8e Amnesty International Filmfestival Amsterdam, Utrecht en Den Haag 8 t/m 12 maart 2006 Programma Film Opens Eyes! The Amnesty International Film Festival is a series of film stories about exceptional, ordinary, vulnerable and powerful people. About their lives, their rights and their dignity. Stories that have been told to us by filmmakers from all over the world. We see what they see and experience new journeys through their lenses. The festival will present films that call on your empathy and invite you to think and evaluate. From Wednesday 8 till Sunday 13 March, we will sit and talk with filmmakers, human rights activists, experts and with you, the audience. The 8th Amnesty International Film Festival is the first event organised by the Movies thatMatter Foundation. Movies that Matter is an independent section of the Amnesty Film Festival division. Movies that Matter wants to reach the public, opinion leaders and policymakers and make them conscious of the human rights issues and situations in which these rights and human dignity are in discussion. The medium of film is a perfect tool for this purpose. Film fascinates, incites, inspires and gives insight. Films give us more to think about. Feature films, documentaries, short films and animations are able to resist indifference. Therefore Movies that Matter wants to open eyes to the world around us with films. Movies that Matter will be seen at the Amnesty International Film Festival and on the human rights film programmes of the IDFA and the Rotterdam Film Festival. The Foundation will release the winning films of these programmes in the Netherlands. Every evening at about 21.00pm Movies that Matter will present a film at De Uitkijk in Amsterdam. There is a national Movies that Matter programme in several Dutch film theatres and also a national educational film programme. To conclude, Movies that Matter helps films to be shown abroad. You could say, Movies that matter, where they matter most. The aim is to show the film in the country that is the subject, where the issues are topical and where the film encounters restrictions. The Movies that Matter Foundation is supported by Amnesty International, Foundation DOEN, Hivos-NCDO Cultural Foundation and the VSB foundation. The programme in alfabetical order The complete time schedule Vanessa Redgrave guest of honour in Chechnya programme The Hague and Utrecht Tsotsi VARA prize awarded by the public Jury members MovieSquad-AllRightS Award needed Movies that Matter Lectures Movies that Matter Screenings Do the Rights Thing Cinema without Borders Programme (alfabetical order) Avenge But One of My Two Eyes   Avi Mograbi     Before Dawn   Bálint Kenyeres     Beyond Reasonable Doubt   Mina Vidakovic     Children of Beslan   Ewa Ewart & Leslie Woodhead     China Blue   Micha X. Peled     Coca: Die Taube aus Tschetschenien   Eric Bergkraut     Dans, Grozny Dans   Jos de Putter     De nadie   Tin Dirdamal     Dialogues in the Dark   Melek Ulagay Taylan     Drie Kameraden / Three Comrades   Masja Novikova     Gaza Strip   James Longley     Gevallen Engel/Fallen Angel   Masja Novikova     Gitmo -The New Rules of War   Erik Gandini & Tarik Saleh     Hotel Rwanda   Terry George     In the Morning   In the Morning     Iraq in Fragments   James Longley     KZ   Rex Bloomstein     Lieber Muslim…   Kerstin Nickig     No More Tears Sister   Helene Klodawsky     Operation Spring   Angelika Schuster & Tristan Sindelgruber     Out of Status   Pia Sawhney, Sanjna Singh     Overleven in NL – Vandaag is net als Gisteren (Surviving in the NL – Today Is Just Like Yesterday)   Lotje Ijzermans     Russia/Chechnya: Voices of Dissent   Carlo Nero     Shooting Dogs   Michael Caton-Jones     Sisters in Law   Kim Longinotto & Florence Ayisi     Source   Martin Marecek     State of Fear   Pamela Yates     Three Steps to Salvation   Orhan Kerkezi     Toro negro   Pedro González-Rubio & Carlos Armella     Toti/Roy   Duco Tellegen     Tsotsi   Gavin Hood     Un matin bonne heure   Gahité Fofana     Unveiled   Angelina Maccarone     Weisse Raben - Alptraum Tschetschenien   Johann Feindt & Tamara Trampe     The White Elephant   Alexandra Indaco     Zero Degree   Omid Khoshnazar

The complete time schedule

Vanessa Redgrave - Guest of Honour and the Chechnya programme
'Blind spot 'Chechnya'

British actress and human rights activist, Vanessa Redgrave is Guest of Honour at the 8th Amnesty International Film Festival. Ms Redgrave will open the festival and present the documentary Russia/Chechnya: Voices of Dissent, a collaboration between herself and her son filmmaker Carlo Nero. Ms Redgrave sent the film to all the members of the British House of Commons and Lords, in an attempt to open their eyes. She laments that they seem to be blind to these pressing issues.

At the opening evening Ms Redgrave will talk about the role film can play in influencing policy and public opinion. It will be the opening speech of the Movies that Matter Foundation.

Debate Soviet dissident Bukovsky and Redgrave

Vanessa Redgrave and Carlo Nero will take part in the debates on the Chechen conflict. Writer and human rights activist Vladimir Bukovsky will also participate. As a dissident Mr Bukovsky spent twelve years in prisons and labour camps in the Soviet Union. He has a series of novels and political essays to his name in which he not only criticises the Soviet Union but also the weakness of liberalism in the west with respect to communism.

Thursday 9 March at Filmhuis Den Haag. 19.00pm Voices of Dissent, 22.00pm.
Friday 10 March at Cinerama Amsterdam. 19.00pm Voices of Dissent, 22.00pm debate.

Voices of Dissent is one of seven festival films about Chechnya. In Wordt Vervolgd, Amnesty´s magazine, Ms Redgrave criticises Europe´s attitude to the Russian-Chechen wars. 'Not only is it shameful that the European Union is hardly concerned about Chechnya, it is also incomprehensible. Naturally, dependence on Russian oil and gas plays a role, just like the wish to be an ally in the war against terrorism. But this cannot be the whole explanation. Europe is blind, that is the only reason I can think of.'

Ms Redgrave is worried not only about the human rights in Chechnya, but also about the future of human right organisations in Russia, some of which she financially supports. She has been involved with human rights in Eastern Europe for a long time. In the Soviet days she devoted herself to dissidents, later to victims of the battle in Bosnia, reason why she stayed in besieged Sarajevo several times. Since October 1999, when Russia started the second war against Chechnya, this region has received her full attention. Therefore she took the costs on herself for the documentary Voices of Dissent, her second collaboration with Carlo Nero. The film explores the (historical) context of the battle in Chechnya, by showing archive pictures and discussions with the ones involved. In the film the counter with the number of victims of the conflict stops at 225,000: 25,000 Russian soldiers, the rest are Chechens.

Jelena Bonner, widow of the renowned Soviet dissident, Andrej Sacharov, is one of the speakers in the film. 'Moscow will not rest before the last Chechen has been murdered', she says. Will the mark not be overshot if the conflict is sketched in such extreme words? Ms Redgrave does not think so. 'Jelena Bonner just wanted to indicate that the battle in Chechnya matches the slaughterings that took place under the czars and when all Chechens were deported under Stalin, at the end of the Second World War.'

Another prominent narrator in the film is, Achmed Zakajev, representative in London of the last independent Chechnyan Government, of which the rebels emanated from. Ms Redgrave arranged for him to come to London to seek asylum. When Russia requested extradition of this ´terrorist´, Ms Redgrave payed for his legal representation. The British courts passed an historical verdict and Zakajev was deemed not a terrorist. The judge said that the bombing-carpetslaid in Chechnya by the Russian air force did not point to a battle against terrorism - contrary to president Putin´s explanation of the affair - but to a war.

'Generally films can make things more clear than a hundred books or readings', says Ms Redgrave who hopes that Voices of Dissent will shake people into action. 'For too long a time there was a blind spot for Chechnya. '

Chechnya in the Picture

At this year's festival, there are seven spectacular documentaries about the conflict to be watched including Children of Beslan, from the maker of Cry from the Grave. And from the Netherlands, Drie Kameraden and Dans, Grozny Dans...

Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic literally means terrible. Unfortunately, it has more than lived up to its name for over a decade. The conflict in Chechnya is full of disappearances, slaughters, torture and abuse of citizens. In most cases the Russian and Chechen authorities did not hold immediate, independent investigations after the claims of violation of the human rights against the civilian population. It is feared the conflict will spread to the neighbouring Ingoesjetië and other areas in North Kaukasus.

Documentaries about the consequences of the wars between the Russian troops and Chechen fighters:
Children of Beslan
Coca: Die Taube aus Tschetschenien
Dans, Grozny Dans
Drie Kameraden
Lieber Muslim
Russia/Chechnya: Voices of Dissent
Weisse Raben- Alptraum Tschetschenien

DEBATE: Video-activist

Coca: Die Taube aus Tschetschenien is a special documentary about Zainap Gashaev, a woman who tries to make a record of the situation in Chechnya, putting her own life at risk. Doing this she is helped by other women, who make video tapes in secret and pass these on to her. As it seems without any affect. The Western world is deaf to their evidence. Zainap calls the war in Chechnya 'the denied war'. She institutes legal proceedings at the European Court for Human Rights. Zainap Gashaev and director Eric Bergkraut will be special guests at the festival.

Sunday March 12 in De Balie, Amsterdam.
12.00 uur Coca: film Die Taube aus Tschetschenien
14.00 uur discussion with director Eric Bergkraut and Zainap Gashaeva

The Hague and Utrecht

This year the Amnesty International Film Festival will take place in The Hague and Utrecht for the first time. Part of the programme will be shown at Filmhuis Den Haag and the Louis Hartlooper Complex. There will also be special programmes for young people and an evaluation session.

Tsotsi

Tsotsi will be shown at the opening night gala and during the festival.

No-go areas. Poor areas full of young people seemingly without a future. These districts are all around the world. Districts with wars between gangs, robbery, theft and murder. Where laws are meaningless and rights do not exist. Where the police are absent and the armyrepressive.
Alexandra in Johannesburg is one such neighbourhood. South Africa is one the most violent countries in the world. This is the country where gang leader Tsotsi tries to survives. His mother died of AIDS and he has a bad relationship with his father. During a robbery Tsotsi accidentally kidnaps a baby. The forced responsibility changes the gangster´s life. This is the beginning of a split between Tsotsi and his criminal friends. New confrontations are inevitable when he attempts to make up for his criminal life.

Tsotsi has been awarded the Oscar for best foreign film. It is a compelling township drama full of stimulating South African kwaito music and dynamic camera style by director Gavin Hood. The film is a symbol for South Africa of today, with its heritage of lawlessness, but also with the prospect of justice.

VARA Prize awarded by the public

For the second year the VARA will be the Amnesty International Film Festival media partner.. The VARA is a progressive and sympathetic broadcasting company with similar principles to the festival.. The VARA thinks that it is important to keep an eye on human rights and considers it as its journalistic responsibility to look at the world around us critically and with guts.

In order to stimulate and celebrate makers of the films and documentaries, the VARA introduced the VARA Prize awarded by the public. The broadcasting company calls on you to give your opinion. You can rate the film(s) using a voting form which you will receive at the entrance of each cinema. The winning film will be awarded the VARA Prize (and amount of € 5.000) on Sunday 12 March.

Juryleden MovieSquad-AllRightS Award gezocht

A jury consisting of young people will give out the MovieSquad- All RightS award to a film from the programme during the festival.

MovieSquad AllRightS is an initiative of the Dutch Institute for Film Education (NIF), in collaboration with the Amnesty International Film Festival. An amount of € 2.000 goes with the prize, to be used to bring the winning film to the attention of young people throughout the Netherlands. The jury will present the first MovieSquad- All RightS Award on Sunday March 12.

Movies that Matter Lectures

For eleven years documentary maker Rex Bloomstein made the programme Human Rights, Human Wrongs for the BBC. His latest film KZ is screening at this year's festival. As editor-in-chief journalist Willem Offenberg signed 125 editions of Amnesty's human rights magazine Wordt Vervolgd and made many film portraits of human rights activists for the Martin Ennals Foundation. Bloomstein and Offenberg are two experts in the field of the media and human rights and they will be giving a Movies that Matter reading at the festival.

Movies that Matter Screenings

From Thursday 9 March De Uitkijk in Amsterdam will show Movies that Matter screenings daily. The first film to screen on 9 March will be the opening night gala film Tsotsi. Later this spring festival film Shooting Dogs with John Hurt will also be shown. The Movies that Matter daily screenings will start at 21.00pm. Schools can get special human rights film lessons at De Uitkijk. If you are interested, please call 020 7733624.

Do the Rights Thing

On the afternoon of Friday 10 March the conference Do the Rights Thing will take place at De Balie. How can films and film lessons fit best into lesson programmes and how can groups collaborate in this field? These questions and more will be discussed at the conference by Amnesty International school workers, representatives of the Dutch Institute of Film Education, education employees of regional and local authorities, Dutch sections of organisations that devote themselves to rights, information and culture for young people and Dutch directors and teachers. For more information about participation, please call 020 7733624.

Cinema without Borders

In addition to filmmakers and human rights activists the festival welcomes a number of special foreign guests. These are people who organise film events about human rights in other parts of the world.. For most, their project is still in its infancy. By participating in the Cinema without Borders programme they can gather knowledge and be introduced to people they can collaborate with. The participants can exchange knowledge, ideas, films and experiences. Besides workshops Cinema without Borders offers a comprehensive Video Library. The Library is also accessible for programmers of Dutch film theatres and students who will organise All RightS school film festivals later this year.