To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the network the Human Rights Film Network (HRFN) has published the 2nd edition of Setting up a Human Rights Film Festival, an “a to z” guide on the how-to’s of organizing a human rights film festival. Written by festival organizers from around the world, it focuses on the needs and challenges of festivals that are sprouting all over the developing world and those in countries where democratic systems are still emergent or non-existent.
While drawing on some common experiences to all human rights film festivals, such as programming screenings and thematic discussions or dealing with technical production and team building, the handbook does not have a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, it offers a varied tapestry of stories about festivals that face vastly different realities around the world: from rural communities in Sierra Leone and Bolivia to urban settings in Jordan and Guatemala; from prisons and the Maidan in Ukraine to a refugee camp in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
The book’s authors offer first-hand experiences and lessons learned on the many tasks needed for a successful festival including fundraising, stretching resources to the maximum, overcoming seemingly insurmountable logistical problems, approaching new audiences unfamiliar with film, involving the human rights community, dealing with censorship and security threats and evaluating results. There is a chapter on how human rights films strengthen educational systems and help raise awareness among youngsters, as well as case studies featuring festivals that take place in contexts such as political violence, the quest for truth and justice, occupation and political exile, censorship, poverty and marginalization.
The aim of the manual is to provide the necessary know-how to festival organizers so that the events they organize can serve as effective tools for social change — whether by raising awareness among key influencers and general audiences, or through the empowerment of local communities engaged in struggles for social justice.
Human rights-themed films aim for maximum impact, and human rights film festivals play a crucial role in ensuring that the films reach their target audiences, which include key influencers, social movements, activists and everyday citizens. This manual seeks to strengthen the collaboration between these communities by providing existing and emerging film festivals with the tools necessary to create an effective human rights eco-system that can lead to social transformation.
The handbook is edited by One World in Prague, Movies that Matter in Amsterdam and FiSahara in the Sahrawi refugee camps of Algeria.
Follow the links below to read or download the free full version of the handbook, or browse through the individual chapters and case studies.
Download full version of the handbook
Read full version online
