To mark World Heritage Day 2017, UNRIC, UNESCO and the Italian Cultural Institute invited you to the screening of “The Destruction of Memory“.
Over the past century, cultural destruction has wrought catastrophic results across the globe. This war against culture is not over – it’s been steadily increasing.
In Syria and Iraq, the ‘cradle of civilization’, millennia of culture are being destroyed. The push to protect, salvage and rebuild has moved in step with the destruction.
Legislation and policy have played a role, but heroic individuals have fought back, risking and losing their lives to protect not just other human beings, but our cultural identity – to save the record of who we are.
Based on the book of the same name by Robert Bevan, The Destruction of Memory tells the whole story – looking not just at the ongoing actions of Daesh (ISIS) and at other contemporary situations, but revealing the decisions of the past that allowed the issue to remain hidden in the shadows for so many years.
The film was introduced by:
- Paolo Fontani, UNESCO Representative to the EU Institutions,
Followed by an interactive discussion with:
- Tim Slade, Award winning director,
- Diego Marani, Coordinator for cultural diplomacy at the European External Action Service,
and moderated by;
- Caroline Petit, UNRIC Deputy Director.
