Human Rights Nights Film Festival is an international festival dedicated to human rights cinema and presents filmmakers who use their cameras for resistance in an unjust world.
The Festival has started and developed in a spirit of collaboration and community. Born in 2001 as a cinematographic retrospective on human rights, and promoted by the Cineteca di Bologna (Bologna Film Archive) and CCSDD (Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development - Johns Hopkins University / Faculty of Law), during the years the Festival has grown in size, objectives and prestige. At present the festival is expanding and reaching out to a wider community, including public institutions, universities, foundations, private sponsors, NGOs and trade unions. Last year, the festival recorded an audience attendance of more than 4000 visitors, over 10 days, and received growing attention from the media, with coverage in the major newspapers and magazines (e.g. Repubblica, Unità, Domani, e Ciak, Internazionale, Venerdì Repubblica, Donna, etc.), public (Rai 3) and satellite television (Rai News 24).
Human Rights Nights is an opportunity to hear marginalised voices and view alternative representations through cinematographic narratives of the world, which together demonstrate and express the complexity of the question of human rights.
The films, coming from all over the world, are selected for their ability to document reality - in particular the violations of human rights - with investigative scruple, courage and independence of judgement. The films presented are works able to tear away the veil of indifference that often hide human rights abuses from the world. The festival recognizes the courage, vision and integrity of individuals and groups who often put themselves at risk to document the injustice and the suffering of others.
During the festival films of any format and dimension are shown: short films, medium length and feature films, fiction and documentaries, mise en scène and animation, in digital, 16 or 35mm format.
The festival hosts an international competition of feature and short films, out of competition screenings, homages and retrospectives, and various associated events, for a wider artistic expression on the theme of human rights.
Every year the program expands upon certain themes. In 2005, the festival opened with a national preview of the South African film RED DUST by Tom Hopper on the experience of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in the presence of the director Tom Hopper and of the main actor, Anglo-Nigerian Chiwetel Ejiofor.
The festival focused on the right of information and the integrity of journalists, African wars (oil, coltan and water in the Great Lake area and the Guinea Gulf); indigenous rights, modern slavery, business and the ethics of profit, visual self-representation and a panorama of human rights in the region of South East Asia. Particular attention was paid to children at war and in extreme poverty.
After having dedicated the first five years of Human Rights Nights to highlight denunciations and testimonies of abuses and atrocities, which reflect the worrying human rights situation in the world, this edition is more oriented towards positive and significant alternatives for the respect of human rights and for a deep consideration of the dignity of people.
Through films, roundtables and artistic expressions we strive to understand and investigate the causes and contexts that negate the sense of humanity through aberrant forms of greediness, insecurity and danger, in order to contribute to imagine and promote a vision of the world that is ethical and oriented towards peace.
At present the festival is also integrating other forms of artistic expression that promote respect of human rights, such as contemporary art, music, theatre and photography.
The international networkA selection from the Human Rights Nights program tours nationally and internationally. In April and May 2006, Human Rights Nights will take place in Rome and Los Angeles. Human Rights Nights is also directly involved in the creation of the festival of the cinema of human rights in Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina, which will take place in June 2006.
Finally, Human Rights Nights is recognized at an international level within the Network of the major film festivals dedicated to the cinema of human rights - the Human Rights Film Network - of which the festival is a founding member. Other founding festivals film festivals include the Amnesty International Film Festival, Human Rights Watch, One World, Festival del Cine de los Derechos Humanos (Barcelona), Festival International du Films sur les Droits Humains (Geneva), 3 Continent (Johannesburg), Soeul International Film Festival (Soeul), DerHumALC (Buenos Aires).
The objective of the Human Rights Film Network is to promote the cinema of human rights through the participation and organization of international festivals and through the support of film-makers dedicated to these themes. The Human Rights Film Network along with different international festivals (among them the 62° Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, the Cape Town World Cinema Film Festival, the Mar del Plata Film Festival), grant an international award (Human Rights Film Network Award) for the best feature film dedicated to human rights.
Human Rights Nights coordinates the Human Rights Film Network Award and also works as the Development Commissioner for the Network.
Human Rights Nights Film Festival is promoted by Cineteca Bologna, Alma Mater Studiorum-Bologna University, Unibocultura, Bologna City Council, CCSDD, Johns Hopkins University, Bologna County Council / Cultural Department. The festival is also supported by Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Law, CISL Emilia Romagna, Department of Educational Studies, La Linea and collaborates with the Faculty of Agriculture and the School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators in Forlì and Aqua.