FIFDH Impact Days 24

Doc Society’s Sandra Whipham provided a sobering account March 11 of the current streamer-led documentary landscape, but offered a large measure of hope in urging independent makers to wrestle back financial, executive and creative control. “We need to imagine a new global pool fund where resources are shared equitably to every region, where local experts can make decisions about what and where to spend. Funding this work at scale [and] funding the distribution and impact strategies that we know are effective is the answer to the nightmare of AI-generated content, creative conformity and political retreat we find ourselves in.”

The Geneva-based professional programme, focused on delivering maximum documentary impact, has chosen 16 projects from 21 countries for its next edition running March 10-12 2024. “We truly believe in the power of collaboration to change hearts and minds for human rights,” write organisers. Impact Days is the Industry arm of FIFDH – International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights Geneva which runs March 8-17.

The StoryBoard Impact Award (10,000 CHF) was won by the Peruvian project Hakuchu Munayta by Augusto Zegarra while the Sublimages Impact Award was handed to the Brazilian Brotherhood of Weeping Men by Helena de Castro. An additional 10,000 CHF award was given by StoryBoard, in association with the South Africa-based Sunshine Cinema, to the Kenyan film The Battle for Laikipia.

The webinar is titled ‘Impact Filmmaking for Social Justice: Exposing human rights defenders in films and impact campaigns – risks and benefits’ and will include Zippy Kimundu and Meena Nanji, co-directors of the Kenyan Our Land, Our Freedom (2023). Impact Days (March 10-12) is the Industry arm of FIFDH – International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights Geneva (March 8-17).

After being forced to flee their country after the Taliban takeover of 2021, four charismatic and influential Afghan women are the focus of this immersive, powerful and confrontational documentary. As they adjust to life in a new country away from their culture and the support of their homeland, they fight to place once more the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan at the forefront of world attention.

The 3-day programme Geneva-based event includes a pitch session during which 16 film teams explain their impact goals/strategies. Doc Society’s Sandra Whipham will make the Impact keynote; selected NGOs and international organisations will explain how they work with films and audiovisual content across all formats and platforms, and the impact campaigns for two urgent docs will be placed squarely in the frame. And much more besides. Industry accreditations now open.

In looking to dub The Lion King into Quechua, the language of the Incas, not only is Fernando, a Peruvian voice actor enriching the life of his 8-year old son Dylan, he is also trying to save his indigenous tongue from extinction. “What we aim to do through our film, a joyful story of a very proud indigenous man, is to transform Quechua from a language of the oppressed into a language of power,” said producer Paloma Iturriaga.

The International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (Geneva) presented February 15 the programme for its 22nd edition, which takes place March 8 to 17, 2024. Among the “influential voices of human rights” in attendance will be American activist Angela Davis, Indian economist Jayati Ghosh, and Russian journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitri Mouratov.

On the isolated Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, men perform a very particular ritual. They play football together, and then they cry together. Helena de Castro’s debut doc feature will analyse this fascinating variation on the beautiful game. “If we let ourselves cry because of football, then let's use football to unleash all the [other] things we should cry about,” de Castro told the Geneva audience.

The Geneva-based International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) kicks off March 8, heralding a 10-day focus on human rights and the role cinema can/must play in upholding them. “The strength of an event such as FIFDH lies in its ability to unite those who aid us in deciphering the intricacies of the world, reflect on collective solutions and remind us of the need to take action,” underlines co-director Laura Longobardi.