Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2013

View other Human Rights Watch Film Festival Films by strand: New York line-up

Tall As The Baobab Tree Tall As The Baobab Tree
Tall As The Baobab Tree and Alias Ruby Blade
The Act Of Killing (Country: Denmark, Norway, UK; Year: 2012; Director: Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn)
People responsible for the mass murder of suspeced Communists at the onset of the military regime in 1965 are challenged to restage their actions and question the pride they still take in them.
Alias Ruby Blade (Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Alex Meillier; Writer: Alex Meillier, Tanya Meillier; Stars: Kirsty Sword Gusmao, Xanana Gusmão, José Ramos Horta, Geoffrey Robinson, Max Stahl)
The love story of human rights activist Kirsty Sword and political prisoner Xanana Gusmão.
UK premiere
Camera/Woman (Year: 2012; Director: Karima Zoubir)
With enthusiastic musicians and ornate wedding parties setting the stage, we meet Khadija, a Moroccan divorcee who works as a camerawoman at weddings in Casablanca.
UK premiere
Camp 14 - Total Control Zone (Year: 2012; Director: Marc Wiese)
Documentary about the life of a man born in a North Korean prison camp.
Fatal Assistance (Assistance mortelle) (Country: France, Haiti, US, Belgium; Year: 2013; Director: Raoul Peck; Writer: Raoul Peck)
Award-winning Haitian born filmmaker Raoul Peck takes us on a two-year journey inside the challenging, contradictory, and colossal rebuilding efforts in post-earthquake Haiti.
UK premiere
Wadjda Wadjda
Wadjda and The Act Of Killing
The Gatekeepers (Country: Israel, France, Germany, Belgium; Year: 2012; Director: Dror Moreh)
Six former heads of Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, discuss their nation’s past, present and future.
Going Up The Stairs (Country: Iran; Year: 2011; Director: Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami)
A dutiful Iranian wife overcomes her insecurities and her husband's objections and becomes an internationally celebrated artist.
In The Shadow Of The Sun (Country: UK, Tanzania; Year: 2012; Director: Harry Freeland), Official Site
The story of two men with albinism in Tanzania pursuing their dreams in the face of virulent prejudice.
UK premiere
Jai Bhim Comrade (Jai Bhim Comrade) (Country: India; Year: 2011; Director: Anand Patwardhan)
A look at India's caste system and the Dalits struggling for dignity against over 2,000 years' worth of prejudice.
The Law In These Parts (Country: Israel; Year: 2011; Director: Ra'anan Alexandrowicz)
Israel's 43-year military legal system in the Occupied Palestinian Territories unfolds through provocative interviews with the system’s architects and historical footage showing the enactment of these laws upon the Palestinian population.
Salma Salma
Salma and My Afghanistan - Life in the Forbidden Zone
My Afghanistan - Life in the Forbidden Zone (Country: Denmark; Year: 2012; Director: Nagieb Khaja)
Nagieb Khaja, a Danish journalist of Afghan origin, gives people living in outlying communities in Helmand province mobile phones equipped with cameras and asks them to film their daily lives.
UK premiere
Nowhere Home (Country: Norway, Sweden; Year: 2012; Director: Margreth Olin)
Documentary about the lives of boys from Salhus, a Norwegian centre offering temporary residence to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
UK premiere
The Parade (Parada) (Country: Serbia / Croatia / Macedonia / Slovenia; Year: 2011; Director: Srdjan Dragojevic; Writer: Srdjan Dragojevic; Stars: Nikola Kojo, Milos Samolov, Hristina Popovic, Goran Jevtic, Toni Mihailovski)
Srdjan Dragojević’s film takes a comedic look at survival strategies for gays in Serbia and at a society that even now, years after the Balkan war, is still fragmented and riven by two entrenched fronts.
UK premiere
The Patience Stone (Syngué Sabour) (Country: France, Afghanistan, Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Atiq Rahimi; Writer: Atiq Rahimi, Jean-Claude Carrière; Stars: Golshifteh Farahani, Hamidreza Javdan, Massi Mrowat)
An Afghan woman tending to her comatose husband gradually finds the means to confound the patriarchal society around her and assert her own voice.
Salma (Country: UK, India; Year: 2013; Director: Kim Longinotto; Writer: Ollie Huddleston)
The story of a woman shut away by her family for 25 years, who became a published poet, politician and activist.
Opening night
The Gatekeepers The Gatekeepers
The Gatekeepers and War Witch
Solar Mama (Rafea: Solar Mama) (Country: US, Denmark, Egypt; Year: 2012; Director: Mona Eldaief, Jehane Noujaim; Stars: Abu Badr, Umm Badr, Raouf Dabbas, Rafea)
Documentary follows a Bedouin woman as she joins a programme that trains illiterate women to be engineers.
UK premiere
Tall As The Baobab Tree (Grand Comme Le Baobab) (Country: Senegal, US; Year: 2012; Director: Jeremy Teicher; Writer: Jeremy Teicher, Alexi Pappas; Stars: Dior Kâ, Oumoul Kâ, Cheikh Dia)
After her brother has an accident, her father is forced to sell her younger sister into an arranged marriage, but Coumba hatches a plan to save her.
Wadjda (Country: Saudi Arabia, Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour; Writer: Haifaa Al-Mansour; Stars: Reem Abdullah, Waad Mohammed, Abdullrahman Al Gohani, Ahd, Sultan Al Assaf, Dana Abdullilah, Rehab Ahmed, Rafa Al Sanea, Mohammed Albahry, Mariam Alghamdi, Ali Algorbani, Sara Aljaber, Mohammed Alkhozain, Maram Alkohzaim, Mariam Alkohzaim)
A young Saudi girl who will stop at nothing to earn enough money to buy the bicycle she craves.
War Witch (Rebelle) (Country: Canada; Year: 2012; Director: Kim Nguyen; Writer: Kim Nguyen; Stars: Rachel Mwanza, Alain Lino Mic Eli Bastien, Serge Kanyinda, Mizinga Mwinga, Ralph Prosper, Jean Kabuya, Jupiter Bokondji, Starlette Mathata, Alex Herabo, Dole Malalou, Karim Bamaraki, Sephora Françoise, Jonathan Kombe, Marie Dilou, Gauna Gau), Official Site
A former child soldier recounts her past to her unborn child.
News

59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground

More news and features

Playing Now

Eye For Film continues to support festivals both locally and across the world. At the moment, we're covering:

Glasgow Short Film Festival

Human Rights Watch Film Festival
Showcase of films with a humanitarian focus

Flare

South by Southwest

Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival
Greek celebration of factual film

In the Archive


Archive of festival coverage.

Daily diary and reviews from 2005-2018.

Coverage of the lynchpin German festival.