Human Rights Defenders to Work with Documentary Filmmakers under Future Docs Initiative

23 October 2015

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR) will co-organise a workshop in Warsaw designed to bring together human rights defenders and documentary filmmakers at Future Docs – a new European initiative of the Watch Docs International Film Festival, one of the oldest and largest human rights film festivals worldwide.

Watch Docs works with both human rights defenders and documentary filmmakers, but they too rarely work with each other, especially in Europe. As a result, many important human rights issues remain hardly known. Future Docs provides a platform for encounters of filmmakers and human rights activists to inspire ideas for new influential documentaries tackling human rights issues that are important for Europe but often underrepresented on screen. Future Docs, which aims at producing new powerful documentaries with tangible social impact, is one of the 11 winners of Advocate Europe annual idea challenge for innovative European initiatives and projects.

At the joint workshop that will take place in Warsaw from 5 to 7 December 2015, human rights defenders will present ideas for topics of possible film projects and new collaborations with film directors. The resulting film projects will be presented in early 2016. The most promising project will receive a Future Docs Prize of 7000 Eur for further development.

European documentary filmmakers and human rights defenders willing to participate in the project are invited to submit their applications on Future Docs Website. The project is also open to applicants from Eastern Partnership countries.