The FIFDH reveals the sixteenth edition program

A must-attend international event, the Festival features a selection of films and debates thatexplore geographic, political and artistic boundaries, as well as readings, comics, stand-up,photography, theater, and screenings for young audiences.

“This Festival will never be one of ready-made answers, but one that aspire to ask the rightquestions. For ten days, our challenge will be to give meaning to the words commitment, truth,freedom, justice, desire. Make this Festival your own, explore it, live it : it’s yours! ”, says IsabelleGattiker, director of the FIFDH.

Alain Berset, President of the Swiss Confederation, and UN High Commissioner for HumanRights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein will open an edition which celebrates the 70th anniversary ofthe Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The event will be closed by artist Ai Weiwei who,with the screening of his film Human Flow, will launch a call for immediate action in the faceof the refugee crisis, along with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and theattendance of Doctors Without Borders President, Joanne Liu.

This year’s artist oh hounour is the comic strip artist Guy Delisle, who is finishing an artisticresidency in Geneva. Among the 280 invited guests, are actors Vanessa Redgrave, GaelGarcía Bernal, Leila Alaouf and Aïssa Maïga, activists Caroline de Haas and MaraiLarasi, writers Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Aslı Erdogan, the politician BenoîtHamon, the synesthete poet Daniel Tammet, journalist Anabel Hernandez, essayistEvgeny Morozov, photographer Moises Saman, international filmmakers SharmeenObaid-Chinoy and Lav Diaz, alongside Swiss filmmakers Barbet Schroeder, Anne-Fré-dérique Widmann, Germinal Roaux and Fernand Melgar and Sabine Gisiger. Abigail Disney et AïssaMaïga chair the CreativeDocumentaries & Fictions

The FIDFH Forum continues its exploration of strong social movements that redraw thecontours of human rights in the world. It will, from the outset, make a statement with a mes-sage from the High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’Ad Al Hussein. The openingfilm, Rupert Russell’s Freedom For The Wolf plunges into new forms of resistance thatemerge as democracy and fundamental freedoms are threatened by a resurgence of autho-ritarianism. It will also celebrate the work of human rights defenders, more and more oftenrestricted by systematic repression : an environmental activist is murdered every two days inthe world ; in Turkey, six journalists have just been sentenced to life imprisonment.

New ways of enacting justice will be explored, notably through the principle of an universaljurisdiction that offers hope to the victims of the Franco regime, despite an amnesty lawin Spain. This debate will follow the screening of The Silence of Others by AlmudenaCarracedo and Robert Bahar. The impunity that reigns in Mexico will be denounced, no-tably with a statement from the actor Gael García Bernal. Moreover, Nicolás Maduro’sleft-wing terror campaign in Latin America will be debated, particularly in the presence ofLuisa Ortega Diaz, Attorney-General, who was forced into exile. The Forum will also look atLibya, where rape as a weapon of war is practiced on a large scale, on both men and women :Cécile Allegra will present the world premiere of Libye - Anatomie d’un crime.

Global warming and migration compel us to rethink our vision of the world and ouractions. People displaced by natural disasters are not recognized by international law, andurgent action is needed. A cry of alarm amplified by the Ambassador of Fiji in Geneva andhead of the COP23 negotiations, the Bangladeshi president of the Global Military Advi-sory Council on Climate Change and the Deputy Director of the IOM. The migration cri-sis has profoundly transformed Europe, dividing our societies. Should we rethink ourasylum policies?

Technology facilitates freedom of speech, as in the case of the #MeToo movement that willbe the subject of an evening with activists Caroline de Haas and Marai Larasi. But tech-nology can also, when manipulated, empty it of its meaning. From artificial intelligence tosocial networks, to the development of lethal autonomous weapons, the role and influenceof big tech on democracy, human rights and the future of conflicts will also be carefullyexamined by renowned experts Stephen Goose - founder of the “Stop Killer Robots” cam-paign - essayist Evgeny Morozov - criticizing the evolution of Silicon Valley - and Lorna McGregor, founder of a university research center on technologies and human rights.

We will also be discussing gender identities with an evening dedicated to the strugglesof intersex people, with the presence of model Hanne Gaby Odiele and Olympic athleteDutee Chand.

Finally, the Forum will return to what is still considered as an utopia, the advent of an un-conditional basic income, familiar to the Swiss. Benoît Hamon will be on stage alongsideGuy Standing, one of the historical theoreticians of the concept.

Filmmaker, philanthropist and activist Abigail Disney chairs the “Creative Documentaries”jury alongside Marie-Pierre Gracedieu, publisher at Gallimard, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy,Pakistani journalist and filmmaker who won two Oscars, filmmaker Teresa Villaverde andphotographer Christian Lutz. They will award the Grand Prize of Geneva, offered by theCity and the Canton of Geneva (10,000 CHF) and the Sergio Vieira de Mello Prize (5’000CHF), offered by the Barbara Hendricks Foundation.

The “Fictions Competition” Jury is chaired by the actress Aïssa Maïga, who has workedwith the greatest international filmmakers, along with Omar Hamilton, author of the novel,The City Always Wins following the Egyptian revolution, now available in French, the South

African filmmaker Khalo Matabane and lawyer Philippe Cottier. They will give the GrandPrix for Fiction, offered by the Barbour Foundation (10’000 CHF). The trophies of the Festivalare designed by the artist Clément Brazille, alumni of the HEAD.

The best of internationalcinema dedicated to hu-man rights

The FIFDH notably features among others, award-winning documentary and fiction filmsfrom major international festivals, such as Cannes (In the Fade by Fatih Akin, awarded BestFemale Performance to Diane Kruger), the Venice Film Festival for Les Versets de l’ou-bli by Alireza Khatami, Sundance with Bernadett Tuza-Ritter’s A Woman Captured, andthe Amsterdam Film Festival (IDFA) for The Distant Barking of Dogs by Simon LerengWilmont, The Deminer by Hogir Hirori’s and The Other Side of Everything by Mila

Turajlic, which explores Serbia’s past.

An exceptional event: the actress Vanessa Redgrave will present her first film as a director,Sea Sorrow, shown in the official selection at the last Cannes Film Festival. Also on theprogram is Matthew Heineman’s highly anticipated City of Ghosts, Razzia by Nabil Ayouch,Notre Enfant by Diego Lerman, and Armando Iannucci’s dark comedy The Death of Stalin,starring Steve Buscemi, which was banned in Russia.

The FIFDH also offers cinematographic discoveries by engaged artists, such as I Am Trulya Drop of Sun on Earth by Georgian-born filmmaker Elene Naveriani, Black Cop by CoryBowles, and Matar a Jesús by Laura Mora, which recounts with incredible strength thespiral of violence in Colombia. The FIFDH is co-organizing Talking HEADS / Meeting withFilipino filmmaker Lav Diaz, as well as a retrospective of his work with the HEAD-Geneva.

Among the world premieres: Guerre de l’info: Au cœur de la machine russe by PaulMoreira, which deals with Russia’s new propaganda weapons and its networks of influence.

Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be at the FIFDH to speak about her book DearIjeawele, or a feminist manifesto in fifteen suggestions, translated into 43 languages.The book will be read by women in their mother tongue, comprising 15 languages in all.Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will translate and read one of the chapters in her own language,Igbo. The event will be staged by Nalini Menamkat, organized with Gallimard editions, and

followed by a conversation with the author.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this editionalso marks an important milestone in the Human Rights Film Tour, which the FIFDH is or-ganizing with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and the UN High Commissioner forHuman Rights. (OHCHR), across 45 countries.

The FIFDH will also partner with the OHCHR for an online campaign for human rights:

#standup4humanrights

In addition to its essential educational program that reaches 3000 students throughout theCanton of Geneva, the Festival offers for the first time a session reserved for children accom-panied by their parents: At the Philosophers’ School by Fernand Melgar, followed bya discussion with the filmmaker and the poet Daniel Tammet, known for having recited thefirst 22’500 decimals of Pi.

The Festival also features Eric Gravel’s Crash Test Aglaé, as well as Breadwinner, ananimated film produced by Angelina Jolie and nominated for the 2018 Oscars. Finally, theMaison de la Créativité offers cooperative games for children up to 6 years old.

The International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH), created in 2003 inGeneva, is the most important international event dedicated to cinema and human rights.Since 2017, it has established a Foundation, presided by Bruno Giussani, alongside MarieHeuzé, Antonella Notari Vischer, Aude Py, Yves Daccord, Jacques de Saussure and Me. CyrilTroyanov.

The FIFDH is based on a unique concept: to present great films followed by internationaldebates, that are open to the public and broadcasted on the internet, which deal freely withpressing topics during the March session of the UN Human Rights Council.

With a stable budget of 1.8 million francs, it is supported this year by 155 partners, includingimportant new partners: the European Parliament, the Fondation pour Genève, les éditionsGallimard, the Musée de l’Elysée, the Sesam Foundation and the Ecole Supérieure de bande

Barbara Hendricks, LeilaAlaouf, Aïssa Maïga andtwelve women fromGeneva alongside Chima-manda Ngozi Adichie for apublic reading

Three events to celebratethe 70th anniversary ofthe Universal Declarationof Human Rights

Program foryoung audiences

A rapidlyexpanding Festival

CONTACTS

Pierre-Yves Walder

Media Development Manager

py.walder@fifdh.org

+41 78 836 72 39

Luisa Ballin fifdh.org
Media Relations
l.ballin@fifdh.org twitter.com/fifdh+41 79 649 71 45

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