Human Rights Watch International Fim Festival
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New York
Recognizing the extraordinary power of film to inspire and educate, the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, now in its 17th year, promotes dialogue and activism through the screening of distinguished documentary and dramatic films.

“Courage, which conventional movies sell you by the rusty bucketful, springs fresh on all sides in this year's Human Rights Watch International Film Festival,” wrote the Nation. “In the condescending phrase of marketing consultants, these pictures would be ‘scenes of ordinary, everyday heroism.’ Unglamorous, sure, but ordinary? Not on your life.” The festival showcases heroic stories of activists and survivors through the eyes of courageous filmmakers, putting a human face on threats to individual freedom and giving voice to those who might otherwise be silenced.

Several movies deal with globalization and our relationships with those who produce for our consumption. Marc and Nick Francis’s extraordinary Black Gold takes us from Ethiopia's coffee fields to the corporate headquarters of Starbucks in Seattle as we follow Tadesse Meskela on his one-man mission to save 75,000 struggling coffee-farmers from bankruptcy. Martin Marecek and Martin Skalsky's Source, a Czech documentary, shows that Azerbaijan’s oil industry has “left the landscape a septic ruin, the underpaid workers mordantly bitter, and the populace of Baku street-rioting against the corrupt Aliev regimes,” wrote the Village Voice. “Employing funky animation, archival propaganda footage, and a witty visual palette (which includes poisoned cows and bin Laden matrioshka dolls), Source isn't just correct, it's incisively witty.”

The past lives on in KZ, an examination of modern-day life in the picturesque Austrian town of Mauthausen, site of a Nazi concentration camp that attracts bikers, busloads of tourists and parties of schoolchildren. The film asks how people here live alongside the dark secrets of the past; it makes us face our ultimate demons.

Smiling in a War Zone chronicles the journey of Simone Aaberg Kern, artist, pilot and film-maker, as she flies a 40-year-old canvas plane more than 6,000km from Denmark to Afghanistan. Since 9/11, the world’s unrestricted airspace has been shrinking, and Simone is forced to meet many challenges. But she carries on, believing that the skies “should be liberated and free, like the oceans.”

Human Rights Watch brings these films to an international audience and seeks to empower viewers with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a very real difference. As the Voice also wrote, “it's easy to be seduced by Anthony Giacchino's The Camden 28, which takes us step-by-step through the now forgotten 'Nam-era civil disobedience case that involved a draft-office burglary, several arrested priests, an FBI mole, and an epic trial arriving at the legal assertion that felonies committed against an immoral war aren't felonies at all. For aging rads, it's something of a gift; for the under-30 conscientious, it could be an inspiration.”

This year, we will present 24 films and videos from 19 countries, featuring powerful stories from Chile (Switch Off), India (Amu, Dreaming Lhasa,) and Iraq (Iraq in Fragments, Winter in Baghdad), among others.

Schedule

Download a PDF of this schedule (860 KB)

June 8 Benefit Screening

6:00pm The Refugee All Stars
Zach Niles and Banker White, Guinea/Sierra Leone/USA, 2005, 80m
Discussion with filmmakers and Special Guests The Refugee All Stars and reception to follow

June 9

1:30pm The Camden 28  Audio Listen
Anthony Giacchino, USA, 2006; 82m
Audio Interview with the Director Audience Q&A
4:00pm Black Gold  Audio Listen
Nick Francis and Marc Francis, U.K., 2006; 78m
6:30pm The Camden 28  Audio Listen
Anthony Giacchino, USA, 2006; 82m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow
9:15pm Dreaming Lhasa  Audio Listen
Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, India/UK, 2005; 91m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow

June 10

1:00pm The Forest for the Trees  Audio Listen
Bernadine Mellis, USA, 2006; 53m
Followed by
Total Denial
Milena Kaneva, Italy, 2006; 65m
Discussion with filmmakers to follow
4:30pm The Camden 28  Audio Listen
Anthony Giacchino, USA, 2006; 82m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow
7:00pm Black Gold  Audio Listen
Nick Francis and Marc Francis, U.K., 2006; 78m
Discussion with filmmakers to follow
9:30pm Dias de Santiago
Josué Mendez, Perú, 2003; 83m

June 11

1:00pm Iraq in Fragments
James Longley, USA, 2006; 96m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow
*Sign language interpretation will be provided for the introduction and post-film discussion
4:00pm Black Gold  Listen
Nick Francis and Marc Francis, U.K., 2006; 78m
Discussion with filmmakers to follow
6:30pm Source (Zdroj)
Martin Mareček & Martin Skalský, Czech Republic, 2005; 75m
*Sign language interpretation will be provided for the introduction and post-film discussion
8:45pm Dreaming Lhasa  Audio Listen
Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, India/UK, 2005; 91m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow

June 12

2:00pm Black Gold  Audio Listen
Nick Francis and Marc Francis, U.K., 2006; 78m
4:00pm Dreaming Lhasa  Audio Listen
Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, India/UK, 2005; 91m
6:00pm The Forest for the Trees  Audio Listen
Bernadine Mellis, USA, 2006; 53m
Followed by
Total Denial
Milena Kaneva, Italy, 2006; 65m
Discussion with filmmakers to follow
9:30pm Shadya
Roy Westler, Israel, 2005; 52m
Preceded by
They Call Me Muslim
Diana Ferrero, US/Italy, 2005; 27m
Discussion with filmmaker Diana Ferrero to follow

June 13

1:00pm Dias de Santiago
Josué Mendez, Perú, 2003; 83m
3:00pm The Camden 28  Audio Listen
Anthony Giacchino, USA, 2006; 82m

June 14

2:00pm The Forest for the Trees  Audio Listen
Bernadine Mellis, USA, 2006; 53m
Followed by
Total Denial
Milena Kaneva, Italy, 2006; 65m
6:30pm Shadya
Roy Westler, Israel, 2005; 52m
Preceded by
They Call Me Muslim
Diana Ferrero, US/Italy, 2005; 27m
Discussion with filmmaker Diana Ferrero to follow
9:00pm Source (Zdroj)
Martin Mareček & Martin Skalský, Czech Republic, 2005; 75m

June 15

1:00pm Source (Zdroj)
Martin Mareček & Martin Skalský, Czech Republic, 2005; 75m
3:30pm Shadya
Roy Westler, Israel, 2005; 52m
Preceded by
They Call Me Muslim
Diana Ferrero, US/Italy, 2005; 27m
6:00pm Rain in a Dry Land
Anne Makepeace, 2006, USA/Kenya; 83m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow
8:30pm Shooting Dogs
Michael Caton-Jones, UK/Germany, 2005; 115m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow

June 16

1:00pm Rain in a Dry Land
Anne Makepeace, 2006, USA/Kenya; 83m
3:30pm Shooting Dogs
Michael Caton-Jones, UK/Germany, 2005; 115m
6:15pm Rosita  Audio Listen
Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater, US/Nicaragua, 2005; 55m
Preceded by
Punam
Lucian Muntean & Nataša Stankovic, Serbia & Montenegro/Nepal, 2005; 28m
Discussion with filmmakers to follow
8:45pm Amu
Shonali Bose, India, 2005; 102m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow

June 17

1:00pm Rosita  Audio Listen
Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater, US/Nicaragua, 2005; 55m
Preceded by
Punam
Lucian Muntean & Nataša Stankovic, Serbia & Montenegro/Nepal, 2005; 28m
Discussion with filmmakers to follow
3:30pm Rain in a Dry Land
Anne Makepeace, 2006, USA/Kenya; 83m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow
6:00pm My American Dream: How Democracy Works Now  Audio Listen
Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini, USA, Work in Progress; 120m
Discussion with filmmakers to follow
9:00pm Switch Off (Apaga y Vamonos)
Manel Mayol, Spain, 2005; 87m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow
*Sign language interpretation will be provided for the introduction and post-film discussion

June 18

1:00pm Winter in Baghdad (Invierno en Bagdad)
Javier Corcuera, Spain, 2005; 78m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow
*Sign language interpretation will be provided for the introduction and post-film discussion
4:00pm KZ
Rex Bloomstein, UK, 2005; 88m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow
6:30pm Men on the Edge – Fishermen’s Diary
Avner Faingulernt and Macabit Abramzon, Israel, 2005; 90m
Discussion with filmmakers to follow
9:00pm Switch Off (Apaga y Vamonos)
Manel Mayol, Spain, 2005; 87m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow

June 19

1:00pm Amu
Shonali Bose, India, 2005; 102m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow
3:30pm Rain in a Dry Land
Anne Makepeace, 2006, USA/Kenya; 83m
6:15pm Smiling in a War Zone
Simone Aaberg Kærn and Magnus Bejmar, Denmark/Sweden/Germany/Finland, 2005; 78m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow (TBC)
8:45pm Men on the Edge – Fishermen’s Diary
Avner Faingulernt and Macabit Abramzon, Israel, 2005; 90m
Discussion with filmmakers to follow (TBC)

June 20

1:00pm Switch Off (Apaga y Vamonos)
Manel Mayol, Spain, 2005; 87m
3:30pm Rosita  Audio Listen
Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater, US/Nicaragua, 2005; 55m
Preceded by
Punam
Lucian Muntean & Nataša Stankovic, Serbia & Montenegro/Nepal, 2005; 28m
6:15pm KZ
Rex Bloomstein, UK, 2005; 88m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow
8:45pm Winter in Baghdad (Invierno en Bagdad)
Javier Corcuera, Spain, 2005; 78m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow

June 21

1:00pm Smiling in a War Zone
Simone Aaberg Kærn and Magnus Bejmar, Denmark/Sweden/Germany/Finland, 2005; 78m
3:30pm Winter in Baghdad (Invierno en Bagdad)
Javier Corcuera, Spain, 2005; 78m
6:30pm Pierrepoint
Adrian Shergold, UK, 2005; 90m
8:45pm The Road to Guantanamo
Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, UK, 2006; 95m
Discussion with filmmaker to follow

June 22

1:00pm Rosita  Audio Listen
Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater, US/Nicaragua, 2005; 55m
Preceded by
Punam
Lucian Muntean & Nataša Stankovic, Serbia & Montenegro/Nepal, 2005; 28m
3:30pm Men On The Edge – Fishermen’s Diary
Avner Faingulernt and Macabit Abramzon, Israel, 2005; 90m
6:15pm The Refugee All Stars
Zach Niles and Banker White, Guinea/Sierra Leone/USA, 2005; 80m
Discussion with filmmakers and Special Guests The Refugee All Stars to follow
9:15pm The Refugee All Stars
Zach Niles and Banker White, Guinea/Sierra Leone/USA, 2005; 80m
Discussion with filmmakers and Special Guests The Refugee All Stars to follow



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