Los Angeles

On Tuesday, May 1st, Human Rights Watch hosted a Film Club screening of ANITA: SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER at the United Talent Agency screening room in Beverly Hills. The movie was followed by a panel discussion with Academy Award winner Freida Lee Mock, Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni, and HRW's Deputy Director of the Women's Rights Division Janet Walsh, moderated by The Wrap's Sharon Waxman. Pictures from the evening are available here.

On Sunday, January 28th, our Film Club hosted a special screening of THE BLOOD IS AT THE DOORSTEP, a powerful documentary looking at the killing of Dontre Hamilton by a police officer in Milwaukee, and the unrest and reactions that came after. The movie was followed by a conversation with director Erik Ljung, Dontre's brother Nate Hamilton, and US Program senior researcher John Raphling.

On November 14, 2017, the Los Angeles Committee hosted its most successful Voices for Justice Annual Dinner so far, with a record-breaking $1.8 million raised to support the vital work of Human Rights Watch. Attendees heard reports from the field by our researchers working on the Rohingya crisis, the dire consequences of Duterte's death squads in the Philippines, juvenile justice reform in California and immigration in the US. In addition, the LA Committee honored Chris Cornell and his song for THE PROMISE movie, with our inaugural The Promise Award. OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder and Drew Brown performed the song in an emotional sequence. Finally Grace Parra reminded everyone that #ImmigrantsAreUS.

Pictures of the evening are available at the following link.

Human Rights Watch is excited to co-present a Special Screening of TICKLING GIANTS on Thursday, October 12th at 7:30pm at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. A discussion with Director Sara Taksler and Comedian Bassen Youssef will follow the movie. Tickets are available here.

Dubbed, “The Egyptian Jon Stewart,” Bassem Youssef hosts the most popular television programme in the Middle East. In the midst of the Egyptian Arab Spring, Youssef left his job as a heart surgeon to become a full-time comedian, and his show ‘Al-Bernameg’ (The Show) now brings in 30 million viewers per episode. In a country where freedom of speech is becoming increasingly restricted with each regime change, Youssef and his courageous staff of young writers develop creative methods to non-violently challenge abuses of power. Enduring physical threats, protests, and legal action, the team test how far they can take the joke. 

Join us for our fall Film Club Screening of JOSHUA, followed by a conversation with the movie's Director, Joe Piscatella, and Producer, Andrew Duncan, along with Minky Worden, Human Rights Watch's Director of Global Initiatives, moderated by Pam Bruns, Executive Director of the Student Task Force. Doors open at 4pm at New Roads School in Santa Monica.

Rallying thousands of students to skip school and occupy the streets of Hong Kong, teenager Joshua Wong becomes one of the autonomous territory’s most notorious dissidents, successfully disrupting government plans to devolve power back to China. This inspiring documentary spends years tracking the movement from grassroots disruption to national politics. Following tear gas attacks, multiple arrests and an exhausting 79-day campaign to shut down Hong Kong’s financial district, Joshua moves on to the next phase of the movement—facing down the superpower from inside the government itself.

Tickets are available here.

On June 2, 2017, Human Rights Watch Los Angeles and the International Criminal Court Alliance hosted a Conversation on Women's Rights in Iran with Dr. Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of HRW's Middle East and North Africa Division, moderated by Asli Bali, Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law and Director of the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies. The panelists discussed the recent presidential election in Iran, the role of women in the Iranian political scene, as well as Human Rights Watch's recent report of women in the workplace in Iran.

A recording of the conversation is available on the HRW SoCal Facebook Page and an attendee's written recap can be read here. Pictures can be seen here.

On April 9, 2017, Human Rights Watch Los Angeles hosted a Special Screening and Discussion of The Uncondemned, an extraordinary documentary following a group of lawyers and activists who prosecuted rape as a crime against humanity. This is the story of their fight for the first conviction. “What The Uncondemned convincingly demonstrates is the cumulative power of a small group of people with an intense passion for justice, idealists with practical experience whose belief in the power inherent in speaking the truth is not to be denied.” -- Kenneth Turan, LA Times Attendees were invited to stay after the screening for a Q&A moderated by Kenneth Turan of the LA Times, the movie director, Michele Mitchell, and Human Rights Watch’s Senior Counsel for the US Program, Sara Darehshori. The discussion was followed by a reception with the panelists.

On January 29, 2017, Human Rights Watch hosted its Film Club Special Screening and Discussion of When Two Worlds Collide. The movie was followed by a Q&A with HRW's Jose Miguel Vivanco, Director of the Americas Division, Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch Founder, and Filmmaker Heidi Brandenburg, moderated by Keely Badger, Film Club Committee member.

A contemporary apocalyptic story of a man, of a people, and of the fate of one of our planet’s most valuable natural resources, the Amazonian Rainforest. In this documentary, audiences are taken into the line of fire between opposing Peruvian leaders who will stop at nothing to keep their goals intact. On one side is President Alan Garcia who begins aggressively extracting oil, minerals, and gas from untouched indigenous Amazonian land. He is met with fierce opposition from indigenous leader Alberto Pizango, whose speeches against Garcia’s actions prove a powerful rallying cry to his supporters. When Garcia continues to ignore their pleas, a tense war of words erupts into deadly violence.A contemporary apocalyptic story of a man, of a people, and of the fate of one of our planet’s most valuable natural resources, the Amazonian Rainforest. In this documentary, audiences are taken into the line of fire between opposing Peruvian leaders who will stop at nothing to keep their goals intact. On one side is President Alan Garcia who begins aggressively extracting oil, minerals, and gas from untouched indigenous Amazonian land. He is met with fierce opposition from indigenous leader Alberto Pizango, whose speeches against Garcia’s actions prove a powerful rallying cry to his supporters. When Garcia continues to ignore their pleas, a tense war of words erupts into deadly violence.

Aero Theatre
1328 Montana Avenue 
Santa Monica, California 90403

5:00 pm | Doors open
5:30 pm | Film Screening, followed by panel discussion 
7:30 pm | Reception with drinks and food

The Return examines this unprecedented reform through the eyes of those on the front lines—prisoners suddenly freed, families turned upside down, reentry providers helping navigate complex transitions, and attorneys and judges wrestling with an untested law. At a moment of reckoning on mass incarceration, what can California’s experiment teach the nation?

Join us after the movie for a Q & A with the movie’s directors, protagonists, and HRW’s Children’s Rights senior advocate to discuss the current state of California’s justice system and upcoming changes. The screening and discussion will be followed by a reception with the panelists.

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On January 31, 2016 Human Rights Watch hosted the Los Angeles Premiere and Discussion of Salam Neighbor, a movie following some of the tens of thousands of Syrian refugees living in Jordan. Salam Neighbor follows Zach and Chris, two Americans who head to the edge of war, just seven miles from the Syrian border, to live among 85,000 uprooted refugees in Jordan's Za'atari camp. As the first filmmakers allowed by the United Nations to register and set up a tent inside a refugee camp, Zach and Chris plunge into the heart of the world's most pressing humanitarian crisis.

The movie was followed by a Q&A with the film’s co-director Zach Ingrasci, and producer Salam Darwaza, along with Human Rights Watch's Refugee Program Director Bill Frelick, for a discussion moderated by Asli Bali, Professor of Law at UCLA.

Human Rights Watch invites you to the Los Angeles Premiere of The Trials of Spring at the American Cinematheque Aero Theater in Santa Monica on September 20th, 2015. This gripping movie focuses on the instrumental role women activists played in the Egyptian uprising and under the current military repression.

Join us after the movie for a panel discussion featuring Producer Beth Levison, Human Rights Activist Hend Nafea, UC Riverside Associate Professor Sherine Hafez, and HRW's Middle East & North Africa Division Executive Director Sarah Leah Whitson.

General tickets are $30 and Student tickets are $15. Tickets are unreserved and seating is first-come, first-served.

For more information and to buy tickets, please visit: http://ttos.bpt.me/