The “Karama – Beirut Human Rights Film Festival” fifth edition kicks off on 23 September 2021, at 7 PM at Sunflower Theater, in Tayyouneh, Beirut. The festival, organized by NGO “Art Factory 961” under the theme “Occupy the Void,” is held this year in cooperation with the United Nations Information Centre in Beirut (UNIC Beirut), with the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Lebanon, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation and “Taawon” NGO. This year’s edition will focus on civil society and the power of youth and their aspirations for social and political change and for public participation. It will also highlight their demands, including the respect for human rights and for freedom from discrimination.
The festival runs from 23 to 26 September and features 21 films, including five long feature films and four long documentaries, three short feature films and three short documentaries, followed by Q&As. (Program attached)
To encourage young filmmakers, Karama – Beirut Festival presents six films for Syrian refugees produced by the “Action for Hope Film School,” three of which are documentaries, while the three others are fictions. 18 films will be premiered for the first time in Lebanon. Those were produced in several countries, namely: Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Qatar, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Germany, Canada, the Czech Republic, the United States, and Australia.
As part of the festival, two free-of-charge master classes for students will take place: the first one will be given by writer Najib Nseir and is titled “Citizen’s Rights in Dramatic Writing”, and the second will be given by university professor Najwa Kandakji and tackles “Ways to express revolution in cinema”.
Karama – Beirut Human Rights Film Festival (KBHRFF) is a film event that contributes, among other well-established and renowned human rights film festivals in the world, to spreading a cinema that denounces racism, hate discourse, discrimination and injustice. The 1st edition of KBHRFF was held in 2016 under the theme “The Others,” and aimed to raise awareness on the rights of refugees and minorities in Lebanon and the Arab World, while the 2nd edition in 2017 addressed the theme “New Identities” and focused on new identities conflict. The 3rd edition, held in 2018 under the motto “Free the Word,” aimed to support the freedom of expression that is liberated from traditional official models, while the fourth edition, held in 2019 under the theme “Talk to Her,” fell under the framework of the Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality.
Source: National News Agency