One World: Raising Human Rights Awareness through Film

During the past eight days Prague inhabitants have had a chance to see a number of good documentary films from different parts of the world. The One World human rights film festival which is organized by the Czech charity organization People in Need has again featured many documentaries bringing from different crisis spots worldwide, reminding us that our comfortable life here in the Czech Republic is not a matter of course everywhere in the world.

During the seven years of its existence the festival has become widely popular not only among filmgoers but also with filmmakers. The festival founder Igor Blazevic believes the fact that the event is organized by an active charity organization has made it more convincing for documentary filmmakers and has helped to build its reputation.

"At One World the producers and filmmakers feel that People in Need is an organization with a lot of energy behind it and that we are doing a good festival. But we are also trying to make documentary film to play an important role in awareness building, in working for a better world. That energy which is behind the festival is attractive for the filmmakers. So we are getting a lot of submissions including submissions of the most prominent filmmakers."

Igor Blazevic sees the One World Festival as a vehicle to draw attention to the challenges of today's world. But the festival doesn't just want to inform about crisis events. It also endeavours to encourage people to become active and willing to help as well.

Igor Blazevic

"One World is not just about testimonies that there are certain people suffering around the world, that there are certain problems and challenges that we are all facing. But One World is also a very strong statement about the capacity of each of us to make a change. The whole People in Need organization is about the trust and self-confidence that we should not wait that any super-heroes or any politburos or anybody else including our own elected politicians should solve the problems of this world. We - ordinary citizens can make a difference, go to war regions, help our neighbours who are in need and make this world a better world. And the whole One World is about that."

Being himself from a crisis affected territory - Bosnia and Hercegovina - Igor Blazevic started to work for People in Need in the beginning of the 1990's. In the course of time he came to the conclusion that film is the best tool how to encourage people not to stay indifferent to events that surround us - even though they are far away.

"I am originally from Bosnia and Hercegovina - from Sarajevo. I am living here in the Czech Republic since 1991. I came here before the war in Bosnia and because of the war I started to be engaged in the activities of People in Need. People in Need started during the war in the former Yugoslavia and Nagorny Karabagh. In that moment I was already here and I started to be involved in the activities of People in Need, mainly in awareness building activities. At one moment we realized that a film can be a far more efficient than anything else and that the festival can be a cornerstone of our awareness building activities."

As the festival brings views from different crisis areas, the films are often divided into categories according to regions. So this year you could have seen films in categories such us "Iraq in the spotlight", "African Shadows", "Fragments of Bosnia", "Made in China" or "North Korea".

Seoul Train

In the North Korea section, a film called "Seoul Train" got a great deal of attention among filmgoers. The documentary describes the stories of people who try to escape famine in North Korea by crossing the border to China. In cases where the Chinese authorities catch a North Korean refugee on their territory, they are sent back home, where they are severely punished. The stories of the refugees are very touching. The film often takes you into dangerous situations shot by a hidden camera.

I asked the director Jim Butterworth whether he didn't feel it was too risky to do this kind of illegal filming in a totalitarian country.

"It was definitely risky and dangerous but it was far more dangerous for the people we were coming in contact with. I am not sure what they would have done to us as Americans. Fortunately, I don't have to answer that question. But definitely; if we had led authorities to the people that we were coming in contact with - whether they were activists of refugees - if they had been caught - you know it's life and death for them."

Even though Jim Butterworth is not a professional filmmaker - in fact this is his first film - "Seoul Train" became very successful and has been shown at about 40 film festivals around the world. Jim Butterworth believes that human rights films are growing in popularity.

This World: Access to Evil

"I am really glad to see that human rights festivals grow in popularity. It's also great to see human rights documentaries move beyond where they have been. Human rights documentaries have always been powerful but they were never top notch documentaries. Now we are seeing a whole new era of human rights documentaries that actually compete with regular films and main stream documentaries."

In his view the One World festival in Prague is proof, as it screened a lot of exceptional films.

"This One World festival in Prague has a great selection of high quality human rights documentaries. This gets to what I was saying about the state of human rights documentaries. It is much, much higher than it ever has been. These are not the kind of human rights documentaries that you used to watch at three in the morning on TV. You know when you couldn't sleep and you turned on the TV and there was some really bad human rights documentary? It's not like that anymore. These are prime time films. These are films that stand right next to mainstream Hollywood films."

Michaela Kleckova from the One World festival team says that visitors have always been interested in the best known crisis areas but this time they have also shown a lot of interest in films from other categories. Different workshops and other additional events have also been widely attended.

Odessa Odessa

"There has always been a great interest in topics like Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and such countries where the conflicts are still very vivid. But there were also many films from other areas which are not in the focus of media and they were also very much visited. For example films about Rwanda or other African countries with a conflict. We have also had a group of films focused on the AIDS dilema. This was also connected with debates and exhibitions and they were very much visited by people."

Every year One World has several competition categories - each of them is evaluated by a separate jury. This year the main award went to the Norwegian film "My Beloved Child" by Brit Jorunn Hundsnes that in a very sensitive way touches the problem of sexual abuse of children.

The competition and the Prague part of the festival is already over but if you are still interested in seeing some of the documentaries they are still going to be screened in a number of other towns around the Czech Republic up until May 14th. You can find out more at www.jedensvet.cz/ow/2005/