Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2015

3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets

Opening Night

Post-screening panel with Marc Silver, Orlando Bagwell, and Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, moderated by Khalil Gibran Muhammad

This riveting documentary explores the danger and subjectivity of Florida's Stand Your Ground self-defense laws by investigating the trial of Michael Dunn, a middle-aged white man who in 2012, after a brief altercation about the volume of their music, fired 10 bullets into the car of four unarmed African-American teenagers, killing one of them. Winner of a Special Jury Award for Social Impact, U.S. Documentary at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

No Land’s Song

U.S. Premiere

Q&A with Ayat Najafi and Sara Najafi

The Islamic revolution of 1979 banned female singers from appearing in public in Iran, but composer Sara Najafi is determined to revive their voices in the present as she courageously plans an evening of performances by Iranian and French soloists to rebuild shattered cultural bridges.

Beats of the Antonov

Q&A with Hajooj Kuka

Over two years, Sudanese filmmaker Hajooj Kuka lived alongside farmers, herders, and rebels displaced to the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountain regions, filming their lives within hillside hideouts and refugee camps. The result is this unique perspective on the complex realities of a divided Sudan, focusing on the vibrant musical heritage of the region.

The Dream of Shahrazad

Q&A with Francois Verster

Using the metaphor of Shahrazad—the princess in the classic tale of The 1001 (Arabian) Nights who saves lives by telling stories to the murderous Sultan Shahriyar—Francois Verster’s documentary explores how music and storytelling can serve as an outlet for citizens to process political upheaval.

Burden of Peace

Q&A with Joey Boink

This epic tale of personal sacrifice, hard-fought change, and hope follows Guatemala’s first female attorney general, Claudia Paz y Paz, as we witness her battle to bring to justice powerful criminals and corrupt politicians.

Life is Sacred

Q&A with Andreas Dalsgaard

Unorthodox presidential candidate Antanas Mockus and his enthusiastic young activist supporters attempt to reverse the vicious cycle of brutal violence in Colombia with an imaginative and positive election campaign: as mayor of Bogotá, dressed in a Superman costume, he took on towering crime rates and people’s bad traffic habits. But can good ideas and an idealistic drive alone change a political culture where violence is rampant?

The Trials of Spring

World Premiere

Q&A with Gini Reticker at both screenings

Gini Reticker’s moving documentary reveals the vital and under-reported role of females in post-2011 Egypt through the journeys of three brave women who fight for the original goals of the Arab Spring—“Bread, Freedom and Social Justice” for all.

The Look of Silence

Emotionally wrenching, Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence is a companion piece to his first film, The Act of Killing (ND/NF 2013), about the mid-1960s Indonesian genocide. In a society where the populace has been cowed into silence, the adult brother of one of the hundreds of thousands of victims tracks down and confronts the killers and their families.

What Tomorrow Brings

Work-in-Progress Screening

Q&A with Beth Murphy

The story of the first all-girls’ school in a remote Afghan village, What Tomorrow Brings traces the interconnected tales of students, teachers, village elders, parents, and the tenacious school founder who teaches a nation, a community, and the students themselves that females also count.

Of Men and War

Q&A with Laurent Bécue-Renard

Of Men and War focuses on some of the many combat veterans have made it home safely to the U.S. after serving their country in Iraq and Afghanistan but are unable to escape the battlefield that rages in their own minds. At The Pathway Home, a first-of-its-kind PTSD therapy center, the film's protagonists resolve to end the ongoing destruction.

This is My Land

Q&A with Tamara Erde

Questioning what the future holds for the next generation of Israeli and Palestinian children, This Is My Land follows several Israeli and Palestinian teachers as they help their students understand the complicated, segregated, and often violent world around them, filtered through the state-approved curriculum.

The Wanted 18

Post-screening discussion with Julia Bacha, Creative Director, Just Vision, Ina Fichman, producer, Amer Shomali, director, and Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director, MENA division, Human Rights Watch. Moderated by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!

Through a clever mix of stop-motion animation and interviews, Palestinian artist Amer Shomali and veteran Canadian director Paul Cowan re-create an astonishing true story: the Israeli army’s pursuit of 18 cows, whose independent milk production on a Palestinian collective farm was declared “a threat to the national security of the state of Israel.”

The Unravelling: Human Rights Reporting and Digital Storytelling

During this unique masterclass event, Human Rights Watch Emergencies director Peter Bouckaert and leading photojournalist Marcus Bleasdale will discuss the essentials of international crisis reporting—from on-the-ground investigation methods to techniques for ensuring stories reach the broadest audience possible.