Purpose:
The Human Rights Film Festival is an initiative that uses the power of the cinema to promote a culture of peace and respect for human rights, becoming a great agent of social change.
The festival aims to inform and raise public awareness of the need for the defence, promotion and respect of human rights, and promotes values as solidarity, respect of life, democracy, cultural diversity, social justice, as well as the rejection of any kind of discrimination, racism and xenophobia.
Stimulus/Rationale:
San Sebastian has been one of the cities in Spain that has been hardest hit by terrorism and violence, which has conditioned coexistence for decades.
In this context, it was necessary for the City Council to put all the means at its disposal to move from the (In) culture of violence to the Culture of Peace, to create the foundations of a framework of coexistence based on respect and defence of human rights.
San Sebastian is also a city with a long cinematographic tradition, with an International Film Festival known throughout the world and thematic festivals that are held throughout the year, with great public acceptance.
Thus, in 2003, within the framework of the programme "San Sebastian, Space for a Culture of Peace", the San Sebastian Film and Human Rights Festival was created. The aim was to place the awareness-raising power of cinema and other artistic disciplines, such as theatre, photography, music and words, at the service of human rights and coexistence.
The Human Rights Film Festival has established itself among the city's cultural events without detracting one iota from its ultimate goal: to offer a critical, plural and committed vision of the great challenges facing humanity through images and debate, and to disseminate values.
The Film and Human Rights Festival is a member of the Human Rights Film Network, an association that brings together the most important human rights festivals in the world.
20 years later, it has established itself as one of the most important festivals in Spain.
Process:
For a week in April, around 50 films are programmed in one of the main theatres of the city, and focus on issues related to the challenges faced by today’s society such as refugees, LGTBi, war and other conflicts, cultural diversity, women, disabilities, etc. At the end of each screening, there is time for dialogue between the main characters and experts on the topic.
Four prizes are awarded: The Human Rights Film Festival Award, recognising the human rights work and involvement of personalities from the cinema world; the Audience Award to the best feature film; the Youth Award to the best short film, with more than 100 young people forming part of the jury; and Amnesty International Award.
The Festival includes other activities such as exhibitions with guided visits, conferences, workshops and music as part of its programme.
In 2023, the festival continued its commitment to accessibility to cinema in all its senses (accessible subtitling and audio description in several sessions), as well as an extraordinary session in the San Sebastian prison).
It also hosted the Fair of Pedagogical Resources on Human Rights organised by Eskura.
The work with schools was also deepened with the elaboration of didactic guides for all the children's and young people's films.
Collaborations
The Festival is organised jointly by the Human Rights Department of San Sebastian City Council and Donostia Kultura. Always with the collaboration of associations in the field of human rights, other municipal departments, entities, institutions, educational centres and citizens in general.
The associations collaborate actively by participating in the colloquiums that follow the films, proposing and programming exhibitions, guided tours, online games, talks, etc., which form part of the programme. Always with human rights as the common thread.
The educational centres participate every year, taking more than 4,000 schoolchildren to the morning film sessions, which are followed in the classrooms, where the themes of the films are explored in depth through didactic guides.
The universities facilitate the participation of their students in the Youth Jury by collaborating in the dissemination and awarding of university credits.
Blind and deaf people's associations advise and disseminate accessible sessions.
Penitentiary Institutions facilitate the possibility of bringing the cinema to the prison, where the inmate staff also have the possibility of holding a discussion with the protagonists of the films or with experts in the subjects addressed in the films.
Impact:
The festival has contributed, together with other civic, cultural, social and citizens' programmes and initiatives of the territory, to Donostia being elected European Capital of Culture in 2016, precisely with the slogan "Culture for Coexistence".
The festival has also been able to create a network of partners, both institutional and from the civil society, associations, universities and private citizens, who enrich the programme and ensure its growth, success and impact. Participating as partners of the festival are: Acnur, Unicef, Cear, Gehitu, Coordinadora de ONGD de Euskadi, Amnesty International, SOS Racismo, Asociación Internacional de Educadores para la Paz, Cátedra Unesco de Derechos Humanos de la UNAM de México, FiSahara and Human Rights Film Network.
In terms of quantitative impact, every year more than 15.000 people participate in those activities, out of which 4.000 are children and young people. Cinema has proven to be an attractive, effective and transformative tool for raising awareness of different realities, cultures, human rights violations, discriminations and social conquests, as it directly appeals to emotions and therefore invites action.
The questionnaires sent to us by the educational centres show the success of the initiative to contribute to improving coexistence in the classroom, which has become an obligatory event in their calendar.
The associations strive to programme within the festival and to put their knowledge and contacts at its service, because they know that the impact is greater in a consolidated and recognised event such as this one.
The young people who take part in the youth jury are grateful to us for having the opportunity to get closer to social cinema, which changes their perspective on the world, on relationships...
The fact that accessible sessions are programmed and those that are transferred to the prison have an impact on an audience that has less access to culture,
The fact that we participate in the Human Rights Film Network gives us an international window and an impact beyond our borders.
Key reference documents: The festival’s website
