|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The 2000 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival
New York- Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. It stands with victims and activists to bring offenders to justice, to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom and to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime. HRW investigates and exposes human rights violations and holds abusers accountable. It challenges governments and those holding power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law. HRW enlists the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all. The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival was created in 1988 to advance public education on human rights issues and concerns using the unique medium of film. Each year, the festival exhibits the finest human rights films and videos in theaters and on cable television throughout the United States and elsewhere - a reflection of both the scope of the festival and its increasingly global appeal. The festival includes feature-length and short fiction films, documentaries, animation, works-in-progress and experimental works. Time Out magazine remains the principal sponsor of the festival in New York and London. In selecting films for the festival, Human Rights Watch concentrates equally on artistic merit and human rights content. The festival encourages filmmakers around the world to address human rights subject matter in their work and presents films and videos from both new and established international filmmakers. Each year, the festival's programming committee screens more than 500 films and videos to create a program that represents a range of countries and issues. Once a film is nominated for a place in the program, staff of the relevant division of Human Rights Watch also views the work to confirm its accuracy in the portrayal of human rights concerns. Though the festival rules out films that contain unacceptable inaccuracies of fact, we do not bar any films on the basis of a particular point of view. The New York festival has been co-presented for 6 years by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and has screened at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. The festival consistently features a large number of co-presentations of screenings with other New York festivals to encourage the cross-communication and support between the festival and film community. A majority of each year's screenings is followed by discussions with the filmmakers and Human Rights Watch staff on the issues represented in each work. In 1995, in honor of Irene Diamond, a longtime board member and supporter of Human Rights Watch, the festival launched the Irene Diamond Lifetime Achievement award, which is presented annually to a director whose life's work demonstrates an outstanding commitment to human rights and film. Recipients include Frederick Wiseman, Costa Gavras, Ousmane Sembene, Barbara Kopple and Alan J. Pakula. In 1996 the festival expanded to London, first at the ICA and then in 1999 with our current partners Oasis Cinemas and the Ritzy Theater in Brixton, London. Entering its sixth year of collaboration, the Film Society and Human Rights Watch offer the year 2000 edition of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival-the world's leading showcase for films and videos that incorporate human rights themes. All the works seen over the sixteen days put a human face on history, and offer personal viewpoints of those fighting the many threats against political and individual freedom. As a new millennium starts, it is clear that the work of human rights monitors is far from over. But it is also clear that, in many areas of the world, people have taken up their own causes and the causes of others, and led the charge against oppression and cruelty
Art & Entertainment |
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
