Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2021
Wednesday, May 19 - Thursday, May 27, 2021
For 2021, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival presents its second full digital edition. Co-presented by IFC Center, one of the festival’s long-time cinema venue partners, HRWFF will again feature in-depth online discussions with filmmakers, film subjects, and Human Rights Watch researchers.
Available to screen across the US, this year’s program of 10 films reflects the festival’s ethos of celebrating representation, and diversity of content and perspective. The festival strives to prioritize space for identities, viewpoints, forms of expertise and experiences either silenced or marginalized in the film industry, news, and media and invite you to further engage with these critical topics during our free, in-depth, live discussions that accompany each film. See below for the complete program.
Tickets are $9 for the general public, $8 for IFC Center members. A festival pass, good for all 10 films in the lineup, is available for $70. Access to screenings will be available during the film festival dates of May 19-27, 2021. Audiences also have the opportunity to join free, live online Q&A’s with the filmmakers, Human Rights Watch experts and special guests.
Check out a special welcome letter from our Human Rights Watch Film Festival programming team.
To purchase tickets, for film and Q&A details, and to access program updates, click the individual film titles below or visit https://www.hrwfilmfestivalstream.org.
Forget Me Not — Opening Night
Dir. Olivier Bernier, USA, 2021, documentary, 100min
Live online Q&A on Wednesday, May 19, 8:30pm (EDT) with; Filmmaker Olivier Bernier; Hilda Bernier; Director of Policy, Advocacy & External Affairs, Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network (AWN), Lydia X. Z. Brown; President of Inclusion International, Sue Swenson; and film participant Sabrina Queenan. Moderated by Human Rights Watch Senior Researcher and Advocate in the Disability Rights Division, Carlos Rios-Espinosa.
As 3-year-old Emilio is ready to start school, his family finds itself cornered in the United States’ most segregated education system – New York City public schools. They fight for their son’s right to an inclusive education – where Emilio and other children with disabilities would be taught alongside their classmates without disabilities.
Dir. Ameen Nayfeh, Palestine, 2020, narrative, 96min. In Arabic with English subtitles
Live online Q&A on Sunday, May 23, 2pm (EDT) with Filmmaker Ameen Nayfeh, actor Ali Suliman and producer May Odeh. Moderated by Research Director at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), Sari Bashi.
Mustafa and his wife Salwa are from two Palestinian West Bank villages only 200 meters apart but split by Israel’s separation wall. One day Mustafa gets the call every parent dreads: his son has been in an accident and is in the hospital. Mustafa will do anything to reach him, and after being denied access through the checkpoint on a technicality, he embarks upon a journey to cross the border illegally.
Dir. Eric Daniel Metzgar, USA, 2021, documentary, 95min.
Live online Q&A on Sunday, May 23, 8:30pm (EDT) with Filmmaker Eric Daniel Metzgar, film participant Saroeum Phoung and NYC Restorative Justice Manager at S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership Collective, Melissa Centeno. Moderated by Lawrence Bartley, founder and director of “News Inside,” The Marshall Project.
How much is our society willing to invest to truly change the trajectory of our communities for the better? In Seattle, communities are working to break the cycle of incarceration. A promising new restorative justice program based on Indigenous peace-making circles aims to bring healing to families and communities while reforming the justice system.
Dir. Jennifer Redfearn, USA, 2020, documentary, 85min.
Live online Q&A Thursday, May 30, 8:30pm (EDT) with; Filmmaker Jennifer Redfearn; Film Participant + Program Director, Workforce Development, Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, Malika Kidd; and MomsRising, Senior Campaign Director S. Nadia Hussain. Moderated by Human Rights Watch, US Program, Executive Director, Nicole Austin-Hillery.
In a midwestern US state caught between the opioid epidemic and rising incarceration of women, three unforgettable mothers – Tomika, Lydia, and Amanda – prepare to rejoin their families after years of separation.
Dirs. Sjoerd Van Grootheest & Irene Vélez-Torres, Colombia, 2020, 85min.
Live online Q&A on Saturday, May 22, 8:30pm (EDT) with Filmmakers Sjoerd van Grootheest & Irene Vélez-Torres and Drug Policy Alliance , Executive DirectorKassandra Frederique. Moderated by Human Rights Watch Senior Legal Advisor, Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno.
Abandoned farmers in the coca-growing region of Colombia are forced to organize and fight for a living while in a continued state of war.
Daughter of a Lost Bird — Closing Night
Dir. Brooke Pepion Swaney, USA, 2021, 66min.
Live online Q&A on Wednesday, May 26, 8:30pm (EDT) with Filmmaker Brooke Pepion Swaney (Blackfee/Salish), film participant Kendra Mylenchuk Potter (Lummi) and National Indian Child Welfare Association Founder & Senior Advisor, Terry Cross (Seneca). Moderated by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish & Tulalip) and Adrienne Keene (Cherokee), hosts of podcast “All My Relations”
Kendra Mylnechuk Potter was adopted into a white family and raised with no knowledge of her Native parentage. Serving as both investigator and witness, this beautifully personal film documents Kendra on her journey as a new mother to discover her Native identity.
Dir. Nanfu Wang, USA, 2021, 95min.
Live online Q&A on Monday, May 24, 8:30pm (EDT) with Filmmaker Nanfu Wang and Human Rights Watch China Director, Sophie Richardson. Moderated by Human Rights Watch Chief Communications Officer, Mei Fong
In The Same Breath, directed by Nanfu Wang (One Child Nation), explores the parallel campaigns of misinformation waged by the Chinese and US leadership and their devastating impact on millions of lives since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dir. Alba Sotorra Clua, Spain, 2021, 90min. In Arabic with English subtitles
Live online Q&A on Thursday, May 20, 5pm (EDT) with; Filmmaker Alba Sotorra Clua; Kurdish Feminist Activist, Sevinaz Evdike; Human Rights Watch, Crisis and Conflict Associate Director, Letta Tayler; and Joint Executive Director, Reprieve, Maya Foa. Moderated by Azadeh Moaveni, Author of Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS, and Director of the Gender and Conflict Project, International Crisis Group.
A unique portrait of a group of Western women who pledged their lives to ISIS, but now want to return home to restart their lives. While facing hostile journalists and governments who have left them de-facto stateless, the women confront their truths and try to heal from their trauma in a locked camp in northeast Syria, with the help of Kurdish women’s rights activists.
Tacheles – The Heart of the Matter
Dirs. Jana Matthes & Andrea Schramm, Germany, 2020, 104min. In German, Hebrew and English with English subtitles
Live online Q&A on Saturday, May 22, 2pm (EDT) with; Filmmakers Jana Matthes & Andrea Schramm; film participant Yaar Harell; and Germany Director at Human Rights Watch, Wenzel Michalski.
A painful confrontation with history opens up old family wounds as 21-year-old Yaar asks: what does the Holocaust have to do with me?
Dir. Ashley O’Shay, USA, 2020, 86min.
Live online Q&A n Thursday, May 20, 8:30pm (EDT) with Filmmaker Ashley O’Shay and film participants Bella BAHHS & Janaé Bonsu. Moderated by author and Editor-in-Chief of RaceBaitr, Hari Ziyad
A profound and necessary story ripe for a countrywide, and indeed a world-wide, reckoning with racial injustice. After two Black Chicagoans, Rekia Boyd and Laquan McDonald, are killed by police, the Movement for Black Lives demands justice and organizes to challenge an administration complicit in violence against its residents.