The lineup for the first digital edition of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival has been revealed, with more titles planned to be announced on May 14th.
Take a look below for details about the first eight films. The festival will be streaming June 11 -20.
Belly of the Beast (Opening Night)
Erika Cohn, USA, 2020, documentary, 82 minutes, English
Shot over seven years, Belly of the Beast intimately chronicles the journey of women fighting reproductive injustice in their communities. Capturing an unfolding legal drama, the film centers around a team of tenacious heroines uncovering modern-day eugenic practices.
The 8th
Aideen Kane, Lucy Kennedy, Maeve O’Boyle, Ireland, 2020, documentary, 94 minutes, English
Following veteran campaigner Ailbhe Smyth as she navigates the complexities of convincing a historically conservative electorate to vote for women’s reproductive autonomy, The 8th tells the story of how Ireland overturned one of the world’s most restrictive laws on abortion. This documentary is a vivid exploration of the political and cultural history that charts the transformation of a country.
Coded Bias
Shalini Kantayya, USA/UK/China/South Africa, 2020, documentary, 85 minutes, English
Following evidence that suggests Artificial Intelligence (AI) — from facial scanning to police surveillance — cannot be regarded as politically neutral. Coded Bias explores the intersection of AI and civil liberties. Director Shalini Kantayya illuminates our mass misconceptions about AI and emphasizes the urgent need for legislative protection from automated surveillance systems.
Down A Dark Stairwell
Ursula Liang, USA, 2020, documentary, 83 minutes, English, Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles
On a fall day in 2014, Peter Liang, a Chinese American police officer, shot and killed an innocent, unarmed black man named Akai Gurley. Unfolding in the dark stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project, the shooting inflamed the residents of New York City and thrust two marginalized communities together into the uneven criminal justice system. Gurley’s death sparked cries of police brutality and a raging, anguished debate about racial bias in criminal prosecution of law enforcement officers.
From Here
Christina Antonakos-Wallace, USA, 2020, documentary, 89 minutes, English, German, Spanish, Punjabi, Romani, Vietnamese with English subtitles
From Here is a hopeful story of artists and activists based in Berlin and New York whose lives hang in the balance of immigration and integration debates. Our protagonists move from their 20s into their 30s as they fight for citizenship, start families and find room for creative expression. This sensitive and nuanced documentary captures their journeys to define what it means to “belong” in societies that are increasingly hostile to their existence.
I am Samuel
Peter Murimi,Kenya/Canada/UK/USA, 2020, documentary, 69 minutes, Swahili, English, Luhya with English subtitles
Filmed vérité style over five years, I am Samuel is an intimate portrait of a Kenyan man torn between balancing duty to his family with his dreams for his future.
Maxima
Claudia Sparrow, USA/Peru, 2019, documentary, 88 minutes, English, Spanish with English subtitles
Maxima tells the incredible story of 2016 environmental Goldman Prize winner Máxima Acuña and her family, who own a small, remote plot in the Peruvian Highlands. Faced with intimidation, violence and criminal prosecution, we follow Máxima’s tireless fight for justice, taking her from the Peruvian Supreme Court to the doors of the World Bank in Washington, DC.
Radio Silence
Juliana Fanjul, Switzerland/Mexico, 2019, documentary, 79 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles
To millions of people in Mexico, the incorruptible journalist and news anchor Carmen Aristegui is regarded as the trusted alternative voice to official government spin, fighting daily against deliberate disinformation spread through news sources, government corruption and the related drugs trade. Facing threats of violence in the wake of a prominent journalist’s vicious murder, Carmen and her colleagues continue in a shared fight for democracy and justice.
