Impact Days '23

Geneva’s FIFDH Impact Days showcased a successful case study revolving around STEPS, a groundbreaking, 360-degree documentary project that aims to promote social change throughout Africa. “War, conflicts, deep inequality, forced displacement, the climate crisis… Never before have we such a responsibility as media creators and human rights activists,” said STEPS’ Don Edkins.

The Impact Days Industry programme of FIFDH (International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights) will this year run 12-14 March. “Through targeted partnerships, its ambition is to use the power of documentary film as a tool for concrete social and policy change,” write organisers. The 21st FIFDH takes place 10-19 March in Geneva.

This week Geneva-based FIFDH Impact Days presented a particularly poignant case study which revolved around the Ukrainian project Peace for Nina and which saw the participation of the project’s director and producer, Ukraine’s Zhanna Maksymenko-Dovhych, and Swiss-Albanian filmmaker Dea Gjinovici, who is also producing.

Dutch Anne Marie Boorsboom of ShareDoc told Business Doc Europe about her innovation that allows audiences to respond immediately – and financially - to the docs they have just watched. “With a QR code at the end of the credits, they can scan it and they can act on their feeling of empathy,” she explained of the potential audience engagement.

The 5th Impact Days of the FIFDH human rights fest opened with an address by Industry Head Laura Longobardi who welcomed guests to “the annual gathering of all those who believe that storytelling can play an essential role in advancing positive values such as human and civil rights, social and environment justice and peacekeeping, right here at the very heart of Geneva, the city of multilateralism, of peace, and, of course, of human rights.”

Polish director Hanka Nobis and producer Esther Van Messel (First Hand Films) pitched their new doc about two young people forced to the margins of Polish society. “The film addresses intersectional issues and we hope to resonate with NGOs and give an opportunity to campaign LGBTQ rights and freedom of expression, as well as the fight of violence against women and other non-binary people.”

The StoryBoard Impact Award (10,000 CHF) was won by My Name Is Happy by Nick Read and Ayse Toprak. The DOCS UP Fund (€1500 plus consultation) went to Scarlet Girls by Paula Cury while The Sublimages Award (translation and subtitles) was handed to Land of Women by Aymar El Amir and Nada Riyadh. After the awards, Impact Head Laura Longobardi reflected on the entire event.

Between March 12-14, Impact Days, the industry programme of FIFDH (International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights) will look to facilitate strategic collaborations between filmmakers and NGOs/governmental organisations, all of whom believe in the power of doc to effect radical change, whether in terms of policy or across society in general. Impact Days chief Laura Longobardi explains her programme’s mission to BDE.