Human Rights Watch Film Festival: The event is free, the cause is freedom
By Liam Lacey
Started 30 years ago, The Human Rights Watch Film Festival, is one of the oldest continual "your-cause-here" film events.
It’s an offshoot of the Nobel-prize winning human rights organization, which monitors human rights violations in more than 90 countries. The festival (which takes place in more than 20 cities) fulfills the organization's mandate of "naming and shaming” examples of government human rights abuses around the world. But it also has a reliable record of providing inspiration for the politically-disheartened.
Garment workers attempt to unionize in Rubaiyat Hossain’s Made in Bangladesh
Also on the plus side, the tickets are free with a pay-what-you-can option. All Toronto screenings take place at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. For more information on the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, click here.
I Am Not Alone (Jan. 30, 7:30 p.m.)
At a time when we regularly hear about the surge in right-wing populism and strong-man politics, the case of Armenia’s 2018 soft revolution has been badly under-reported.
Garin Hovannisian's documentary combines a fascinating mixture of live-streaming immediacy and an instant post-mortem on the events that saw a former crusading journalist, Nikol Pashinyan, topple the government of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, after the prime minister extended his rule past the two-term limit and seemed headed for leader-for-life status.
Pashinyan, who had already spent a year in jail for his political work, led a two-week march with a handful of followers, which appeared destined to peter out. But, through a savvy use of social media, and the over-reaction of the government, his movement snowballed into a mass movement that toppled the government. Incorporating original footage, citizen journalists and cell-phone video, the film immerses us in the often tense and uncertain day-to-day progress of events.
Most interesting are interviews with Pashinyan's former opponents, including the chief of police, Armenia's president and the deposed Sargsyan himself, reflecting on the transformative year in a country, that, as one protester says, "had forgotten how to dream." I Am Not Alone will be introduced by director Atom Egoyan and actress-producer Arsinée Khanjian.
On The President’s Orders (Jan. 31, 7 p.m.)
"I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem," Donald Trump told Philippines President Rodrigo R. Duterte in an April 2017 phone call, lauding Duterte’s monstrous and murderous drug war.
James Jones and Olivier Sarbil's documentary brings us alarmingly close to how unbelievable the government's approach is in this grimly thriller-like documentary, in which both police and their victims participate.
In the densely populated city of Caloocan, in Metro Manila, Philippines, a new police chief takes charge. He promises to install discipline following local protests against President Rodrigo Duterte’s violent anti-drug campaign, which has jammed the prisons and the morgues with bodies. For a while, the numbers of killings drop and then, in 2018, people start to die again, in a rash of drive-by shootings, in which the perpetrators are both known and untouchable.
Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Senstov ponders life in a Siberian jail in The Trial
Gay Chorus: Deep South (February 1, 7:30 p.m.)
Following the 2016 election of Donald Trump, and in response to anti-LGBTQ laws across the Southern U.S., the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir - more than 300 singers in all - each paid their own way to take a two-week tour of the American Deep South, performing in churches (when allowed), and even appearing on a right-wing radio show.
Several of the singers, including choir master and former Baptist minister Tim Seelig, had fled from the South. And there are lots of painful reminiscences here, though generally things go smoother than expected as the singers confront both their fears and their antagoinsts.
Director David Charles Rodrigues doesn't dig deep, but the movie has its moments, including a hilarious drag number by Phillip Whitely of the Patsy Cline hit, She's Got You and a memorably warm welcome from a Baptist minister, which should be written on a T-shirt: "The only people that Jesus was never really comfortable with were self-righteous judgmental religious people."
Born In Evin. (February 2, 1:00 p.m.)
Iranian-born, Frankfurt-based actress Maryam Zaree was born in 1983 in Iran's notorious prison for political dissidents, an event that her parents, now divorced, decline to talk about.
Her film follows her journey -- including trips to England, France and California, talking to both of her parents, therapists other former prisoners, to understand her parents' silence.
Individual interviews are staged like a detective story, with interviews taking place in a diner, or in a communal garden. Zaree's film has echoes of Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell -- another actor-turned-filmmaker exploring her family's traumas and secrets, while considering the nature of story-telling in constructing family identity.
The Trial: The State of Russia vs. Oleg Sentsov with live post-screening Q&A with film subject Oleg Sentsov. (Feb. 3, 7 p.m.)
Director Askold Kurov's documentary on the contrived case against Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Senstov echoes Franz Kafka's bleakly absurdist novel of the same name.
Senstov publicly denounced the Russian annexation of Crimea, and was punished as an example, charged with patently bogus accusations of conspiracy to commit terrorism.
It becomes obvious why the Russian leadership, including President Vladimir Putin (who is seen on film discussing the case) are out to silence him: In one stunning sequence, we see Senstov, in a prisoner's cage in a Russian court after having been arrested, beaten and facing a long sentence. He remains fearless, articulate and contemptuous of the sham case and the Russian media propaganda machine.
The film, first released in 2017, ends with the filmmaker languishing in a Siberian jail, not due for release until 2034. As the title of the event indicates, circumstances have changed and Sentov will be available on Monday for a live Q&A.
Made in Bangladesh (Feb. 4, 7 p.m.)
A Norma Rae for the Bangladesh garment industry, writer-director Rubaiyat Hossain's drama follows a 23-year-old seamstress and family breadwinner, Shimu (Rikita Nandini Shimu) who is inspired to unionize her shop to improve safety conditions after a fire takes a co-worker's life.
While this low-budget film lacks dramatic nuance, it's a reminder of the cost in lives and social oppression that provide us with cheap clothes. It's also a reminder of the obstacles that had to be overcome before, in 2018, more than 200 international clothing brands agreed to fire and safety standards for more than 2.5-million workers in Bangladesh's garment industry.