By Amir Ganjavie.
Between March 26 and April 2, the Toronto International Film Festival presented the 12th series of Human Rights Watch Film Festival, which featured eight movies: The One That Got Away, The Look of Silence, Uyghurs: Prisoners of the Absurd, Beats of the Antonov, The Salt of the Earth, Burden of Peace, The Wanted 18, and Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story. As the TIFF website states, “Bravely bearing witness to injustice worldwide, the eight features in this year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival tell extraordinary stories of struggle, survival, and hope.” In order to know more about the festival and its goal, Film International interviewed event programmer Magali Simard.
Can you provide us with some context regarding the history of the festival? What was the initial goal for its establishment?
This is the twelfth year that we’ve run the Human Rights Watch Film Festival and of course Human Rights Watch and TIFF are two different entities. We came on board for many reasons, such as our thinking that film is one of the best ways to address some of the most pressing issues around the world. We try to focus the ten days towards showing films that relate to human rights.
How has the festival evolved over time in relation to these goals? And how do you judge its current success?
We have grown and have much larger audiences every year. This growth is one of the changes since it means that people come every single night to see the films and we also have our filmmakers and editors and journalists covering these issues. We are now a fully professional festival and our audiences engage well with the films even if they are not aware of the subjects.
Can you tell us little bit about the selection procedure? What were your major criteria when selecting the movies for this year?
What is interesting about it is that in with TIFF we usually choose the films that will appeal to the greatest audience but with Human Rights Watch we research the films in terms of their content. Because I am not a researcher in this area and they are the authority on these situations around the world, HRW can tell more. The festival happens in Toronto but also in New York and London and the films are for all of us, so while I might think that a film is wonderful and must win in the end, it comes down to the quality and the programmers are aware of this.
How many movies have you received, how did you pick these eight movies from them?
We usually consider close to 200 and then narrow it down to eight, so let’s say that some of them are premium, some of them are from other festivals, some from documentary festivals, so we looked to the last six months of movies.
There is at least one movie from each continent. Was this a criterion for your selection?
It is not a rule but it’s something we are aware of so we are very careful to cover as much territory as we can, also trying to have movies covering a wide range of political issues from around the world while not doubling on territories or subjects.
Are the political issues very important for you to select the movies?
Yes, they are. There are situations that happened a lot over the past fifteen years and seem to happen again. For example, it was a complete surprise for me that I did not know much about the subject of the Muslim Chinese minority in Guantanamo Bay. So I think the researchers found subjects which are recent and not about decades past. And a subject of the history that came with the pain stays with people forever.
Do you have a specific topic for each year? If yes, what is the topic of this year?
No, actually it’s about each film that is made in a giving year. We try to cover as many topics as we can. Sometimes it is more historically focused and sometimes it is more about current affairs.
Can you tell us about the festival guests such as its notable speakers? What were your criteria in their selection?
For example, today we will record an interview with Joshua Oppenheimer, who has a film about silence and made a successful film about killing a year and half ago; we will prepare an interview video with him that we will be shown in a screening. For Uygurs: The Prisoners of the Absurd, we will have Michelle Shephard, a national security reporter who covered that subject, as well as Patrcicio Henriquez, the director of the movie.
Some of the best movies in the festival were screened in Toronto over the past year, either during the Hot Docs Festival or the Toronto International Film Festival. What are your thoughts on this? Do you consider this to be a weakness? Do you see yourself as a festival that shows the best of others?
The Human Rights Watch Film Festival is less concerned with premiers and things like that and focuses truly on the subjects. It is the most pure programming in terms of considering the issues and really discussing them. Yes, some of them were screened in Toronto before but most of them are shown in this festival and have two screenings, so it is not an issue of abroad attention.
Who are the major sponsors of the event? Did you receive funding from the United Nations or humanitarian organisations? I ask in order to know the connection between the festival and real-world politics, to know how seriously your work is being judged by political organisations around the world, and its real impacts on the improvement of human conditions in the world.
Well, the festival is a part of TIFF programming, so Human Rights Watch have their own sponsors for the festival and during the year to do their job around the world. And whoever sponsors TIFF is indirectly involved in this program as much as any of our others.
Nona Adili assisted with this interview.
Fascinated by the issue of alternative and utopian space in cinema and architecture, Amir Ganjavie has published widely about cinema, architecture and cultural studies. He has recently co-edited a special volume on alternative Iranian cinema for Film International and edited Humanism of the Other, an essay collection on the Dardenne brothers (in Persian). His most recent contribution is an article on the meaning of space and utopia in cinema by analysing the films of Tsai Ming-Liang.