Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2014

The Dramatic Stories, Personal Sacrifices Behind the Headlines
18^th-28^th March 2014

The 18^th edition of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in London will be presented from 18^th to 28^th March 2014, with a programme of 20 award-winning documentary and feature films. The festival will take place at the Curzon Mayfair, Curzon Soho, Ritzy Brixton and for the first time at the Barbican.

This year’s programme includes ten UK premieres and three exclusive previews organised around five themes: Armed Conflict and the Arab Spring; Human Rights Defenders, Icons and Villains; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Rights; Migrants’ Rights and Women’s Rights and Children’s Rights.

“This year’s programme demonstrates the risks filmmakers take to capture the stories behind the headlines, and our centrepiece film, the E-Team, reveals the tenacity and heroic efforts of human rights activists to bring war crimes to the world’s attention,” said John Biaggi, Human Rights Watch festival director. “We look forward as ever to welcoming many filmmakers and film subjects to festival screenings, which will give audiences insight and understanding into some of the most complex situations in the world today”.

On 18^th March at the Curzon Mayfair, a fundraising benefit film and reception for Human Rights Watch will feature a screening of Jehane Noujaim’s Academy Award^® nominated The Square followed by discussion with special guests moderated by David Mepham, UK director at Human Rights Watch. 

The Opening Night event on 20^th March at the Curzon Soho will be the UK premiere of Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus attended by the director Madeleine Sackler, the director. The Belarus Free Theatre is an acclaimed troupe that defies Europe’s last remaining dictatorship. With smuggled footage and uncensored interviews, Sackler’s film conveys not only the group’s great emotional, financial, and artistic risks but also their risk of censorship, imprisonment, and exile.

The festival will close on 28^th March at the Ritzy with the UK premiere of Return to Homs, winner of the World Cinema Jury Prize, Documentary, Sundance Film Festival 2014. Tamara Alrifai, Middle East/North Africa advocacy and communications director at Human Rights Watch, will discuss the film with a special guest.

Listings:

Armed Conflict and the Arab Spring

     Abounaddara Collective Shorts from Syria

     First to Fall

     The Mulberry House

     Return to Homs

     The Square

Human Rights Defenders, Icons, and Villains

     Big Men

     Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus

     E-Team

     Nelson Mandela: The Myth and Me

     Watchers of the Sky

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Rights

     My Child

     Born This Way

Migrants’ Rights

     The Beekeeper

     Evaporating Borders

Women’s Rights and Children’s Rights

     An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker

     Before Snowfall

     For Those Who Can Tell No Tales

     Scheherazade’s Diary

     Sepideh

     Siddarth

Read more reviews from Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2014 here. For further information about the festival visit here.