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About Rob Cawston

Rob Cawston is openDemocracy's production manager. He has written on film, literature, issues of transitional justice and Bob Dylan.

Articles by Rob Cawston

Thursday 21st June

Bucking the trend? More on coffee...

Rob Cawston, 21 June 2007

Has Starbucks turned a corner after announcing today an alliance with Ethiopian farmers?

Black Gold: Nick Francis interviewed

Rob Cawston, 21 June 2007

In my short review of the documentary Black Gold I said I was trying to track down co-director Nick Francis.

Monday 18th June

Black Gold: wake up and smell the coffee

Rob Cawston, 18 June 2007

by Rob Cawston

Black Gold

Causes are boring. Or simply mundane. And the bigger they are the more the message gets subsumed into our everyday consciousness ... poverty bad, debt bad, aid ok, free trade bad (possibly), fair trade good (always?).

I saw a film at the weekend that woke me up again. A ristretto to the brain.

Monday 11th June

“Sorry”, Gail Jones

Rob Cawston, 11 June 2007

A poetic exploration of colonial-Aboriginal relations and the politics of apology in wartime Australia. Hear author Gail Jones talk about her latest novel

Tuesday 15th May

"Alter Ego: Avatars and their Creators", Robbie Cooper

Rob Cawston, 15 May 2007

Portraits of online gamers and their virtual-world alter egos.

Friday 16th March

Los Desaparecidos: rescuing real lives

Rob Cawston, 16 March 2007

A new exhibition explores one of the terrible legacies of Latin America's dirty wars – the forced "disappearance" of thousands of people across the continent. Rob Cawston reviews, plus, a slideshow of selected images.

Monday 12th February

'Dreams of Peace and Freedom,' Jay Winter

Rob Cawston, 12 February 2007

Mapping the century's minor utopias and the individuals trying to imagine a radically better world.

Wednesday 14th June

American Zeitgeist: war through a wide-angled lens

Rob Cawston, 14 June 2006

Robert McGann’s film about the "war on terror" is that rare breed of documentary that resists political agenda, writes Rob Cawston, but how effectively does it tackle the bigger picture?

Sunday 2nd April

Latin America: Filming the past, framing the future

Rob Cawston, 2 April 2006

Rob Cawston looks at three recent films chronicling the struggle for human rights in Latin America.

Monday 6th February

"A Man Without a Country", Kurt Vonnegut

Rob Cawston, 6 February 2006

"Kurt Vonnegut can't 'parallel park worth a damn' but gives the kind of epigrammatic insights that most authors would give their writing arm for."

Friday 2nd December

Is everything illuminated? The curse of 'logophilia'

Rob Cawston, 2 December 2005

Can a great novel make a great film? Rob Cawston considers a recent movie adaptation of one of his all-time favourite books “Everything is Illuminated.”

Monday 21st November

Nuremberg and the legacy of law

Rob Cawston, 21 November 2005

The architects of Nazi genocide were tried at Nuremberg sixty years ago. What lessons remain for the era of Rwanda, Bosnia, and Iraq? Robert Cawston weighs the balance between impunity and progress.

Thursday 29th September