We are delighted to announce the shortlist of six outstanding entries to the 2015 ICCL Human Rights Film Awards, which will be screened at our national Gala Screening in Dublin’s Light House Cinema on Thursday 18 June, where the Grand Prize winner will be announced.
Moving Lives: Misan
Director: Simon Hipkins
Producers: Simon Hipkins, Aine O’Brien, Val Bogan
Moving Loves: Misan, directed by London based film director and writer Simon Hipkins, tells the story of an Irish citizen, father and bus driver working in Dublin. Misan fled his country of birth at a young age due to armed conflict, but that is all we are told about his past. Looking to the future, Misan now sees Ireland as his home. This documentary explores some of the challenges he faces, particularly the racial abuse he regularly experiences while on his Dublin Bus route. People say ‘go back to your own Country’ says Misan, adding wryly ‘that’s a bit funny because Ireland is my country. Misan is part of the Immigrant Council of Ireland’s Moving Lives series that uses interactive film portraits to draw attention to issues of racism, integration, human trafficking and family reunification.
Moving Lives: Misan from Key Pictures on Vimeo.
Let the Devil Sleep
Directors: Alan Whelan, Eoghan Rice and Elena Hermosa
Just over twenty years ago, Rwanda witnessed a genocidal killing spree that left nearly one million people dead, and many more with long-lasting trauma and injury. Such was the brutality of the Genocide that long after the killing had ended, the question remained: how could the people of Rwanda ever be reconciled?
Filmed in Gikongoro and Kigali between January and February 2014, Let the Devil Sleep follows two Tutsi women, Marie Mukagasana and Frida Kamuizma, who in 1994 were persecuted, subjected to horrific violence and who lost family members at the hands of Hutu militias. It also follows Jean Baptiste Gatera and Juvenal Moudenge – neighbours of these women – who took an active part in the genocidal violence that swept the country. Through a series of calm and reflective testimonies delivered individually and together, this documentary tells the story of these four individuals’ unlikely journey of confession, forgiveness and reconciliation.
Note: the below video is an extended cut of the film entered to the competition, which was 12 minutes in duration.
Let the Devil Sleep: Rwanda 20 Years After Genocide from Trocaire on Vimeo.
Nightmare
Director: Bob Gallagher
Producers: Zlata Filipovic, Anna Rodgers
While following of the Marriage Equality referendum, Ireland is set to be one of the most progressive countries in the world for the recognition of gender identity, Transgender citizens across Europe continue to face significant challenges to vindicate their rights. Commissioned by Transgender Europe, Nightmare puts these challenges into fast-paced and dramatic perspective, illustrating the many bureaucratic and medical barriers placed before Transgender citizens in order for their gender identity to be recognised. These include obligatory sterilisation, enforced divorce and the requirement of a diagnosis of mental illness. What may seem like a nightmare to most European citizens is a reality for many others.
34 Countries in Europe Make This Nightmare a Reality (video made for Transgender Europe, 2015) from Invisible Thread on Vimeo.
Where is Don?
Director: More Raca
Producer: Sunaj Raca
Panic and apprehension are the emotions that dominate the 10 minute duration of the short film Where is Don? However for many journalists and human rights defenders, such feelings do not just last the length of a short film, but are constant. Around the world, journalists and activists face persecution and severe danger for exercising the right to free expression. Such dangers are often compounded due to the inaction or complicity of the authorities. Filmmaker and women’s rights activist More Raca explores this phenomenon in her native Kosovo, telling the tense tale of a journalist living in constant fear of threats, harassment and intimidation due to her writing.
Where is Don? from ICCL Human Rights Film Awards on Vimeo.
Barcelone ba Barsakh
Directors: Nacho Gil cid De Diego & Cristina Vergara Sequeiro
Producer: David Moliner
Barcelone ba Barsakh is a fictional short film that tells the story of Demba, a Senegalese immigrant in Spain. Arriving on a human trafficking ship, Demba has faced great hardship to reach Barcelona. The film’s title incorporates the Senegalese language of Wolof and refers to the two options that migrants believe they face (a European City or Barsakh- the beyond). While this film’s story is fictional, the issue is all too real. An estimated 1,800 migrants lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea in the first five months of 2015 alone. The film also examines the treatment of immigrants once they arrive in Europe, where they face nostalgia for their families and home culture, discrimination and the constant fear of deportation. Barcelone ba Barsakh puts a face on the many immigrants who are forced to take their chances on Barsakh and ‘the beyond’ by crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
Note: due to copyright restrictions currently we can only publish a trailer of this film online. Private access to the film can be provided to members of print and broadcast media – contact ICCL Communications Manager Walter Jayawardene at walter.jayawardene@iccl.ie
BARCELONE BA BARSAKH – TRAILER from FAULES PRODUCCIONS AUDIOVISUALS on Vimeo.
Listen
Directors: Hamy Ramezan and Rungano Nyoni
Producers: Valeria Richter and Helene Granqvist
What if you were a victim and wanted to speak out? But every time you spoke, what you say is watered down, distorted or contradicted? This is a very real problem facing thousands of vulnerable people across Europe today, who due to language barriers and insufficient interpretation and translation facilities are unable to interact properly with the authorities. Hamy Ramezan and Rungano Nyoni skilfully dramatise this problem in Listen, a tale of a woman in a Copenhagen police station seeking assistance to report and escape her abusive husband. But her interpreter seems unwilling to convey the true meaning of her words. The film, which premiered last year at Cannes, and which has also screened at Tribeca and the Toronto Film Festival, has been described as ‘a tense, diamond-hard film about cultural isolation and bureaucratic ignorance.’
Note: due to copyright restrictions currently we can only publish a trailer of this film online. Private access to the film can be provided to members of print and broadcast media – contact ICCL Communications Manager Walter Jayawardene at walter.jayawardene@iccl.ie
LISTEN – TRAILER from ICCL Human Rights Film Awards on Vimeo.