Human Rights Watch 2018 Must See Films

Still photo from the film A Thousand Girls Like Me

The Human Rights Watch Film Festival, now in its 29th year, has selected timely and provocative films in 2018 showcasing courageous activists in order to shine a bright light on bravery and resilience in challenging times.

Human Rights Watch has chosen films offering incisive perspectives and critical insights on human rights issues impacting people around the world.

This year’s film selections turn the spotlight on strong women who take great risks to push back against powerful forces within their respective societies. And, at a time when the use of personal data by institutions is front-page news, this year’s program explores governmental and corporate regulation of information, and how, by burying the truth and creating their own narratives, these gatekeepers are uniquely positioned to abuse their power and control the populace.

Watch out for this year’s selections available on various platforms:


Three films featuring critical human rights issues in the U.S.;

Charm City moves between community members, police and local officials during a period of heightened violence in Baltimore, exposing layers of disconnect and distrust that need to be addressed to move their city forward.

Transmilitary Trailer

https://www.facebook.com/TransMilitaryDoc/videos/2056117271111567/

TransMilitary focuses on the largest employer of transgender people in the country – the U.S. military – and the efforts of four brave people as they come forward to demand much-needed change.

The Unafraid introduces three high school students in Georgia, banned by the state from attending top state universities due to their unauthorized immigration status, and their passionate fight to pursue their dreams of higher education.

International films:


On Her Shoulders introduces Nadia Murad, a 23-year-old Yazidi survivor of atrocities by ISIS who makes it her life’s mission to fight for justice and freedom for her people.

Two documentaries highlight women’s rights in Afghanistan. A Thousand Girls Like Me follows a young mother seeking justice from a legal system designed to criminalize sexual abuse survivors like her. Facing the Dragon (winner of the festival’s Nestor Almendros 2 Award) profiles two intrepid Afghan women — a member of parliament and journalist — who risk the safety of their families to bring change and accountability to their country.

Naila and the Uprising features courageous Palestinian women activists who played a pivotal role in the First Intifada.

Trailer: Women of the Venezuelan Chaos

https://youtu.be/lJexFP-50p8

Women of the Venezuelan Chaos, five resilient women find creative ways to defend their fellow citizens, their families and their own lives amid the national crisis that has enveloped their country.

In the profoundly moving and poetic Angkar, a filmmaker traces her father’s journey home to Cambodia to seek out his Khmer Rouge persecutors while confronting his country’s collective amnesia regarding their horrifying past.

In The Silence of Others, survivors of the Franco dictatorship crimes against humanity refuse to relent in their pursuit of justice, despite Spain’s “pact of forgetting,” which has denied Franco’s victims legal recourse.

The Cleaners reveals a murky world of digital “cleaning,” in which giant social media companies employ workers to delete internet content deemed inappropriate, raising essential questions over internet control and the life-threatening impact of erasing entire resistance movements from the world’s gaze.

Additional recommendations include:

Anote’s Ark

The Distant Barking of Dogs

Voices of the Sea