Human Rights Watch Film Festival

CANADIAN PREMIERE OF ALI SAMADI’S STUNNING THE GREEN WAVE OPENS 8TH ANNUAL HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL

(Toronto, December 21, 2010) – The Canadian premiere of Ali Samadi’s documentary The Green Wave, about the tumultuous Iranian presidential elections in 2009, will open the 8th annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival, co-presented with TIFF, on February 22, 2011 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. The festival will run until March 4.

“We present an outstanding lineup of films to inform us and to remind us of human rights issues around the world,” said Helga Stephenson, chairperson of the festival. “We hope to use the Human Rights Watch Film Festival as a springboard for discussion, inspiring people to speak up for those who cannot.”

The programme includes Thet Sambath and Rob Lemkin’s Academy Award®-shortlisted Enemies of the People, which documents in detail the killings that overshadowed Cambodia for years; Laura Poitras’ award-winning The Oath is a complex portrait of Yemen as seen through the eyes of Osama Bin Laden’s driver; and Luc Côté and Patricio Henriquez’s You Don’t Like the Truth, which documents the interrogation of the child soldier Omar Khadr by Canadian agents.

Zeina Daccache’s 12 Angry Lebanese focuses on a theatre production of 12 Angry Men performed by inmates of a Lebanese prison and demonstrates what alternate programs can accomplish in the prison system, and Justin Chadwick’s The First Grader follows an 84-year-old ex-Mau Mau rebel’s efforts to become educated.

Mikael Wiström and Alberto Herskovits’ Familia is the story of Naty, a mother who must leave her family in Peru to work in Spain in order to support them; Illégal is Olivier Masset-Depasse’s harrowing account of living in the new internment camps for illegal immigrants in Belgium; Oliver Schmitz’s Life, Above All follows Chanda, a 12-year-old girl who must take on the responsibility for her entire family in a small AIDS-ravaged South African township; and When We Leave is Feo Aladag’s emotional account of a highly publicized honour killing in Berlin in 2005.

The Opening Reception, hosted by the Human Rights Watch Canada Committee, will be held at 6pm on Tuesday, February 22, prior to the screening at 8pm. Tickets are $100.

The Closing Reception, hosted by the Human Rights Watch Toronto Network, will take place on Friday, March 4 prior to the 8pm screening. To purchase tickets for either reception, please call the Human Rights Watch office, 416-322-8448.

Tickets to the Human Rights Watch Film Festival go on sale to members on January 5 and to non-members on January 18.  Tickets can be purchased online at tiff.net, by phone at 416-599-TIFF (8433) and 1-888-599-8433 or in person at TIFF Bell Lightbox Box Office, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West, Toronto. 

Human Rights Watch is one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For over 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world. Human Rights Watch Canada thanks Deluxe Postproductions for its support.

The Canada Committee

The Human Rights Watch Canada Committee was formed in 2002 and is part of a network of committees across 18 cities in Europe, Asia and North America. These committees seek to increase awareness of local and global human rights issues, and enlist the public and influence governments to support basic rights for all. Composed of opinion leaders and activists from a variety of backgrounds, the committee was formed out of the belief that an engaged constituency is essential for the defense of human rights. Canada Committee members are regularly briefed by Human Rights Watch investigators, senior government officials and informed observers. The committee strengthens Human Rights Watch and its global defense of essential liberties by contributing financially, attracting potential supporters and promoting the organization’s message.

HRW Canada Office is led by director Jasmine Herlt, the director, (herltj@hrw.org) and Samantha Ash, coordinator, (ashs@hrw.org)