about the human rights watch film festival june 11 - 24, 1999 photo: THE TERRORIST

back to main program calendar The Film Society and Human Rights Watch are again proud to present the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, the only festival in the world devoted exclusively to human rights. Now in its 10th year, the Festival was created to enhance public awareness of human rights issues and highlight solutions to these issues at home and abroad by drawing on the power of film to communicate across borders, both physical and ideological. Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. Human Rights Watch stands with victims and activists to bring offenders to justice, to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom and to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT THE CITY STRIKE

Human Rights Watch investigates and exposes human rights violations and holds abusers accountable. Human Rights Watch challenges governments and those holding power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law. Human Rights Watch enlists the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all. The films in this festival are both challenging and inspiring. They deal with current issues that spring from the daily headlines (the former Yugoslavia, Russian prisons, street kids in Latin America), insidious biases that are with us all the time (racism, school prayer, prison reform, gay/lesbian rights), and recent history that we must never forget (the Holocaust, the Hollywood Blacklist). Something not to be missed is a series entitled Spotlights on a Massacre produced by Handicap International and Bertrand Tavernier's production company, Little Bear Productions, on the issue of landmines. Ten celebrated filmmakers have created powerful visions, employing fact and fiction to lay bare the true insanity of these vicious implements of destruction, and our own obligation to outlaw them. Organized by Bruni Burres and John Anderson of HRW and Marian Masone of the Film Society, with special thanks to Joanna Ney, Sayre Maxfield and Kathleen Murphy of the Film Society, and Jonathan Fanton, Chair, and Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch. The festival selection committee includes Stephanie Achard, Cynthia Brown, Marina Pinto Kaufman, as well as other members of the Human Rights Watch staff. Special thanks to Time Out New York, the Soros Documentary Fund, Kahn & Jacobs Public Relations, and thanks to Jason Kedgley at Tomato, Elaine Charnov and the Margaret Mead Film Festival, Wellington Love and Basil Tsiokos of The New Festival, Mahen Bonetti and Don Webster of the African Film Festival, POV, Yvonne Anderson, Harriet Friedman, Robert Hawk and Lily Natijehasham. These films represent many points of view, not necessarily those of Human Rights Watch.