Setting up a Human Rights Film Festival
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
SETTING UP A HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL A HANDBOOK FOR FESTIVAL ORGANIZERS INCLUDING CASE STUDIES OF PROMINENT HUMAN RIGHTS EVENTS Edited by the One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival FESTIVAL FILM RIGHTS A HUMAN SETTING UP SETTING UP A HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL SETTING UP A HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL A handbook for festival organizers including case studies of prominent human rights events Edited by Tereza Porybná Published by People in Need Prague 2009 Design by Ondřej Matyáš Translation and proofreading by Gillian Purves, Coilin O’Connor and Scott Hudson This book was published thanks to the support of the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe (www.ceetrust.org) © People in Need 2009 ISBN 978-80-86961-64-4 THE TRUST FOR CIVIL SOCIETY IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE The Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe is an independent public charity incorporated under the laws of the United States of America. Its goal is to promote the development of civil 3 societies in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia by supporting civil society organizations to gain greater effectiveness and stability. On our website you will find information about our programs and procedures, the projects we have supported and a variety of news, opportunities, events, and issues related to the civil societies in the region. http://www.ceetrust.org ONE WORLD HUMAN RIGHTS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: A FESTIVAL 4 THAT IS NOT JUST ABOUT FILMS Established in 1999 by Czech NGO People in Need, the One World International Human Rights Film Festival takes place annually in Prague and 28 other Czech towns and cities under the auspices of former president Vaclav Havel. During the last edition, the festival presented 130 films and welcomed 100,000 viewers. It hosts three international juries, numerous filmmakers and human rights activists. One World seeks to contribute to the public discussion about the role that the Czech citizen and the Czech Republic can and should have in a globally interconnected world and in the world in which we live. Primarily One World addresses young people, grammar and secondary school students and, through films and discussions, tries to present a collection of values on which a free and democratic society is based. The festival inspires and strengthens those who believe that personal civic engagement can bring about a true and positive change. The program of the festival includes the highest quality documentary films that were completed in the previous year and received awards at prestigious international festivals, as well as investigative and activist films, which draw attention to the most serious problems and violations of human rights. One World is also a year-long education platform. Special screenings for schools take place during the festival, accompanied by a talk with a special guest. As part of the One World in Schools education project, we provide schools with sets of documentary films and accompanying teaching materials, which help educators to incorporate the subject of human rights, development assistance and other themes into their lessons. More than 2,600 schools in the Czech Republic are working with One World in Schools materials. Favorable responses have been received from students, teachers and specialists, which confirms the extraordinary potential of documentary films for the education of young people. 5 Through the longstanding One World Tour project, One World has also proven its worth as a yearlong institution that actively supports the establishment of human rights festivals abroad. It now has “sister” film festivals, which are regularly held in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Serbia, Ukraine, and most recently South Caucasus, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, Bulgaria and Kenya. It belongs among the founding members of the Human Rights Film Network, which joins together 22 festivals throughout the world. CONTACT One World International Human Rights Film Festival People in Need Sokolska 18 120 00 Prague Czech Republic [email protected] Tel: +420 226 200 400; Fax: +420 226 200 401 www.oneworld.cz; www.peopleinneed.cz CONTENTS FOREword . 8 SETTING UP A HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL How to Start Igor Blažević 14 6 Programming Human Rights Film Festivals Helena Zajícová 26 Raising Funds to Support a Human Rights Film Festival Igor Blažević 42 Production and Technical Support Tereza Porybná 70 How to Successfully Promote Your Festival Karla Štěpánková, Filip Šebek 84 Guest Services Tereza Porybná 96 Educational Outreach Activities One World in Schools Ludmila Součková 106 CASE STUDIES (Human Rights Festivals in Europe, Africa and Latin America) On Human Rights Film Festivals Daan Bronkhorst 120 “Of Course Human Rights Are Not Sexy” Heidi Lobato 130 Perspektive – Human Rights Festival Backed by Art-House Cinema Andrea Kuhn 138 Ciné Droit Libre in West Africa: An Initiative Taken By Committed Filmmakers Luc Damiba 150 Nationality: Human: Travelling Festival in the Caucasus Martina Tichov 156 Cinema and Human Rights in Argentina Julio Santucho 168 Building Up Human Rights Awareness in Post-War Serbia – Free Zone Marko Popovic 182 7 THE ONE WORLD Tour AFFILIATED FESTIVALS One World Romania 2008 Monika Štěpánová 194 Human Rights Film Festivals and Sustainability – One World Berlin Natalie Gravernor 206 Reflections of Healings – Dunia Moja Festival in Kenya Alphonse Apoti Makove 214 APPENDIX Basic Budget Example . 220 Media Plan. 222 Profile of Human Rights Film Network . 225 List of Human Rights Film Festivals . 226 Human Rights Awards at Selected Festivals . 230 Useful Links . 232 FOREWORD By TEREZA PorybNÁ, One World Human Rights Film Festival This handbook summarizes the plentiful experiences gathered 8 during 11 years of organizing the One World festival, as well as the know-how of several other important human rights festival organizers. Its core aim is to offer practical advice to NGOs, cultural institutions, students, think tanks etc., who want to start their own festival or otherwise use film in promoting human rights awareness. We hope that these examples of specific festival histories can not only help some to initiate their own projects, but also inspire others in continuing with their work, and enable those who have been in the festival business for a while to evaluate their efforts and exchange ideas. The first – practical – part offers brief overviews of fundraising, programming and promotion strategies, as well as advice about guest services, educational programs, timelines, model budget, and other information we have found useful based on our own practice. Attention is also given to more general questions, such as creating a festival identity, choosing the right name or establishing a position within the wider field of film festivals. Of course we realize none of this is universal. We weren’t aiming at providing a guaranteed recipe for cooking up a festival, but rather some motivation and ground beneath your feet, before you set off to implement your own plans. As we believe in the power of good examples and learning from others’ achievements (and mistakes by all means) we asked our colleagues from human rights festivals around the world (Europe, Africa, Central Asia, Latin America) to note the landmarks of their development and how they reflect their functioning in the local socio-political context. This collection of “case studies”, which forms the second part of the handbook, offers a chance to find out about the beginnings of the world’s probably most well known human rights festival Amnesty International, discover challenges faced by Ciné Droits Libre festival in Burkina Faso, or learn about the concept of travelling festivals in the Caucasus. One World Berlin informs us of the new possibilities for human rights festivals in Internet distribution. And Free Zone Belgrade reminds us of the 9 importance of visual presentation in order to get media attention. We feel that by simply browsing through these articles one can find innovative ways to approach one’s own organization, or comfort in the fact that, despite the common problems, there can also be common solutions. Of course, there would be no human rights film festivals without filmmakers and their distributors. Every year, thousands of new documentaries appear and the field may be somewhat overwhelming and hard to navigate. As a purely subjective attempt to regulate this vivid cinematic flow we provide in the appendix a short history of politically motivated cinema, a list of major film festivals and some useful links for tracking down films. Putting this book together would never have been possible without the help of all those who submitted articles, provided comments on the concept, edited, translated and proof-read the material. Our deepest thanks go to them. During the making of this publication we saw it as a little trial for ourselves, something similar to a first festival edition. We hope the result is fruitful and worth the effort and we look forward to receiving your feedback. Who knows, maybe it will contribute to an updated, matured second edition! SETTING UP A HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL HOW STTAORT HOW TO START By IGOR Blažević, Founder of One World Human Rights Film Festival Before starting to prepare the first (or second or third) edition 14 of your human rights film festival, it makes a lot of sense to first consider what your core identity is and what you actually want to achieve. I have come to the conclusion that the main difference between us “human rights film festivals” and traditional film festivals is not so much based in the specific topics and forms of the films we include in the program. Most of the films any of us will screen will be shown at other traditional film festivals as well. Particularly in the case of documentary filmmaking, since the days of Joris Ivens and Luis Buñuel (i.e.