Human Rights Docfest opens in Toronto

Docfest is an initiative of Journalist for Human Rights (jhr). The organization has worked in 15 countries, now assisting local media organizations to reach 20 million people a week with human rights information. In Canada, jhr has estab­lished 25 Chapters (or clubs) at post-secondary institutions across the country actively engaging over 20% of Canada’s journalism students in human rights reporting. jhr has offices in Toronto (Canada), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Monrovia (Liberia).

Festival Program:

FRIDAY JULY 23 at 6 pm

Seeking Refuge - Director: Karen Cho. “Some 30 000 people seek asylum in Canada every year: this is the story of five of them as they journey through our complex refugee system."

FEATURING: Panel Discussion with Ben Peterson, Co-Founder and Executive Director of jhr (Journalists for Human Rights). Jennifer Hyndman: Associate Director, Research in the Centre for Refugee Studies at York and Paul St. Clair, Executive Director, Roma Community Centre, Community Scholar for the Centre of Refugee Studies

SATURDAY, JULY 24 at 6 pm

Denendeh - Director: Kent Morrison and Karin Yeske. Forced isolation and assimilation of aboriginal peoples stole their identity and independence, leaving them at the mercy of the ‘superior culture.’ This system has failed, creating turmoil, suspicion, and dysfunction. Outsiders have again injected themselves into La Loche in an attempt to solve the problem, one originally of their making. The European attitude of “we know best,” shrouded in best intentions, is not working and no one is talking about it.

Breaking the Silence: Inside Burma’s Resistance. Director: Pierre Mignault and Helen Magny. After the unrest that was carried to the world by street-shot cell phone images, the Burmese dictatorship pledged ‘free’ elections in 2010. Undercover, Quebec filmmakers Pierre Mignault and Hélène Magny clandestinely were able to enter one of Burma’s most dangerous zones, penetrating into the heart of the Karen Nation, where civil war has been waging for 60 years. Breaking the Silence: Inside Burma’s Resistance demonstrates the strength of the Burmese people’s resistance and takes us deep into the country, disclosing the secret networks of militants fighting along the Thai border.

FEATURING: Panel Discussion with Karin Yeske, Director of Denendeh, Jefferson Sackey, award winning Ghanaian Journalist

SUNDAY, JULY 25 at 1 pm

Audition. Director: Nelofer Pazira. When Afghan-Canadian director Nelofer Pazira returns to Bamiyan, Afghanistan for the screening of the award-winning film she collaborated on, The Giant Buddhas, she is shocked to see a crowd or 2,000 and astonished that many are women. Inspired, she decides to audition locals for a film. The men are eager, enthusiastically laughing and dying on command. The women are intrigued, but reticent, fearing retribution. When they do perform, it is with riveting authenticity. Pazira asks the men and women pointed questions, challenging their preconceptions and renegotiating the balance of power and control. Equal parts fascinating cultural intervention, exploration of the camera’s gaze, this multilateral excavation of a society straddling two worlds uses cinema as a mirror to reflect the underlying tensions between power, tradition, ethics, and honor.

FEATURING: Panel Discussion with Alan Black, Filmmaker and  HotDocs Organizer, Minoo Derayeh, PhD, Departments of Humanities and Equity Studies, Specialist on Islam, World Religions, and Gender Studies.

For details visit http://hrdocfest2010.wordpress.com.