Film is one of the most powerful tools to advocate human rights, peace and justice in the society. This sort of movement has been well established in international arena. In the context of Nepal, documentaries and short films are being made on the issues of human rights. But issue of Human Rights is still to become one of the crucial subjects for mainstream films, although few films are made on this issue in the past couple of years.
Film culture in Nepal is has not gained maturity yet. It’s being developed in the recent few days. Some Film festival such as Kathmandu Mountain Film Festival (KIMFF), Film South Asia (FSA) and Nepal International Indigenous Film Festival (NIIFF) are being organized in every year. Nepal Human Rights International Film Festival (NHRIFF) is also one of the established festival in Nepal which has been organizing by Human Rights Film Center in partnership with stakeholder since 2011. NHRIFF has established as a forum for advocating human rights via films. The voices of the people and the issues of human rights are not sufficiently raised in the film in Nepal. Film festivals organized in Nepal are also not targeted in the issues of human rights. ‘Nepal Human Rights International Film Festival’ will focus on those issues dealt above. Festival will be dedicated to the vulnerable communities who are historically backward in Nepal.
Human rights violation still remains in Nepal in different sectors of polity and society. The major actors of the Nepali polity including the political parties and civil society need to understand the situation of human rights in the country and what else is happening globally. The NHRIFF, as the platform to showcase the issues of human rights in Nepal and the world through films, aims at making the concerned actors more concerned stakeholders towards the issues of human rights. Hence, this festival is targeted to concerned stakeholders, members of civil society, NGOs, INGOs, colleges and universities, media houses, diplomats, politicians and common people, who can input their idea to uplift the condition of present political stalemate.
Objective of NHRIFF
The fundamental human rights have been ensured by different international instruments as of UDHR, ICCPR, ICESCR and others. So, themes of the festival will be focused on the issues of human rights and other issues prioritized by the United Nations.
However, contextually, film festival will focus on the issue of voiceless people. Films made on the issues of marginalized communities will be prioritized. Films on woman, indigenous people, Dalit, Muslim, minority communities and child rights issues will be prioritized and screened in the festival. Other issues such as enforced disappearance, transitional justice, peace and other human rights issues will be covered in the festival. After the film screening, discussion and debate on the issue will be held with film makers and human rights expert. It helps to sensitize the stipulated issues.
4th Human Rights International Film Festival
The fourth Nepal Human Rights International Film Festival (NHRIFF) will be held during June 10-12, 2016 in Kathmandu. Over 30 selected films from around the globe made on human rights issues will be screened during the festival. The film screening will be done at two auditoriums in Kathmandu. All the screenings will be followed by discussion on the film with the filmmakers.
The films will be screened under following sections
Competition section
The films produced during 2014 and 2015 will be eligible to participate in this section. The films need to be based on at least one aspect of human rights. They could be both fictions and documentaries. The films need to fulfill all the criteria set by the organizing committee.
Special Screening
Special films that could not fulfill all the criteria of competitive section but are important in raising the human rights issues will be screened in this section. This section will also cover such films, which may not want to compete under the other section. Films from partners of the NHRIFF, which are qualified for being selected for the festival but could not participate in the competitive section due to the conflict of interest, will also be screened under this section.
Yesteryears Eyes
Classics from the yesteryears, which deal with human rights issues, will be screened under this section.
Partners’ Panorama
This section will screen the films produced by organizations, who are partners of the 4th Nepal Human Rights International Film Festival. These films will not be recognized as official entries to the festival. But the festival will only provide a platform for the partners to show their works.
Jury
A three-member festival jury will be formed for awarding the best films. The committee will have independent members having no conflict of interest with the organizers or the film makers. The jury will have both international and national personalities. The committee will comprise of two film makers and one human rights expert, one of them will be a woman.
Workshops
In the sidelines of the festival, number of film workshops will be held during the Three days. The workshops will be target to upcoming film makers, grassroots human rights defenders, and human rights activists working independently. The workshops will be based on different themes like
Telling human rights stories through new media: how can we use the new media for promotion of human rights through video
Grassroots film making: to train the grassroots human rights defenders to advocate against human rights violation and abuse through video and films
Publicity
The following publicity material will be published for publicity of the 4th Nepal Human Rights International Film Festival.
Press Meets
Prior to holding the festival, two press meets will be conducted. The first press meet will be conducted a week prior to the festival, where the announcement of festival through the media will be done. It will be a brief press meet, where the screening dates and schedule will be distributed to the media persons and their support in publicity of the festival will be sighted. The second press meet will be conducted on the eve of film festival.
Festival Brochure
2000 copies of festival brochure will be published for mass distribution.
Festival catalogue
300 copies of festival brochures will be printed and distributed among the film makers.
Posters
300 copies of publicity posters will be developed and will be displayed at the important locations.
Banners
Ten banners will be published to be displayed mainly at the screening venues of the film festival. There will be two main banners and 8 side banners to be displayed at the opening and closing ceremony, during film screening inside the auditorium, at the entrance of the venue and other prominent places.
Invitation cards
Invitation cards will be prepared by and distributed for the guests to attend the festival.
Festival Secretariat:
HRFC has its own well equipped office at Anamnagar Kathmandu, where most of the infrastructure essential for setting up festival secretariat is available. Hence, HRFC office will be used as the festival secretariat. The festival secretariat will fully function from 1 May 2016 to 30 June 2016.
UNNATI is also organizer of 4th Human Rights International Film Festival