Human Rights Film Tour – A look back at the 2024 tour
This year, UN Human Rights and FIFDH Geneva have joined forces once again for a new edition of the
Human Rights Film Tour.
Between 5th and 18th December 2024, 19 screenings were held around International Human Rights Day (December 10th) to present powerful films and spark inspiring discussions around the world. Ten films from the Impact Days professional programme were offered to UN offices and field presences.
#HRFT24
1 mobile cinema-truck
touring all around Tunisia
8 films
from the Impact Days professional programme
13 countries
spread over 5 continents
19 screenings
on 7 human rights themes
More than 960 people reached
including activists, NGOs, teachers, students, journalists, embassies and the general public
KEY TOPICS
Through its programming, the Human Rights Film Tour tackled a variety of themes depending on the audience and the region, generating constructive and necessary discussions.
Home is Somewhere Else by Carlos Hagerman and Jorge Villalobos, shown in Bissau and Brasília, recounts the experiences and feelings of undocumented migrants. In Brasília, the film struck a particular chord with Venezuelan women who had migrated to Brazil. One of them, Nadia, said: “I arrived in 2023 with three daughters. I’m a single mother and, like all Venezuelans, I left in search of a better life for our children, with better schools and better job opportunities.”
High Tide Don’t Hide by Niva Kay, Emily McDowell, Nia Phipps and Philip Stebbing was also a great success, with no fewer than four screenings of this film about youth climate activism. At the UN headquarters in New York, the film was accompanied by an online Q&A with the directors, while in Jakarta, young activists discussed the challenges facing climate activists. Particular attention was paid to women and indigenous communities, and to the importance of media coverage of climate activism. The film was also shown in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, and Bangkok, Thailand.
Many other themes were explored at the various steps of the international tour. While the subject of feminicide was addressed in Mekelle, Ethiopia, around the film My Name is Happy by Nick Read and Ayse Toprak, the film Estado de Silencio by Santiago Maza generated rich discussions on the subject of freedom of expression in Conakry, Guinea. In Malé, in the Maldives, the issues of precariousness and vulnerability of economic migrants were discussed thanks to the film The Pickers by Elke Sasse.
highlights
the mobile cinema-truck at Gafsa, Tunisia
Life is Beautiful by Mohamed Jabaly was screened during the Cinematdour mobile cinema-truck tour of 5 destinations in Tunisia: a symbolic event that resonates with the universal call for freedom of movement recounted in the film. The mobile cinema-truck attracted a large audience aged 4 to 75, making cinema more accessible in the country’s rural areas.
Life is beautiful in sudan/south sudan
The film by the Palestinian director was also screened simultaneously in Abyei and Diffra in Sudan/South Sudan, in two neighbouring ethnic communities, embodying one of the central messages of Life is Beautiful: the hope of a common humanity despite divisions.
filmmaking workshop in kimbe
In Kimbe, Papua New Guinea, during the Papua New Guinea Human Rights Film Festival, short film production workshops enabled young filmmakers to explore human rights issues through filmmaking. Encouraged by these experiences, the audience was able to directly confront local issues such as police violence following the screening of the film Alis by Nicolas van Hemelryck and Clare Weiskopf.