Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2021: The online line-up and how it works
David Farnor | On 20, Mar 2021
The Human Rights Watch Film returns this week for its second online edition. With cinemas still closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the festival is hosting an eight-day digital event, celebrating its 25th year with 10 powerful new documentaries.
Running from 18th to 26th March, the festival will make all of its films available to stream throughout the festival, with each film accompanied by a live, online discussion (free and live-captioned in English) with filmmakers, film participants, and Human Rights Watch researchers from around the world.
Celebrating campaigners, individuals and journalists who shine a light on disruptive forces, this year’s empowering programme highlights trailblazing women, activists’ resilience and resistance, education as an essential tool for change and a special spotlight on Latin America. With films from Ireland, Germany, Kenya, Philippines, the United States and Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela, eight of this year’s line-up are directed or co-directed by women.
The Opening Night film, The 8th, shows a country forging a new path at a time when reproductive rights are threatened around the world. Shot over a three-year period, codirectors Aideen Kane, Lucy Kennedy and Maeve O’Boyle follow campaigners of Ireland’s reproductive rights movement Ailbhe Smyth and Andrea Horan, leading up to the historic 2018 referendum. The Closing Night film strikes an equally determined note from young Black, queer women in the US. Unapologetic director Ashley O’Shay introduces Janaé Bonsu and Bella Bahhs, two fierce activist leaders in the US seeking justice for the deaths of two Black Chicagoans at the hands of the police.
The festival has also teamed up with MUBI to stream 10 selected highlights from previous years, which you can see here.
The event takes place exclusively on Barbican Cinema On Demand, with all films geolocked to the UK and all discussions taking place on Zoom. Tickets cost £10 per film, with festival passes (giving access to all 10 films) costing £75. Book tickets here.
Here’s the schedule:
The 8th
Ireland/U.S.A. / 2020 / Aideen Kane, Lucy Kennedy, Maeve O’Boyle / 94m / Captioned in English
for audiences who are Deaf or hard of hearing / English dialogue
UK Digital Premiere
Capturing a crucial moment in women’s rights, this is the story of how Ireland overturned one of the world’s most restrictive laws on abortion. The film follows veteran campaigner Ailbhe Smyth and self-described glitter-activist Andrea Horan as they chart a bold strategy of grassroots activism to engineer the impossible and carry a traditionally conservative and religious electorate over the line to extend rights to women seeking an abortion. An urgent narrative, a cautionary tale and a roadmap for progressive reforms in a modern era where authoritarianism is on the rise, The 8th shows a country forging a new path at a time when reproductive rights are threatened around the world.
Discussion: Thursday 18 March, 8.30pm
Unapologetic
U.S.A. / 2020 / Ashley O’Shay / 86m
UK Digital Premiere
After two Black Chicagoans, Rekia Boyd and Laquan McDonald, are killed at the hands of the police, the Movement for Black Lives demands justice and organises to challenge an administration complicit in violence against its residents. Unapologetic introduces Janaé Bonsu and Bella Bahhs, two fierce activist leaders whose upbringing and experiences have shaped their view of what liberation could and should look like, as they urge for an expansive view of public safety that does not depend on the police. This invigorating documentary illuminates the love underpinning the anger and frustration that comes with being Black, queer women in the US, and elevates those who are most often leading the way while being denied the spotlight.
Discussion: Friday 26 March, 8.30pm
Belly of The Beast
U.S.A / 2020 / Erika Cohn / 82m / Captioned in English for audiences who are Deaf or hard of
hearing / English Dialogue
UK Digital Premiere
Discussion: Friday 19 March, 8.30pm
When two brave women find a pattern of illegal involuntary sterilisations in California’s
women’s prisons, they launch a battle against the system. With a growing team of women inside prison working with formerly incarcerated colleagues on the outside, they uncover a series of state-wide crimes – from dangerously inadequate health care to sexual assault to coercive sterilisations – primarily targeting Black, Latinx and Indigenous. Captured over seven years, this shocking and emboldening legal drama is a damning account of a shameful and ongoing legacy of eugenics and reproductive injustice in the United States, featuring a group of extraordinary women determined to ensure it ends here and now.
A Thousand Cuts
U.S.A. / 2020 / Ramona S. Diaz / 98m / partially subtitled in English
UK Digital Premiere
Discussion: Saturday 20 March, 2pm
Nowhere is the erosion of democracy and the power of social media in politics more evident than in the Philippines. When elected president in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte promised violence with a declared “war on drugs.” We join the prominent journalist Maria Ressa and her publication Rappler as they investigate thousands of government-sanctioned murders of primarily poor people accused of using or selling drugs. To suppress reporting on his mounting abuses, Duterte unleashes a powerful disinformation campaign on social media, targeting journalists with arrests, and violent threats. In this searing film, we follow Ressa and her fearless team as they risk their own freedom in defence of truth and democracy.
I Am Samuel
Kenya/Canada/U.K./U.S.A / 2020 / Peter Murimi / 70min / subtitled in English
Also streaming on BFI Player at BFI Flare (until 28th March)
Discussion: Saturday 20 March, 8.30pm
Samuel, a gay Kenyan man, balances duty to his family with his love for his partner, Alex, in a country where their love is criminalised. Samuel grew up on a farm in the Kenyan countryside, where tradition is valued above all else. He moves to Nairobi in search of a new life, where he finds belonging in a community of fellow queer men where he meets and falls in love with Alex. Their love thrives even though Kenyan laws criminalize anyone who identifies as LGBTQ, and together they face threats of violence and rejection. Samuel’s father, a preacher at the local church, doesn’t understand why his son is not yet married and Samuel must navigate the very real risk that being truthful to who he is may cost him his family’s acceptance.
Mujer de Soldado (Soldier’s Woman)
Peru / 2020 / Patricia Wiesse Risso / 83min / subtitled in English
UK Digital Premiere
Discussion: Thursday 25 March, 8.30pm
Magda Surichaqui Cóndor was a teenager when soldiers arrived in her small Peruvian village in 1984. Sent to root out members of the Shining Path, soldiers of the Peruvian army used their sweeping powers to rape and humiliate local women, leaving them shunned by their own communities, often with children in tow. Three decades later, Magda has joined a number of other women in bringing charges against their abusers. With stunning cinematography and respectful intimacy, Patricia Wiesse Risso accompanies Magda and her friends as they reminisce over their youth and their lives since, whilst they sit and chew coca leaves, peeling potatoes and spinning wool. Mujer de Soldado is a deeply moving picture of female solidarity that finally provides space for the dignity of these women’s experiences that has long been denied.
A La Calle (To the Street)
U.S.A. / 2020 / Nelson G. Navarrete, Maxx Caicedo / 111m / partially subtitled in English
UK Digital Premiere
Discussion: Tuesday 23 March, 8.30pm
A La Calle is a first-hand account of the extraordinary efforts of Venezuelans to reclaim their democracy from the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro. Maduro’s policies have plunged the country into a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis. Working with a network of clandestine camera crews, the filmmakers spent three years with key figures, including opposition leader Leopoldo López, grassroots activist Nixon Leal and everyday citizens willing to share their experiences. A La Calle captures the remarkable courage of the Venezuelan people as they unite to restore liberty, fundamental rights, and the rule of law – all while facing the more immediate struggle for survival amid severe food, water and medical shortages.
Bajo Fuego (Under Siege)
Colombia / 2020 / Sjoerd Van Grootheest (Director) Irene Vélez-Torres (Co-Director) / 85m /
subtitled in English / Captioned in English for audiences who are Deaf or hard of hearing / Spanish dialogue
UK Digital Premiere
Discussion: Sunday 21 March, 8.30pm
In November 2016, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the office of President Juan Manuel Santos signed the Colombian peace deal. Many hoped this would mark an end to 52 years of armed conflict. For farmers in the cocagrowing region of Cauca however, this “peace” has proven to be short-lived. Bajo Fuego follows “cocaleros” as they mobilize to protect their livelihoods after the government instructs them to destroy their crops as part of the “war on drugs.” As new armed groups arise, the promised peace turns out to be an illusion for these farmers whose lives are threatened and who are displaced from their homes. Bajo Fuego exposes the lived reality behind the politics, that has left many Colombians in a continued state of war.
The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel
Canada / 2020 / Joel Bakan, Jennifer Abbott / 106m / Fully subtitled in English version available.
UK Digital Premiere
Discussion: Sunday 21 March, 5pm
The timely sequel to the multi-award-winning The Corporation (2003) sets its sights on the sly rebranding of corporations as socially conscious entities – on a mission to convince the public they want to use their power to better the world. In sharp contrast, we witness recent groundswells of resistance as people take action worldwide in pursuit of justice and the planet’s future, creating hope that current world events might yet offer a catalyst for change. From the climate crisis and spiralling inequality, the rise of the ultra-right and racial injustice, the film unpacks the devastating power of corporations to achieve profit at any cost versus the individuals and movements determined to secure a more sustainable future for us all.
The Lesson
Germany / 2020 / Elena Horn / 60m / partially subtitled in English
UK Digital Premiere
Discussion: Wednesday, March 24, 8.30pm
It is often said that those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. At the age of 14 every school child in Germany is taught about the atrocities that occurred under Nazi rule. Filmmaker Elena Horn returns to her small hometown in rural Germany to follow four children as they first learn about the Holocaust. From their study of the topic in history class, to their school trip to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, each of the children grapple differently with the gravity of their findings. Filmed over five years, the film offers a window into deeply rooted social and political attitudes in Germany amid a resurgence of the far-right and violent xenophobia. The collective memory of a nation’s history highlights the essential role of education to avoid repeating historical wrongs.