HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL LONDON MARCH 23- APRIL, 1 2011
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Returning to London from 23 March to 1 April, the 15th edition of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival brings to UK audiences a powerful line-up of 16 documentaries and 5 dramas — many attended by filmmakers and film subjects.
Listen to a festival podcast with Pam Yates, Filmmaker of GRANITO as she tells the incredible story of how her 30 yr old film footage came to be used to prosecute war criminals.
You can also check out a festival podcast on the film THE GREEN WAVE, a remarkable experimental documentary which portrays the revolution surrounding the 2009 Iranian Elections.
Download festival program here (4mb)
Festival Program
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Forty years in the making, !Women Art Revolution is artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson’s remarkable tribute to the feminist art movement, delving deeply into a rich cultural history that raises vital questions about gender politics, equality, and freedom of expression.
Lynn Hershman Leeson201083m -
In Lebanon's largest prison, inmates stage a version of Reginald Rose’s play 12 Angry Men. Revealing the tremendous dignity and despair of the prisoners, Zeina Daccache's inspired theatre project transforms their lives, offering an extraordinary experience for the audience.
Zeina Daccache200978m -
One good deed can transform an entire life. When Hilde Back sponsored the primary school education of Chris Mburu from her home in Sweden, his life in Kenya was forever changed.
Jennifer Arnold201088m -
A poignant and powerful documentary, Familia sensitively observes one matriarch's decision to go to work as a hotel maid in Spain and the impact that choice has on her extended family in Peru.
Mikael Wiström and Alberto Herskovits201082m -
Part political thriller, part memoir, Granito takes us through a haunting tale of genocide and justice that spans four decades, two films, and filmmaker Pamela Yates’s own career.
Pamela Yates2011100m -
Based on actual events, Olivier Masset-Depasse's award-winning film vividly depicts the harsh reality for those detained in Belgium's detention centres.
Olivier Masset-Depasse201095m -
What is the cost of truth for families immobilised by Colombia’s violent past? In 2005, Colombia started gathering evidence about the horrific violence being carried out by illegal paramilitias in a highly controversial Justice and Peace process.
Juan José Lozano and Hollman Morris201085m -
Masterfully adapted from the acclaimed play by Wajdi Mouawad, Incendies brings to life a moving and epic tale through the unravelling of one woman’s mysterious past.
Denis Villeneuve2010130m -
Life, Above All (Chanda’s Secret) reinvents the coming-of-age story when a young girl must maintain the facade of a normal life amidst utter instability.
Oliver Schmitz2010105m -
Los Angeles, California has been designated the homeless capital of America, with an estimated 48,000 individuals living on the streets. Thomas Napper’s empathetic but tough-minded documentary invites us into a part of the city that many choose to ignore — downtown’s Skid Row.
Thomas Napper201077m -
An intimate family drama set against the backdrop of the 1998 conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pushing the Elephant tells the story of Rose Mapendo, who was separated during the conflict from her five-year-old daughter, Nangabire.
Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel201084m -
Based on real events, The First Grader recounts the rousing tale of one man’s pursuit of education in Kenya and the universal desire to better one’s life.
Justin Chadwick2010103m -
From the widespread hope of political change in Iran through the 2009 elections to the brutal suppression of the mass protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, The Green Wave recounts the dramatic events of the most severe domestic crisis in the history of the Islamic Republic.
Ali Samadi Ahadi201080m -
Unfolding like a gripping novel that constantly subverts expectations, The Oath shows the interlocking drama of two brothers-in-law, Abu Jandal and Salim Hamdan, whose associations with al-Qaeda in the 1990s propelled them on to two divergent paths.
Laura Poitras201096 mins -
Risteard Ó Domhnaill's engrossing and provocative documentary follows a four-year campaign to prevent Shell from laying a gas pipeline in County Mayo, Ireland.
Risteard Ó Domhnaill201083m -
A group of Kenyans breach social barriers to produce The Team, a TV soap opera, hoping taboo storylines can bridge deep ethnic divisions as their country struggles to recover from the violence after the 2007 elections.
Patrick Reed201080m -
Based on true events, this compelling political thriller recounts the story of Nebraska police officer Kathryn Bolkovac, who discovers a deplorable cover-up and launches an indomitable fight for justice in the former Yugoslavia.
Larysa Kondracki2010111m -
Featuring interviews with both Israelis and Palestinians living in Hebron, as well as activists on both sides, members of the Israeli parliament and prominent Ha’aretz journalists, This Is My Land… Hebron lifts the lid on Hebron as it is today - a city fraught with violence and hate.
Giulia Amati and Stephen Natanson201075m -
In the early 1980s, death squads roamed the Guatemalan countryside in a war against the unarmed indigenous population that went largely unreported in the international media. A unique group of filmmakers threw themselves into the task of bringing the crisis to the world’s attention.
Directed by Pamela Yates and Newton Thomas Sigel, Produced and Edited by Peter Kinoy83m -
No longer able to stand her husband's violent ill-treatment, Umay flees from Istanbul with her five-year-old son Cem to seek shelter in the arms of her family in Berlin. But as the reality of Umay's defiant actions sets in, the family's reputation at home and abroad is threatened.
Feo Aladag2010119m -
You Don’t Like the Truth – 4 Days Inside Guantanamo is a stunning documentary based on security camera footage from an encounter in Guantanamo Bay between a team of Canadian intelligence agents and Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, then a 16-year-old detainee.
Luc Côté and Patricio Henríquez201099m -
Youth Producing Change presents stories from teen filmmakers across the globe as they turn the camera on their own lives and invite audiences to experience the world as they do every day.
Various filmmakers72m