Sainap Gaschajewa in Berlin

Sainap Gaschajewa, one of the Chechen Republic’s most important human rights advocates, is coming to Berlin in early June. She will take part in a discussion about the current human rights situation in Chechnya. Taking part is also the Eastern Europe advisor for the Society for Threatened Peoples, Sarah Reinke. This event takes place under the umbrella of the “Globale Film Festival”. The two experts will be available to answer questions and participate in discussions. The film “Coca, eine Taube aus Tschetschenien” (2005) by Eric Bergkraut, will be shown after the discussion. This documentary has received many awards including the “International Human Rights Award” at the 2005 Berlin film Festival. The film is a powerful documentary showing the difficult and dangerous work carried out by Sainap Gaschajewas and her associates. They have been collecting evidence in picture form since 1995 of the brutality committed against the civilian population in Chechnya. (more…)

Look out! Movie presentation in Berlin

Thursday, May 13, 19:30, NGBK, Oranienstraße 25, Kreuzberg

D’Arusha à Arusha (From Arusha to Arusha)

Christophe Gargot, France / Canada / Rwanda 2008

114 min., French, English, Kinyarwanda with English subtitles

From Arusha to Arusha is about Rwanda a scant fifteen years after the escalation of violence in which almost a million people, the majority of them Tutsis, were murdered in the course of a few weeks. Gargot’s film assembles several levels of images and scenes that stand for the response to the events of April 1994, surveying the post-traumatic terrain with a wariness toward the standard answers that have since become manifest there. The material includes video footage of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. Gargot shows these recordings to his interview subjects in Rwanda, who see it for the first time during their interviews with the filmmaker about their personal memories and ways in which they are processing what happened. This exemplary confrontation allows the film to deconstruct the hermetic situation of a Tribunal that claims to be conducted “in the name of humanity.”

Christophe Gargot was born in Poitiers in 1968 and lives in Marseille. He has been working as an advisor for international projects in the field of human rights and new governance since the mid-nineteen-nineties. Gargot made his first documentary film, Hé M’Sieur, in 2003. D’Arusha à Arusha was his second film. He is currently working on a follow-up project, Le crime du caporal Lortie.

Ahoj Prague

The One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Prague opens today with the Iranian film “Green Days” by Hana Makhmalbaf. More information here

Films screened at partner festival One World Berlin are available on realeyz.tv, such as BOY WHO PLAYS ON THE BUDDHAS OF BAMIYAN, TAMBOGRANDE or TERRORISTS: THE KIDS THEY SENTENCED.

Berlinale. Amnesty International Film Award for SON OF BABYLON and WASTE LAND

For the first time the Amnesty International Film Award at the Berlin Film Festival will go to two films: Son of Babylon by Mohammed Al-Daradji (Iraq / United Kingdom / France/.Netherlands / Palestinian Territories / United Arab Emirates / Egypt, 2009) and Waste Land by Lucy Walker (United Kingdom / Brazil, 2010). The films were screened as part of the Panorama section of this year’s festival.

“Both films impressed and convinced us equally. But as you can’t compare fiction and documentary, we felt we had to award both”, said actress Barbara Sukowa as a member of the Amnesty International Film Award Jury at the Berlinale 2010. (more…)

Development Program for documentary filmmakers dealing with Racism & Human Rights

Greenhouse is proud to announce a New International Development Program for documentary filmmakers from Europe & MEDA countries.

In light of the success of Greenhouse, the European Commission, in the framework of MEDIA International, granted an initiative: a new development program for 2010 dealing with the theme of Racism & Human Rights. (more…)