John Biaggi

John Biaggi is the Director of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, a position held since 2008, and began working with the festival in 1999. John works on every aspect of the festival which includes the two flagship festivals in New York and London, as well as festivals and film events in Amsterdam, Beirut, Chicago, Nairobi, San Diego, San Francisco,Toronto, Washington D.C., and Zurich. He screens upwards of 250 films each year, both at festivals worldwide and through the festival’s extensive submissions. John also helps organize the numerous worldwide co-presentations the festival participates in each year. Previous to his work at Human Rights Watch, John was a festival coordinator for the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. He also enjoyed a successful career both as a director and producer of independent films and as a director of photography on numerous films and videos for television. John graduated with a Bachelors degree in Anthropology/Archaeology from Stanford University in 1985. He lives in Irvington, NY.