ONE WORLD 2010
15/3/2010 17:15 - International Human Rights Film Festival - 12th edition
PROGRAMME AT THE ARCHA THEATRE:
17:15 Anna, Seven Years on the Frontline / Anna, Seven Years on the Frontline
Masha Novikova / Netherlands / 2008 / 78 min.
Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist with the Novaya Gazeta newspaper who was not afraid to openly criticise her government's approach to the war in Chechnya, was murdered on 7 October 2007. With four shots, an unknown killer ended the life of a woman who for many represented the hope that crimes committed would not be overlooked and forgotten. This absorbing documentary tells the story of the journalist's life. Director Masha Novikova had filmed Politkovskaya regularly since 2000 along with her colleagues and friends. Thanks to some extraordinary footage, the viewer becomes a witness to the Chechen tragedy and is confronted with scarcely believable stories of the killings and disappearance of inconvenient people. Besides Politkovskaya, other people who appear in the film include Lidia Yusupova, a lawyer from Grozny who has spent many years searching for missing people from Chechnya, and Svetlana Gannushkina, who won the One World Homo Homini award in 2006. Like Anna Politkovskaya, both these women risk their own lives in the fight for justice in contemporary Russia.
19:15 There Once was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho / There Once was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho
Briar March / New Zealand / 2009 / 80 min.
At first glance Takku Island, which is home to 400 Polynesians, looks like heaven on Earth. A harmonious community living in isolation on this little island lapped by the clear waters of the South West Pacific devotes itself to traditional rituals and music, making their living by fishing, and relaxing in the shade of coconut trees. Nevertheless, global warming has resulted in rising sea levels that have flooded the coral island several times in recent years. This has led the Polynesian government to create a plan to move the islanders to the mainland. However, they are unenthusiastic about what would be a step into the unknown. Instead, the inhabitants invite two expert scientists to Takku in the hope that they will find some solution. This film by New Zealand director Briar March, featuring great camera work and a cinéma vérité style, documents how environmental change can impact upon a native community. Through portraits of individual islanders, it also offers a unique view of the traditional thinking and way of life of the Polynesians, a people whose harmonious co-existence with nature has been harshly interrupted by the negative results of climate change.
Discussion on Global Warming
21:45 The Leader is Always Right / Lideri Khoveltvis Martalia
Salome Jashi / Georgia / 2010 / 43 min.
Summer camps financed by the president in Georgia seem to offer lessons in nationalism, hatred and obedience. Since 2005, these camps have been attended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls. The programme is clear: to cultivate a "love of the nation" among children. This primarily means developing animosity towards Russia, which has been interfering with the country's autonomy. The camp leaders remind their charges of the injustices that occurred to them during the conflict in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Uniforms with the Georgian state symbol, flags on the cabins, ideological slogans and the rule that "the leader is always right" are all things that serve to remind each boy and girl of the past and to demand vengeance. Suggestive lectures and plays exert emotional pressure and strengthen the desire for revenge among these "foot soldiers." According to them, blood can only be repaid with blood. A stark future is outlined when the children leave the camp with a clear idea of what "patriotism" means. Director Salome Jashi show how conflict can never end, if it is fed by fervent nationalism.
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.
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
