Human Rights Watch Traveling Festival - Dans, Grozny, Dans by Jos de Putter

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Introduction Tips and Program Notes

When introducing films at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, we generally follow a three part theme: Human Rights Watch, the Film Festival, and the film screening as it relates to both the organization and the festival. We have elaborated on these points below and we hope that you will feel free to incorporate this information into your own introductions.

Human Rights Watch and the International Film Festival

Since its inception in 1978, Human Rights Watch has become a real force in the human rights movement, widely respected for its accurate research and creative advocacy. Our staff works in more than seventy countries worldwide, publishing dozens of reports every year and shining a bright light on those who abuse human rights. Through rigorous investigation, expert analysis, strategic advocacy, and persistent pressure, we have led the way in building support and protection for internationally recognized human rights.

Our capacity to engage the public has always been critical to our ability to influence policy and stop human rights abusers. Fourteen years ago, we created the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in recognition of the power of film to educate and galvanize a broad cross-section of concerned supporters.

Human Rights Watch's International Film Festival has become a leading venue for distinguished fiction, documentary and animated films and videos with a distinctive human rights theme. Through the eyes of committed and courageous filmmakers, we showcase the heroic stories of activists and survivors from all over the world. The works we feature help to put a human face on threats to individual freedom and dignity, and celebrate the power of the human spirit and intellect to prevail. We seek to empower everyone with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a very real difference.

Dans, Grozny, Dans

DANS, GROZNY, DANS is a film that portrays the ongoing conflict in Chechnya through the eyes of a dance troupe, a group of young people who in the face of great adversity have chosen to preserve their culture and use the arts as a form of survival. Combining beautiful footage from their performances with interviews that explore their feelings about the ongoing disappearances and attacks on their city, Jos de Putter succeeds in giving us a portrait of life in Chechnya that is both harsh and heartfelt. By using dance, these young people and their teacher fight against the dehumanization that is so common against Chechens and many other peoples in conflict. It is this constant reminder that we are all human that Human Rights Watch through its research and the Film Festival through its use of the arts shares with this film.