Posts Tagged ‘film makers’
August 26, 2020
Afghan actress Saba Sahar was reportedly shot in Kabul on Tuesday 25 August. Her husband Emal Zaki told the BBC that three gunmen opened fire on the car she was traveling in on her way to work just five minutes from their house, the outlet reported. Zaki said that Sahar was one of five people in the vehicle, including the driver, two bodyguards and a child, according to the BBC. It was not clear if the child was one of Sahar’s children. Both bodyguards reportedly also sustained injuries from the shooting, according to BBC. In addition to her work as an actress and director, Sahar is a trained police officer and women’s rights advocate.
In an interview with The Guardian in 2012 she said: “I want to show the conservatives who lock their daughters and wives at home that they should let them out to get an education, earn some money and help rebuild Afghanistan,” she said, adding that she has received death threats from anonymous phone callers. “They told me to say goodbye to my loved ones because I’d soon be dead.” After reporting the threats to authorities, Sahar said the calls only continued. “They called me again and asked why I’d gone to the authorities,” she said. “They said that even if the whole government is behind you, we will still kill you. We will murder you on the street, in public.” “Every morning when I leave the house, I know I might get killed, might never see my family again,” she told The Guardian at the time.
Posted in Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Afghanistan, attacks, BBC, death threats, Emal Zaki, film makers, Saba Sahar, woman human rights defender
August 7, 2020
Following up on https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2020/08/06/re-issued-passionate-plea-for-help-in-open-letter-by-mona-seif-from-egypt-about-targeting-of-her-family, here an update to the campaign:.
More than 200 prominent artists, along with nearly two dozen leading human rights groups and film organizations, are calling for the immediate release of activist and film editor Sanaa Seif — who was arrested in Cairo last month and remains behind bars in remand detention. Signatories to the public statement are also calling for the release of all those unjustly detained in Egypt.
Among the signatories are Nobel Prize, Academy Award, Pulitzer Prize, Booker Prize and British Academy Film Awards winners, including: Juliette Binoche, Laurent Cantet, Noam Chomsky, JM Coetzee, Judi Dench, Claire Denis, Dave Eggers, Danny Glover, Paul Greengrass, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Hall, Naomie Harris, Khaled Hosseini, Anish Kapoor, Naomi Klein, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Paul Mason, Simon McBurney, Ruth Negga, Thandie Newton, Michael Ondaatje, Philip Pullman, Miranda Richardson, Andrea Riseborough, Arundhati Roy, and Stellan Skarsgård.
Leading advocacy groups, including Amnesty International, PEN International, Human Rights Watch and Reprieve have also signed onto the letter, as have prominent film organizations, including Sundance Institute, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the European Film Academy and Société des Réalisateurs de Films.
The full of signatories is available online at: https://www.freedomfor.network/sanaa
Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: campaign, Egypt, film makers, https://www.freedomfor.network/sanaa, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, Mona Seif, Sanaa Seif
May 2, 2020
Shady Habash, 24, was a film director and cinematographer (Instagram/@ShadyHabash)
On 2 May 2020 the Middle East Eye reported that Egyptian film director and photographer Shady Habash reportedly passed away in Tora prison in the capital Cairo on Friday, according to human rights organisations.
Continuing Egypt’s revolution from exile: Ramy Essam and Ganzeer
[Habash and his colleague Mustafa Gamal were arrested following the release of Balaha, a song that indirectly poked fun at Sisi, the former defence minister who came to power after a military coup ousted president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Essam, the singer who performed Balaha, is currently in exile in Sweden. The author of the song, Galal el-Beheiry, is also in jail. “Balaha” is a derogatory nickname for Sisi, in reference to a character from a classic Egyptian movie known for being a compulsive liar. A statement by Essam after Habash’s arrest said that the director “doesn’t have anything to do with the content and message of the song”. Charges brought against Habash and Gamal include membership of a “terrorist group,” spreading false news, abuse of social media networks, blasphemy, contempt of religion and insulting the military. They have both been in pre-trial detention pending investigations since their arrests.]
Human Rights Watch has estimated that more than 60,000 political prisoners have been languishing in Egyptian jails since Sisi became president in 2014. The former army general has routinely jailed critics, including secular and Muslim Brotherhood politicians, journalists, and human rights defenders. Hundreds have died in custody through medical negligence or other poor detention conditions.
On 5 May Egypt’s public prosecutor said that alcohol poisoning caused the death in jail of this young video maker after he drank liquid sanitiser he had mistaken for water. https://news.yahoo.com/egyptian-video-maker-died-alcohol-poisoning-jail-prosecutor-015419633.html
For some older posts on Egypt, see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/egypt/
Posted in Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Balaha, death, film makers, Galal el-Beheiry, Human rights defender, imprisonment, in memoriam, medical care, music, Mustafa Gamal, photographer, pre-trial detention, protest, Ramy Essam, Shady Habash
January 16, 2017
Amila Sampath: “I make videos, that’s my tool, I believe this is one of the significant ways to raise the voice of the voiceless
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 3 Comments »
Tags: Amila Sampath, Asia, Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando, Chrithralal, film makers, Human Rights Asia Weekly Roundup, images, Just Asia, Nilantha Ilangamuwa, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Guardian, video, You Tube
May 19, 2016
Giselle Portenier (CNW Group/Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma)
Independent documentary-makers and freelance journalists working to expose human rights abuses can compete for a bursary to help them obtain hostile environment training, more usually made available to journalists working in war zones. The 2016 Portenier Human Rights Bursary competition, offered by the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, opened on 16 May and closes on June 30. The annual bursary, introduced last year, is sponsored by the documentary-maker Giselle Portenier. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Canada, Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, Documentary film, film makers, funding, human rights monitoring, Jason O'Hara, journalists, Portenier Human Rights Bursary, protection, scholarships, security, training course
April 4, 2016
A remarkably large and diversified group of some 500 film makers, writers, professionals in the area of art & culture, academics, activists and social organisations demand the release of Indian filmmaker and human rights defender Deba Rajan Sarangi in an open letter published on 3 April 2016.
They state that they are deeply shocked to hear about his arrest on 18 March, 2016, by plainclothes policemen from the Kucheipadar village of Rayagada District, Odisha. Debaranjan was in Kucheipadar to attend a funeral. He was arrested with a non-bailable warrant issued by the court of JMFC, Kashippur in pursuance of a case registered in Tikri police station of Rayagada district in 2005, when Debaranjan was actively involved in the struggle of the Adivasis in Kashipur to protect their lands from the invasion of the bauxite mining companies…
Deba Ranjan Sarangi has highlighted and critiqued policies of destructive development, unbridled mining practices, displacement, police impunity, atrocities on Dalits, Adivasi issues , growth of communal fascism in Odisha, violence on women and farmers’ suicide in the context of acute agrarian. Deba Ranjan has been put behind bars because he had the courage to show what he witnessed to the world through his expressions of film making, writing and speech. He is neither a Maoist nor a terrorist. We call upon the Odisha government to address the issues raised by the human rights defenders in the State of Odisha rather than imprisoning them and crushing the voices of film makers. We call upon the Odisha government to desist from such disgraceful attempts of violating the Indian Constitution and Indian democracy.
The link below gives a partial list of signatories:
Source: 500 Artists, Activists And Writers Demand Filmmaker Sarangi’s Release
Posted in films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Adivasis, arrest, dalit human rights, Deba Rajan Sarangi, detention, environmental issues, film makers, India, judicial harassment, minorities, Odisha, resource extraction
November 22, 2014
A blog that pride itself to follow with special interest what is happening in the area of film making and human rights defenders, cannot pass up this post by Queen Noor of Jordan in the Huffington Post of 21 November 2014: “Today, as the winners of the 2014 Impact Award are announced, is a good day to honour the work of documentary filmmakers everywhere. In particular, their role in documenting, highlighting and explaining human rights abuses and human rights protests even in places that western journalists cannot reach.” The growing availability of cheap small recording devices over the past years has been a major development for filmmakers and human rights defenders, allowing stories to emerge even from ‘difficult’ countries.
(No Fire Zone – one of the winners of BRITDOC Impact Award 2014)
“Four years ago, when I was part of the first Impact Award jury, we gave a special mention to the film Burma VJ. I was struck by the bravery of the Burmese video journalists who were able to capture the striking images of the Saffron Revolution.
This year, the Impact Award is honouring No Fire Zone, which examines the closing days of the Sri Lankan civil war against the Tamil Tigers, a deeply shocking account of an assault against civilians, which premiered at the United Nations Human Rights Council and played a crucial role in the Council’s decision this year to finally order an independent review of the death of 70,000 civilians. [https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/11th-human-rights-film-festival-starts-1st-march-in-geneva-with-a-bang-that-upsets-sri-lanka/]
Other films being awarded this year are: Granito, Blackfish, American Promise and The House I Live In.
Documentary Filmmakers Piece Together The Truth | Queen Noor of Jordan.
Posted in awards, films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: awards, BRITDOC, Burma, Burma VJ, Documentary film, film makers, Granita, Huffington Post, human rights abuses, Human Rights Defenders, human rights films, images, Impact Awards, No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, Queen Noor, Sri Lanka, video
September 26, 2014
Only now did I see the tribute paid by filmmakers Paco de Onis and Pamela Yates to the American forensic anthropologist turned human rights defender Clyde Snow who passed away on 16 May 2014. Clyde was a tall Texan with an easygoing manner that masked a tenacious commitment to finding the truth and advancing justice through the science of forensic anthropology, applied to the exhumation of victims of mass atrocities. As Clyde often said, “the bones tell stories.” And these were stories that often helped land the perpetrators of heinous crimes in prison, from Argentina to Guatemala, the Balkans, Rwanda and beyond.
Clyde’s work lives on through the crack forensic anthropology teams he formed in Argentina, Guatemala and Peru, two of which are featured in the films “State of Fear” (Peru) and “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator” (Guatemala).
This Saturday 27 September there is a memorial service in Norman, Oklahoma, where he lived with his wife Jerry.
Posted in films, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: argentina, Clyde Snow, crimes against humanity, exhumation, film makers, forensic anthropology, Guatemala, Human rights defender, in memoriam, investigation, mass graves, Paco de Onis, Pamela Yates, Peru, Texas, Truth commissions, USA
June 6, 2014
On 5 June 2014 Dhondup Wangchen, the imprisoned Tibetan video-activist, was released from prison in Qinghai’s provincial capital Xining, China, after serving a six-year sentence. In a phone call to Gyaljong Tsetrin, cousin and president of Filming For Tibet, living in Switzerland, a very emotional Dhondup Wangchen said: “At this moment, I feel that everything inside me is in a sea of tears. I hope to recover my health soon. I would like to express my feeling of deepest gratitude for all the support I received while in prison and I want to be reunited with my family.”
Lhamo Tso, wife of the imprisoned filmmaker who was granted US asylum in 2012 and now lives in San Francisco, is overjoyed: “Six years of injustice and painful counting the days ended today. It is a day of unbelievable joy for his parents in Dharamsala, our children and myself. We look forward to be reunited as a family.”
Gyaljong Tsetrin, his cousin and co-producer of “Leaving Fear Behind”, said after talking him to: “Though Dhondup is still under the control of the Chinese authorities I am very relieved that he finally could leave prison and has now the possibility to consult a doctor.” The self-taught cameraman and video-activist travelled across Tibet with his assistant Golog Jigme in 2007/2008. His film “Leaving Fear Behind” (28 min.) has been translated into a dozen languages and has been screened in more than 30 countries worldwide. Golog Jigme recently just arrived in India after a spectacular escape from Tibet. Dhondup Wangchen has been given awards by various NGOs, such as Committee to Protect Journalists, for his courageous work making the documentary “Leaving Fear Behind” and his case was the focal point of many campaigns of international human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Reporters without Borders. Government representatives around the world have brought up his case in their talks with their Chinese counterparts.
Tibetan Filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen Released from Prison.
Posted in AI, films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, RSF | Leave a Comment »
Tags: AI, awards, China, Committee to Protect Journalists, Dhondup Wangchen, Documentary film, film makers, Filming For Tibet, free, Golog Jigme, Gyaljong Tsetrin, Human rights defender, human rights films, images, jail, Leaving Fear Behind, prison, Reporters without Borders, Tibet, Tibetans
