Supported Projects 2022

To promote the screenings of human rights cinema worldwide, Movies that Matter offers grants to human rights film events in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, especially in countries with limited resouces and where freedom of press is at stake. These events can take various forms, such as human rights film festivals, LGBTI film festivals and mobile cinema projects. Read more about the supported projects of 2022 via the dropdown menu below.

Selection Committee

The selection committee of the Movies that Matter Support programme consists of five people with various backgrounds and expertise. For 2022, the selection committee consists of:

  • Yoon-Shik Boxman (only first round), coordinator knowledge exchange at Fonds 21
  • Mira Chowdhury, Latin America programme lead at Free Press Unlimited
  • Will Janssen, Director Business Development at Hivos
  • Raúl Niño Zambrano, head of film programmes at Sheffield DocFest
  • Margje de Koning, artistic director of Movies that Matter

Supported Projects 2022

  • Albania - Queer Film Fest
    26 – 30 September 2022

    Third edition of the Queer Film Festival in Albania will take place at the Kinema Milennium and the Tirana Amphitheatre. The festival will screen feature films and documentaries, including films and artist from the country, panel discussions, drag performances and queer solidarity. The festival provides a space for artists to do what they know to do best: create art for the audience and use art for change. The project is estimated to attract a total number of 5,000 – 7,000 visitors.

  • Bolivia – Bajo Nuestra Piel
    10 December 2022 – June 2023

    The sixth edition of the International Human Rights Film Festival Bajo Nuestra Piel (BNP) in Bolivia. The festival consists of a programme on International Human Rights Day, followed by ‘Film Festival Weeks’ (FFWs). The FFWs for this grant period will include the departments Tarija, Oruro and Santa Cruz. Local teams in these departments oversee the preproduction, execution, and delivery of an evaluation report of the film festival week they organise in their department. Every team will programme 14 to 18 screenings and organise 14 to 20 Q&As and/or debates. The project will attract an estimated 14,000 visitors.

  • China - “Gender. Battle for Being Oneself” as part of Baturu Cultural Festival 2022
    18 November 2022 – 31 March 2023

    Gender. Battle for Being Oneself is a specific programme on gender during the Baturu Cultural Festival that runs from November 2022 to March 2023 in a total of seven Chinese cities. The programme consists of offline screenings and Q&As during the Baturu Cultural Festival, online screenings and Q&As of shot films on gender rights, and community screenings and discussions as part of the China Feminist Film Archive. A total of 4,000 offline visitors and 400,000 online visitors are estimated to attend the festival.

  • Colombia - International Environment Film Festival of Cali (FINCALI)
    2 – 13 August 2023

    The fifth edition of the biannual International Environment Film Festival of Cali (FINCALI). This festival focues on environmental awareness and education through film and discussions. The festival aims to promote socio-environmental awareness, throughout the region through the programming and circulation of films and training activities. It does so with a hybrid programme focusing on 5 central themes on environmental issues, 3 selections, 4 competitions, 2 invited windows and 8 pedagogical and special activities. Besides these activities, the festival also includes debates and Q&As that go along with the themes of the selected films. The festival will attract an estimated 10,000 visitors.

  • Colombia - Muestra Itinerante de Cine Africano (MUICA)
    1 – 30 May 2023

    The fifth edition of a biannual African Film Festival in Cartagena, Bogotá, Cali and two cities in the Pacific region of Colombia. The festival showcases 15-20 films from different African regions, divided into three sections: Made in Africa, Other Views and Diaspora. Screenings are held at independent cinemas, cultural centres, libraries, universities, schools and working-class neighbourhoods in each city. With this edition they want to strengthen their presence in the Pacific Coast region with a workshop for local artist to develop audio visual materials. The festival will attract an estimated 7,000 visitors.

  • Ecuador – EQUIS Feminist Film Festival
    8 – 20 November 2022

    For the fourth edition of EQUIS, Ecuador’s first and only feminist film festival, (open-air) screenings are organised in cinemas and women’s shelters in Quito, Cuenca and other parts of the country. Daily Q&As will be offered with participation of feminist experts on different topics regarding women’s rights. This year they also aim to reach cities and communities across the country. The project is estimated to attract 1,900 in person visitors and 600 online viewers.

  • Honduras - Fragments and Memories - Human Rights Film Festival of Honduras
    1 – 18 December 2022

    In December 2022, Tercer Cine will host a series of screenings in four cities around International Human Rights Day. In each city different films and topics are central depending on the pressing issues related to the territory and communities. Each of the twenty two screenings will be followed by a conversation about the topic of the film. The target audience is youth and rural and urban communities with little to no access to culture and human rights debates. The project is estimated to attract a total of 1,500 – 1,800 visitors.

  • Kazachstan – Qara Film Festival
    May 2023

    The third edition of the Qara Film Festival in which the focus lies on LGBTQI+ themes, the targeting of new audiences, moving outside of the large cities of Kazakhstan, highlighting Kazakh productions and the urgency of cultural projects in the region in the aftermath of Bloody January and in the current situation with Ukraine. The festival will be organised in a hybrid way and the programme will consist of 6-10 feature length films and 6-12 shorts, which will be Kazakh productions. There will be 4-5 panel discussions held on the human rights issues covered by the selected films. The festival will attract an estimated 4,000-5,500 visitors.

  • Kenya – Under Our Skin International Film Festival on Human Rights
    1 – 30 November 2022

    In November 2022, the second edition of the Kenyan Under Our Skin International Film Festival on Human Rights takes place in both Nairobi (urban areas and informal settlements) and Lamu (a rural area). Focusing on three themes (freedom of expression, state corruption and injustice), almost all screenings are followed by a discussion. Throughout the year, the festival also screens films in partnership with a university in Nairobi. The project is estimated to attract a total of 2,000 visitors.

  • Laos – Our Stories
    Mid-March 2023 

    In March 2023, the first edition of the Our Stories human rights film festival is set to take place in Laos. The festival, organised by Global Shapers Community Vientiane Hub, will screen films from Lao filmmakers. Each screening is followed by a discussion and/or conversation with the aim to raise awareness, initiate conversation, and to encourage people to question human rights issues surrounding them. Screenings take place in cultural centres and the target audience consists of various marginalised groups. The project will attract an estimated 2,000 in-person visitors and is expected to have an online reach of 15,000 people.

  • Nigeria – Rock International Film Festival
    3-6 November 2022

    In November 2022, the first edition of the four-day Rock International Film Festival (RIFFF) will take place in Jos, Nigeria. Screenings will include short, feature and documentary films about social and human rights issues. Besides screenings, discussions and Q&A sessions will be held daily. The festival will specifically reach out to involve students and young filmmakers whose film address social and human rights issues. The project will attract an estimated 3,000 in-person visitors.

     

  • The Philippines – Active Vista International Human Rights Film Festival
    21 September – 2 October 2022

    This year marks the 10th edition of the Active Vista International Human Rights Festival and at the same time the 50th Anniversary of Martial Law in the Philippines. With the return of the Marcoses in power, the festival shall be an important platform in contributing to bring light and amplify truths about the atrocities of the Marcos Regime and to face the challenge of countering disinformation and historical distortion through creative and innovative ways. The festival shall aim to gather new and old forces and advocates, and to provide a space for the public to continue their political engagement by defending and protecting human rights under the new regime. It aims to empower the public to reclaim and wield their power– through narratives, as citizens, as communities, and as a nation. The festival will will have both online and on ground activities in different parts of the Philippines. 

    To reclaim spaces of freedom amidst the shrinking civic spaces in the country, Active Vista shall hold its main festival in physical spaces at the country’s seat of power in Metro Manila and its satellite festivals in four key regional cities in the country, namely, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, and Cagayan De Oro. These festivals will have localised film programming and events that are nuanced to their local political context and culture.

  • The Philippines – Truth Cinema Film Festival
    1 – 10 December 2022

    The fourth edition of Truth Cinema Film Festival in Manilla, the Philippines. This festival consists of both mobile grass roots film screenings in Manilla as well as online screenings, with films focusing on political and civil rights and issues of martial law and the war on drugs. Every film is followed by a Q&A. The physical screenings take place at various locations such as churches, parking lots and housing associations. Specific screenings for students will be organised in art galleries and theatres. Besides film screenings and Q&As, human rights victims talks, a photo exhibit and a book launch are also part of the programme. The festival will attract an estimated 5,000 visitors.

  • Russia – Side by Side LGBT International Film Festival
    To be announced, 2022/2023

    In the autumn of each year the city of Saint Petersburg becomes the host for the annual Side by Side LGBT Film Festival. With each passing year audience numbers are growing and the festival today is now attended by thousands of people who are not only coming to watch award winning films but engage in discussion on issues relating to LGBT in Russia and around the globe. Since 2012 it has taken place with the now infamous law against so-called propaganda of homosexuality to minors in force. Side by Side, however, remains defiant and continues to fight for a space within the public domain for the discussion of LGBT issues and rights.

  • São Tomé and Príncipe – Itinerant Exhibition of Cinema and Human Rights
    12 – 19 December 2022

    The first edition of a series of film screenings at seven secondary schools on the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe. The film programme will include themes such as sexual abuse, migration rights and LGBTI rights. Following the films, discussions will be held with the support of teachers. The directors of the film will take part in these discussions online. The project will attract an estimated 2,100 visitors.

  • Tanzania – Paukwa Pakawa Film Screening
    8 – 10 June 2023

    A three-day event of Paukwa Pakawa Film Screenings in Tanzania with a focus on children’s and women’s rights. Through indoor and outdoor screenings, a total of 15 films will be showed followed by Q&A and debates. The themes and discussions are focused on topics related to children’s rights and women’s rights, including the right to life, their right to be protected from abuse, right to education, forced marriage, female genital mutilation (children’s rights), and domestic violence, refusal of marital inheritance, sexual assault, unequal property distribution between men and women, intimidation at work and in educational institutions and more (women’s rights). The event will attract an estimated 2,000 visitors.

  • Ukraine – Sexuality Matters
    21 – 25 September 2022

    Sexuality Matters is a programme within the Kyiv International Short Film Festival that focuses on human rights. The Sexuality Matters programme consists of projects like Out & Proud (films related to rights of LGBTIQIA+ people), Queer Animation (experimental animated films about non-heteronormative sexualities and non-binary identities), FEM* RIOT (feminist films on gender equality and female representation) and Midnight Sexy Shorts (films for wider audiences about sexuality). After each screening, there is a Q&A session with the director(s) or/and film crew member(s), moderated by invited activists and/or experts on the particular topic at hand. The project will attract an estimated 1,100 in-person visitors and 3,000 online viewers.

  • Venezuela – Miradas Diversas
    1 – 11 December 2022

    Open air screening during human rights film festival Miradas Diversas, 2020The National Association of Cinematographic Art Venues Circuito Gran Cine organises the 4th Edition of the “Miradas Diversas” Festival in December in several cities in Venezuela: Caracas (Capital District and Miranda), Barquisimeto, Valencia, Maracaibo, Mérida, Porlamar, Puerto La Cruz, San Cristóbal, Maturín, Maracay and Puerto Ordaz. The main purpose of the festival is to establish a platform for free discussion, in which the exercise of freedom of expression is practiced and the defence of human rights is promoted. It contemplates an important competition that will take place in several cities of the country, allowing the audience the opportunity to learn and get involved in issues that are sensitive to everyone; with the accompaniment of filmmakers, experts on human eights, social leaders, representatives of different NGOs, foundations, institutions, producers, journalists and other communication professionals. The project will attract an estimated 3,000 visitors.

  • Vietnam - Saigon Experimental IV
    27 November – 4 December 2022

    The fourth edition of Saigon Experimental (SEFF) is set to take place in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Hoi An, Danong and online from 27 November to 4 December 2022 . The in-person project will be organised across 6 locations on the same day and time. The following day it will take place via an online platform. The focus of Saigon Experimental is on the screening of short films. 

  • We also supported another festival that will remain anonymous for safety reasons.