Human Rights Watch Film Festival (HRWFF) Overview – Toronto 2013

Toronto’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2013

Update March 12 2013: The reviews of all movies have been added to the bottom of this article.

February 23 2013 – A flourish of unvarnished cinematic images, emotions and human conditions flavour this years program at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival (HRWFF) in Toronto and  T-Mak World will be there.  This socially conscious 10 day festival has a provocative aesthetic that challenges film goers to not only watch but act.

The fight for human rights never ends with issues the festival tackles issues such as; the exploitation of migrant workers in Russia, suppressed Somalian rape victims, Syrian civil war atrocities, injustices for LGBT in US prisons and the police abuse of indigenous women in Northern B.C. Almost unbelievably though, subversion and obfuscation by governments and organizations around the world to these atrocities continue to play out. The good news though is the ability for nonprofits like Human Rights Watch Canada (HRWC) in collaboration with festivals like the HRWFF to raise our collective consciousnesses, expose oppression and shine a light on variations of the global human condition. It is these awakenings through film that have become the agent for change.

Putins Kiss – PHOTO CREDIT – Kino Lorber

For the past 10 years the HRWFF has dedicated itself to providing a platform for outstanding documentaries and feature films that shed much needed light on passionate stories of injustice and human rights around the world with a mandate to raising public awareness.  The HRWFF has become the flagship outreach vehicle for HRWC, growing to become its second highest fundraising event. Through its partnership with The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the cache it brings, HRWC has helped the HRWFF grow from 5 films in 2004 to 10 films each year since 2011. In 2012 there were over 2000 people in attendance.  Its a numbers game that can yield some hidden gems with the festival programming committee screening in excess of 500 films, including Academy Award™ winning, Born Into Brothels (HRWFF 2005) and Taxi to the Dark Side (HRWFF 2008).  This years festival includes Academy Award™ nominated film,  No.  Directed by Pablo Larrain, No is about the fall of General Augusto Pinochet’s regime in Chile.

World No Tours – PHOTO CREDIT – TIFF Film Reference Library

Helming a festival of this magnitude takes a special kind of devotion that allows it to not only survive but thrive for 10 glorious years. This year, Magali Simard, Programmer, TIFF has assembled the award winning line up bar none. Along with industry stalwarts Jasmine Herlt, Canadian Director of Human Rights Watch, and Helga Stephenson, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and the Human Rights Watch Toronto Film Festival Chair backing the festival, future growth is most certainly assured.

Click the link HRWFF for the full schedule on this year’s festival.