Magazine

Cinema in the Western Sahara
Meet FiSahara, a unique film festival that takes place every year in the middle of the Sahara Desert. With festival director María Carrión, we discuss the situation of Sahrawi refugees, culture and entertainment as a human right and the importance of FiSahara.

Meet the Team: İmge Erdural
Curious about how the in-depth programmes at the Movies that Matter Festival come together? We spoke with İmge, one of the driving forces behind the engaging discussions, Q&A sessions, and other performances around the films at the festival.

6 films about climate and activism
Are you looking for more films about climate and activism after the On Tour film Deep Rising? We tip six films that explore the ravages of climate change and show the unyielding spirit of activists fighting against powerful economic interests.

Celebrating censored films
Peruvian film festival Censurados celebrates its 10th edition this month. Director Teresa Castillo reflects on the past 10 years, how the current political situation in Peru affects the festival and stresses the increasing importance of a festival like Censurados in these times.

Meet the Team: Tess van Bommel
Project officer Tess shares the ins and outs of our international work, which supports human rights film festivals worldwide through funding, workshops, advice and an extensive network.

6 film tips about privacy and surveillance
The film screenings of Total Trust in our On Tour programme for the month of November have ended. However, the film’s interpretation of the dangers of surveillance technology and the violation of privacy is more relevant than ever.

Human Rights Film Network Calls for Permanent Ceasefire and Protection of Civilians
The Human Rights Film Network (HRFN), comprised of around 50 human rights film festivals from around the world, joins major international human rights and humanitarian organizations, as well as cultural and film collectives and millions of voices around the world, is urgently calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire on all parts and the protection of all civilians in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Meet the Team: Karlijn Limaheluw
How can a film screening serve as a dialogue starter to introduce students to certain topics? Karlijn talks about her experiences as project coordinator of the education team.

8 film tips to better understand the situation in Israel and Palestine
As long as our festival exists, we have been seeing and showing films about Israel and Palestine. To better understand the events of the past few weeks, it is important to know the context and history. To provide some insight into this, we have made a selection of films that were previously shown at our festival and that can still be viewed online.

Film as a defense mechanism
During the festival in The Hague, we interviewed Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, the Oscar-nominated directors of Writing With Fire. We discussed their documentary's journey over its one-year festival circuit and how it subsequently reached its intended audience worldwide.

The Impact of The Territory
The Territory exposes the devastating impact of deforestation while spotlighting the courageous efforts of environmental defenders. In an interview with director Alex Pritz, we delve into the film's vital role in raising awareness and galvanizing action against environmental destruction.

From South Carolina to the World Stage
Vivian Anderson, protagonist in the Activist documentary On These Grounds, was visiting Amsterdam for the Black Achievement Month and swung by our office for an interview. We talked about her work as activist and how the film brought a local initiative to the world stage.