Today marks Day 1 of the 14th United Nations Association Film Festival, originally founded by Stanford educator Jasmina Bojic to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Every year UNAFF showcases the most powerful and timely documentaries from all over the globe, with this year’s theme being “Education Is A Human Right.” Screenings, panel discussions and receptions with filmmakers will take place in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, San Francisco and Stanford campus through Sunday, Oct. 30. Not sure what to check out? Here we’ve highlighted several projects with strong ties to the Stanford community.

Inspired by their 2007 memoir of the same name, “The Power of Two,” directed by Marc Smolowitz, explores the uphill battle of half-Japanese twin sisters Anabel Stenzel ’94 and Isabel Stenzel Byrnes ‘94 against the fatal genetic disease cystic fibrosis. Since undergoing double lung transplants, the twins have gone on to become authors, athletes and global advocates for organ donation. The film incorporates archival footage, including that of their tour of Japan, a nation where transplantation is stigmatized, as well as expert interviews from the likes of Dr. Bruce Reitz, professor emeritus at the Stanford School of Medicine and the surgeon who performed the twins’ transplants.

Independent filmmaker and writer Carol Liu ’05 presents “Restoring the Light,” an inspirational study of several families coping with debilitating health problems in rural China. These vignettes include a young woman who dreams of attending university despite a severe bone infection, her grandmother who toils away in the fields despite eyesight diminished by cataracts and a dedicated doctor who sacrifices his home in order to establish an independent practice to support the community.

And finally, “There’s No Sound in My Head” examines the boundaries between music and visual art using Stanford faculty Mark Applebaum’s pictographic score “The Metaphysics of Notation,” which for one year was on display at the Cantor Arts Center Museum along with two hanging mobiles and no form of instructions. Over the course of the installation, it received over 45 weekly performances from interpreters the world over. The film, directed by Robert Arnold and produced by Applebaum, includes interviews with musicologists, performance footage and conversations with the composer himself.