Protest, rebellion, revolt – Arab Spring takes center stage at the One World International Human Rights Film Festival 2012

The One World International Human Rights Film Festival has just started in Prague. This year’s edition brings over a hundred films from 72 countries to the Czech capital, where documentary lovers can visit special festival screenings until March 15. With such an abundance of interesting documentaries, it’s something difficult to determine what to see first – we asked program director Kateřina Bartošová about her highlights and about the theme of this year’s main category.

“The main category of this year’s edition is called Youthquake. We would like to stress that the main power behind revolutions all over the world are young people. They all went to the squares in their countries’ capitals and other cities, to express their dissent, and their hopes for change, and their fight against dictatorships in their countries, in the Arab world. And in the Western world, young people were protesting against the current situation in democratic countries such as Greece, Spain and other countries.”

Aside from this “Protest, Rebellion, Revolt”- section, what other categories are there in this year’s festival and what are some of the highlights?

'You've Been Trumped'

“We have many other thematic categories this year. One of them is called so-called civilization and focuses on ecological topics. One film in this category is called ‘You have been trumped’ and it is a British film that tells the story of well-known businessman Donald Trump wanting to build a golf resort in the Scottish country side.

“Another film in that section is titled ‘The Island President’ and it tells the story of the president of the Maldives islands, which are going through a series of massive political protests when the film was made, and how the president has to adjust his position to the situation his country is in.”

That sounds really interesting. But One World does not just bring documentaries to Prague, but you also have a rich accompanying program. What are some of the events we should be aware of?

'Punk in Africa'

“It is now a tradition that we organize concerts every year. One of the concerts will take place after the world-premiere of the film ‘Punk in Africa’ this Thursday, in Lucerna. There will be a party after the film screening and a DJ will play tunes in the Lucerna café.

“Then we also have a special program for children and senior citizens. And then there is the EastDoc Platform, which is mostly for film professionals, but those who are accredited for the festival can also come and see the interesting events we offer as part of that.”