Cinema and Human Rights Days

March 14 – 16, 2014 | Gordon Square Cinema, Birkbeck, University of London, WC1H OPD

Cinema and Human Rights Days is running this year with a full weekend programme of screenings and discussion at the Gordon Square Cinema, Birkbeck. The event takes place on Friday evening, 14th March, Saturday 15th March and Sunday, 16th March, 2014, and is a collaboration between Birkbeck, Middlesex University, the Huston School of Film and Digital Media at the University of Galway, Ireland and is supported by Open Society Foundations.

Cinema and Human Rights Days seeks to provoke discussion and debate about the impact of cinema in documenting political struggles and exposing human rights abuses and there will be a number of speakers introducing screenings and contributing to sessions.  Some of the issues discussed will be: What difference do films, videos and digital media make to public debates about human rights issues? How can we begin to assess the work of filmmakers and political activists using film and video to campaign for justice and democracy, or the use of digital media for human rights advocacy on the internet? Who are the subjects of human rights films and what is the nature of human rights discourse in film? One of the key themes this year for Cinema and Human Rights Days is the recent spate of films that addresses the role of perpetrators of crimes against humanity.
Speakers include:

·         William Schabas, Professor of International Law at Middlesex and author of many books on human rights law, who will introduce the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through film;
·         Rod Stoneman, Professor of Film and Director of the Huston Centre of Film and Digital Media, film producer and author, and former deputy Commissioning Editor of the Independent Film and Video Department of Channel 4 Television and Chief Executive of Bord Scannán na hÉireann/ the Irish Film Board, who will discuss The Freedom to Speak.
·         Other speakers include, Sue Clayton, Gareth Evans, Dr. Jacqueline Maingard, Dr. Emma Sandon.

There will be a feature-length screening each day, as well as short films and extracts.
Cinema and Human Rights Days will start by hosting a screening of the award-winning Best Documentary in the BAFTA 2014 and Oscar-nominated Director’s Cut of The Act of Killing (159 mins) directed by Joshua Oppenheimer about perpetrators of mass killings in Indonesia in 1965-66. The film will be introduced by Gareth Evans, writer, producer and curator of the Whitechapel Gallery.
Saturday lunch-time, filmmaker Sue Clayton will show her short film, Hamedullah (23 mins) which highlights the plight of child refugees in Britain, by focussing on an Afghan boy who was deported from the UK and sent back to Afghanistan. She will present other material she has filmed about children refugees in Britain, and discuss how her films have led to campaigns to change the law in Parliament.
Saturday evening’s screening will be an opportunity to see the new film by South African filmmaker, Marc Kaplan, TheVillageunder the Forest, on the eradication of the village of Lubya in Palestine, through the planting of a forest paid for by the Jewish National Fund. It will be introduced by Dr. Jacqueline Maingard, University of Bristol, who will introduce the film by discussing the director’s films on perpetrators of apartheid atrocities, and his commitment to human rights and social justice..
The Sunday afternoon screening will be John Pilger’s new film, Utopia (2013) about indigenous Australians’ struggle for equality and justice. This polemical and controversial film screened in Australia and recently on British television, will be introduced by one of the film’sproducers.

The event is free of charge. However places are limited, so registration is essential. You need to register for each day you wish to attend.

See the full programme and please register through the following link: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/arts/news/cinema-and-human-rights-days

For further information please email Claudia Modonesi cmodonesi@hotmail.com