Climate change, armed conflicts, the precariousness of working conditions and bullying will star in the new edition of the Barcelona Film and Human Rights Festival, the festival that has established itself as an international reference for directors who seek to denounce, from the audiovisual, human rights violations in the world. And the 2023 edition will have a guest of honor. Yemeni journalist Tawakkol Karman, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her defense of women’s rights and her role in the Arab Spring, will give a talk that will open this meeting. The activist will also participate in the screening of the short film Bride in Minefield, by Hanah Saleh, a piece produced by Women Without Chains, an organization chaired by Karman.
On this occasion, 23 films from fifteen countries will be responsible for making visible violations of human rights and freedoms in different corners of the world. One of the examples is The invisible-Modern Slavery in Europe. This documentary, directed by Swiss director Sven Rufe, brings to light the working conditions of hundreds of workers in the berry harvest in Huelva. Through testimonies and unpublished images it shows what happens in this million-dollar business.
Another topic that cannot be missed in the 20th edition of this festival is the climate emergency. The film Extinction Emergency, directed by Sigurjón Sighvatsson and Scott Hardie, shows the environmental problems based on the fight of activists Gayle Bradbrook and Roger Hallam, who have formed a global movement that pressures governments to prioritize the climate agenda, and urge them to get out of inaction.
On the other hand, Novorossiya, a documentary directed by Luca Gennari and Enrico Parent about the conflict in Ukraine, will be screened. Through images taken in the Donbass, they seek to show the world what the daily life of people who live in a place where bombings abound is like.
And one of the Catalan representatives who will be at this festival is Carlos Puig Mundó, who will present the short film Un dia més. The young director, who suffers from Nystagmus, brings a film inspired by some of his experiences with bullying that shows the life of a high school student with visual disabilities and the discrimination he receives for this. Also on the same theme of bullying comes A Tropical Boy, a Korean production directed by Lee Jihyeoung that shows the story of Hano, a 14-year-old teenager who is a recurring victim of bullying at his school.
Although films are the highlight of the festival, a program of round tables has also been organized that will discuss social rights, freedom of the press, the environment and the right to food and will feature speakers such as social activist Diosdado Toledano, spokesperson of the Guaranteed Income commission, Oihana Goiriena, wife of Spanish journalist Pablo González, who was imprisoned in Poland in 2022, after being accused of collaborating with the Russian Government, and Jofre Carnicer, researcher at the Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications.
The festival, which brings films that “denounce the abuse and systematic violations of human rights,” as Toni Navarro, director of the contest, points out, will end on December 10 when awards are given in the following categories: feature film, short film fiction, documentary short film, photography, art direction, script, Catalan film and environmental film.
