Rights, Camera, Action - Human Rights Film Festival
3 December 2007 at 1:08 pm
Human rights issues will hit the big screen with the inaugural Human Rights Arts and Film Festival taking place in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth in December 2007.
The brainchild of Australia Volunteers International (AVI) Youth Volunteer Janna Hayes and HRAFF coordinators Evelyn Tadros and Naziath Mantoo, AVI will be joining organisations such as Oxfam, Austcare, The Monthly, Youth Challenge Australia, Triple R and Caritas Australia to support this "first of its kind in Australia" event.
According to Hayes, the festival director, the festival aims to promote a shift in human rights dialogue in Australia.
Hayes says the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival will not only bring human rights to the big screen it will promote how individuals, communities and organisations are addressing these issues.
She says it will also show the Australian public what actions are being undertaken in Australia and around the globe and what they are actually achieving.
As a supporter, AVI will be holding stalls at both HRAFF’s Melbourne and Sydney events. At the HRAFF event at the Peats Ridge Festival, AVI will also present three films tackling a range of human rights issues in PNG, the Middle East and the Thai/Burma border. These films include:
– The Kokoda Trail: More than Just a War Memorial, produced by Halcyon Films and featuring AVI’s first group of AVI Youth Program participants
– Chronic Emergency: Health and Human Rights in Eastern Burma, produced by the Back Pack Health Worker Team an organisation working with refugees on the Thai/Burma border; and
– Like Water, Like Air, produced by the Danish Refugee Council in Lebanon to increase awareness of the plight of non-ID Palestinian refugees.
The Human Rights Arts and Film Festival is open to one and all. The dates are:
Melbourne
Film Festival
29 November – 2 December @ RMIT Capitol Theatre, 133 Swanston St, Melbourne
Sydney
Launch
6 December from 6pm @ Chauvel Cinema, Paddington Town Hall
Cnr Oxford St & Oatley Rd, Sydney. Featuring the Sydney Street Choir.
Peats Ridge Festival
28 December – 1 January @ the Rights, Camera, Action! Stage
Peats Ridge Festival Glenworth Valley, NSW
Perth
Film Festival
9 – 10 December @ the Film and Television Institute, Perth
For more details and to buy tickets visit www.hraff.org.au
