In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, the 2020 Human Rights Watch Film Festival — like so many other fests, events, and releases — is moving online. The festival will be hosting several virtual editions from different cities, and has unveiled the lineup for its UK and Ireland event. Nine features — seven, or about 78 percent, of which are from women directors — will be available online May 22-June 5.
For every title in the UK edition, digital audiences will be able to participate in interactive discussions with the filmmakers, Human Rights Watch experts, and special guests.
“At this time when the world feels most intensely the interconnectedness of humanity, the festival was more determined than ever to bring our UK audiences this digital edition,” said fest director John Biaggi. He added that the films “present urgent human rights issues we can all relate to. Now more than ever, human rights are global. What impacts one society, what impacts one family, affects all of us.”
Among the titles set to screen are “In My Blood It Runs” and “Far From the Tree.” The former, from Maya Newell,” is a portrait of a young Aboriginal boy whose culture, beliefs, and gifts are disregarded by Australia’s colonized institutions. The latter is Rachel Dretzin’s celebration of three people who fall outside what society considers “normal.”
Rubaiyat Hossain’s “Made in Bangladesh,” the story of a Bangladeshi clothing factory worker and her efforts to form a union, will also play, as will “Leftover Women,” Hilla Medalia and Shosh Shlam’s exploration of China’s societal attitudes toward single women.
Check out all of the women-directed titles below. They, and the rest of the Human Rights Watch UK lineup, will be available to stream via Curzon Home Cinema. Go to the festival’s website for more information.
IN MY BLOOD IT RUNS
Dir. Maya Newell
2019, 84 min, documentary
Live webinar Q&A: Saturday 23 May, 12.00pm – Maya Newell (filmmaker and special guest(s), moderated by Elaine Pearson (Australia Director, Human Rights Watch).
“I was born a little Aboriginal kid,” explains 10-year-old Dujuan. “That means I had a memory – a memory about being Aboriginal.” Born in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Australia, Dujuan has a strong connection to his culture, speaks three languages, and is regarded as a healer in his community. But within the colonized school system, his strength, gifts, and intellect go unnoticed, his culture ignored and deleted from school books, and he acts out, attracting attention from the police and child welfare system. At the time of filming, 100 percent of the youth in Alice Springs detention centers were Aboriginal. In this powerful portrait, made in collaboration with Dujuan’s family, Maya Newell puts the beauty, resilience, and challenges of the Northern Territory’s Indigenous children in the spotlight.
LEFTOVER WOMEN
Dir. Hilla Medalia, Shosh Shlam
2019, 84 min, documentary
Live webinar Q&A: Sunday 24 May, 8.30pm – Hilla Medalia (filmmaker), Shosh Shlam (filmmaker), Yaqiu Wang, (China Researcher, Human Rights Watch), moderated by Gali Gold (Head of Cinema, Barbican).
In China, unmarried women over the age of 27 are deemed “sheng nu” or “leftover”. As an effect of the now-defunct one-child policy there are 30 million more men than women, leaving single women under immense social pressures to marry, and fast, or be rejected from society. Public dating contests, “marriage markets” where city sidewalks are lined with parents advertising their children’s attributes, and government-sponsored matchmaking festivals are just some of the humiliating ordeals that unwed women face. This eye-opening documentary follows three women in their grueling quest to find a husband, weighing the cost of family and society’s approval against their own chances of happiness.
LOVE CHILD
Dir. Eva Mulvad
2019, 112 min, documentary
Live webinar Q&A: Tuesday 26 May, 8.30pm – Eva Mulvad (filmmaker), Yusaf Ciftci (VOICES Network Ambassador)
An intimately filmed, epic love story introduces Leila and Sahand at the start of a turbulent five-year period beginning with their escape from Iran where, while married to other people, they fell in love. Since adultery is punishable by death, and divorce forbidden, they run for their lives and start over again as a family in Turkey with their young son, Mani, who doesn’t yet know that Sahand is his biological father. Suddenly living together in a strange new land battling tightening asylum laws to find security after years in limbo, they are learning more about each other in the toughest of circumstances and facing hurdles that test the strength of their relationship.
BORN IN EVIN
Dir. Maryam Zaree
2019, 98 min, documentary
Live webinar Q&A: Friday 29 May, 8.30pm – Maryam Zaree (filmmaker), Tara Sepehri Far (Middle East and North Africa researcher, Human Rights Watch) moderated by Gali Gold (Head of Cinema, Barbican).
When she was 12 years old, actress and filmmaker Maryam Zaree found out that she was one of a number of babies born inside Evin, Iran’s most notorious political prison. Maryam’s parents were imprisoned shortly after Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in 1979, a period in which tens of thousands of political dissidents were arrested and tortured. With Born in Evin, Maryam confronts decades of silence in her family and embarks on an exploration into the circumstances of her birth. On this vulnerable, lyrical journey Maryam considers the impact of trauma on the bodies and souls of survivors and their children, leading her to question how her generation can relate to their own history while also respecting the people they love as they prefer to heal in silence.
RADIO SILENCE
Dir. Juliana Fanjul
2019, 79 min, documentary
Live webinar Q&A: Saturday 30 May, 8.30pm – Juliana Fanjul (filmmaker), José Miguel Vivanco (Executive Director, Americas Division, Human Rights Watch).
To millions of people in Mexico, the incorruptible journalist and news anchor Carmen Aristegui is regarded as the trusted alternative voice to official government spin, fighting daily against deliberate disinformation spread through news sources, government corruption, and the related drugs trade. When she is fired by a radio station in 2015 after revealing a scandal involving then-President Enrique Peña Nieto, Carmen – with her dedicated journalist colleagues – decides to build a separate news platform. Facing threats of violence in the wake of a prominent journalist’s vicious murder, they must overcome fear for their personal well-being to continue in a shared fight for democracy and justice.
FAR FROM THE TREE
Dir. Rachel Dretzin
2018, 93 min, documentary
Live webinar Q&A: Sunday 31 May, 8.30pm – Andrew Solomon (film participant and author of “Far From the Tree”), Shantha Rau Barriga (Disability Rights Director, Human Rights Watch) moderated by Graeme Reid (LGBT Rights Program Director, Human Rights Watch).
This life-affirming documentary follows the lives of Jack, Jason, Loini, and Trevor, who don’t fit society’s narrow definition of “normal.” We meet them and their families and discuss how expectations placed on children, parents, and families have such power to turn “unconditional love” on its head by ways of extraordinary challenges. Fascinated with this idea, writer and film subject Andrew Solomon’s work on this issue stems from his own traumatic experience coming out as gay to his parents. Rejected and cast aside, he tried everything to regain his parents’ love and be “normal,” including conversion therapy. In a quest for understanding, this film encourages us to let go of our preconceptions – for example, about people with autism or dwarfism – and celebrate our loved ones for all that makes them uniquely themselves.
MADE IN BANGLADESH
Dir. Rubaiyat Hossain
2019, 95 min, drama
Live webinar Q&A: Friday 5 June, 8.30pm – Rubaiyat Hossain (filmmaker), Nisha Varia (Advocacy Director, Women’s Rights Division, Human Rights Watch), moderated by Annie Kelly (journalist and editor, Guardian Modern-day Slavery in Focus series).
Shimu works grueling hours for paltry pay in a clothing factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. After a fire in the factory leaves a co-worker dead, Shimu is moved to start a union. Her attempts are met with resistance at every step, not just from her patriarchal employers but also her colleagues, who fear losing their jobs. In the face of threats from management and violent disapproval of her husband, Shimu discovers a wealth of courage and tenacity she didn’t know she had. Channelling real-life stories that Bangladeshi filmmaker Rubaiyat Hossain encountered as a women’s rights activist, this empowering, layered drama shines a light on an oppressive industry, and demands our attention.
