Date of Publication

[2014], c2013

Database

Films on Demand

Direct Link