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FESTIVALS Belgium / Czech Republic

Human rights documentaries travelling to Brussels

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- The Czech human rights documentary festival One World is bringing selected films to Brussels for its ninth edition

Human rights documentaries travelling to Brussels
Children 404 by Pavel Loparev and Askold Kurov

The One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival has built up a special reputation for itself among Czech and Slovakian audiences. The festival, founded and run by non-governmental non-profit organisation People in Need, wrapped its 17th edition in the Czech Republic at the beginning of March, crowning Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence [+see also:
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as Best Film, while a selection of titles from the gathering’s line-up travelled to 33 towns across the country. Now, the Czech Centre in Brussels and People in Need are bringing 17 documentaries from this year’s selection to the Belgian capital from 4-12 May.

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The ninth edition of Brussels’ One World Festival opens with Pavel Loparev and Askold Kurov’s documentary Children 404, which examines the consequences of Vladimir Putin’s “anti-gay” law on Russia’s LGBT youth. Věra Jourová, the European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, is set to introduce the movie, which won the Audience Award at the Mezipatra Queer Film Festival. Children 404 will be in the competition section of the festival, along with the omnibus documentary by young Ukrainian filmmakers Euromaidan. Rough Cut, focusing on the developments in the country; the time-lapse documentary following the protagonist’s coming of age in one of the largest rubbish dumps in Europe, Something Better to Come [+see also:
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; and the behind-the-scenes look at modern warfare and its impacts in Tonje Hessen Schei’s documentary Drone [+see also:
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, among others.

The programme covers current topics such as caricatures in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo tragedy, in Stéphanie Valloatto’s documentary Cartoonists: Foot Soldiers of Democracy [+see also:
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, while filmmaking duo Søren Steen Jespersen and Nasib Farah zoom in on the hot topic of young people joining radical Islamist groups in Warriors from the North. However, sufficient room is also reserved for an examination of local themes that have not yet made world headlines, but which are no less interesting, such as the current political situation in Nicaragua, in A Quiet Inquisition, and students’ struggle to pass the state exam in the Congo in Dieudo Hamadi’s sophomore observational documentary National Diploma [+see also:
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. Discussions with politicians, human rights activists and international NGOs will follow after each screening. The majority of screenings are free of charge, though reservations need to be made beforehand.

The festival’s full line-up can be found here.

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