ONE WORLD 2010
13/3/2010 15:00 - International Human Rights Film Festival - 12th edition
PROGRAMME AT THE ARCHA THEATRE:
15:00 Via Anelli / Via Anelli
Marco Segato / Italy / 2008 / 68 min.
The Serenissma complex of residential houses on Via Anelli consists of six buildings. From the 1990s, it was primarily African refugees who lived here in almost three hundred apartments with an area of 28 m2. The area rapidly became less safe in this time and crime increased. Locals began referring to the refugee quarter as a ghetto. In 2005, the local town hall decided to remove this stain on the beauty of the north Italian city of Padova by moving all the inhabitants to apartments in other parts of the city and closing the buildings. This film documents the two-year process of closing the Serenissma complex from the point of view of both the penurious refugee families (who often have no choice but to move into the stigmatised environment) and the officials who are trying to defend the rights of all the city's inhabitants. The film is interwoven with lots of news footage, particularly from 2007, when the area became the centre of international attention because of the steel wall that the city authorities built around the complex, which sealed its fate as a socially excluded locality.
17:15 Tapped / Tapped
Stephanie Soechtig / Canada, USA / 2009 / 75 min.
Bottled water is the greatest advertising and marketing fraud in the world, says media analyst Barbara Lippert in Stephanie Soechtig's documentary. Quite simply, taking free drinking water, putting it into bottles, distributing it around the world and selling it back to people is an easy way to make money. At the same time, the film shows that the water in plastic bottles is often the same water that flows from the mains in all American households. The director also reveals how Nestlé, Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola use legal loopholes to avoid paying taxes on their use of water and recycling, publishing the results of studies on the health and safety of their activity as well as taking moral responsibility for their business. A group of independent experts, activists and journalists also warn that bottled water doesn't just hurt our wallets. Plastic bottles contain substances that are harmful to human health. These can contribute to the incidence of cancer, infertility and other ailments. Moreover, the excessive use of water and the inadequate recycling of plastic are a threat to the environment.
19:15 Recipes for Disaster / Katastrofin aineksia
John Webster / Finland / 2008 / 85 min.
"I can't clean my teeth, because my brush is made of plastic," says director John Webster's younger son in this documentary. Living in Finland, he and his family decided to try and survive for one year without using any products that were manufactured using oil. Webster's desire to minimise his environmental footprint arose after he began noticing all the problems associated with global warming and the depletion of natural resources. Nonetheless, swapping the car for the bus, trains for planes, a dinghy for a motorboat or buying basic groceries in the shop is not always easy, particularly for a family with children. Even the most motivated people begin to have doubts when things get complicated and uncomfortable. Discord starts to plague the four-member family. In the year that elapses from the time a firm decision is made to switch to an environmentally acceptable way of life, compromises and simple solutions are eventually resorted to. Is it possible to behave ecologically and not destroy your family's happiness at the same time? Would you take the same experiment?
Discussion
21:45 Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi / Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi
Ian Olds / USA / 2009 / 84 min.
This intense film by Ian Olds takes us right to the frontline of war reporting. Ajmal Naqshbandi is a young journalist and translator regarded as Afghanistan's best fixer. His work includes facilitating interviews with Taliban fighters. Just how dangerous this work actually is becomes clear when he and an Italian reporter are taken captive - and Ajmal is executed a few days later. Christian Parenti, a US journalist who had used him as a fixer, looks into the reasons why only the Italian was released, at the same time providing an insight into everyday life in the war-torn state. Chilling footage of the abduction and improvised interviews with Taliban members - who suspect every journalist of espionage - clearly document just what war reporters go through in Afghanistan. The tragic fate of Ajmal illustrates what sort of value is placed on a human life in that country.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Between March 10–18, 2010 the One World International Human Rights Film Festival will be held in Prague, then it moves on to 29 towns and cities throughout the Czech Republic.
Over 100 films, dozens of foreign guests – primarily film directors, screenings for schools, streamed films online, a range of accompanying events and more – these are the things that you can look forward to at the 12th edition of One World. The main festival will be held in Prague between March 10 – 18, 2010 followed by the Regional One World festivals in 29 towns and cities of the Czech Republic through the end of March into early April. In addition, a select number of films screened at One World, the biggest human rights documentary film festival in Europe, will be presented in Brussels in mid April.
This year’s festival will feature 101 documentary films from over 30 countries within both competition and thematic categories. These have been selected from more than 1600 submitted films. This year’s festival will open with the Iranian documentary Green Days, which portrays a current and striking example of human rights being repressed. As always, the main festival centre will be at the Lucerna Cinema. The other festival venues will be Světozor (2 halls), Divadlo Archa, Atlas (2 halls), The French Institute, The Municipal Library of Prague and Evald. Tickets will be available at ticket offices of the festival venues. The price will be the same as last year – 70 CZK.
One World will be held under the auspices of Václav Havel, the minister of culture Václav Riedlbauch and the mayor of Prague Pavel Bém.
More info at www.oneworld.cz
Organised by People In Need - www.peopleinneed.cz
TICKETS: CZK 70
On sale at Archa Theatre Box Office from February 15, 2010
Fixer
