Centre for Civic Education (CCE) will organize for the fifth time Fast Forward Human Rights Film Festival from 10 to 14 December 2014 in the Montenegrin National Theatre in Podgorica, and from 12 to 13 December Festival will have one part of the programme outside the Capital, in Kotor.
Excellent response of the audience, amongst which a significant number of young people, who showed a continuous interest in previous editions of the Festival, strengthen the commitment of CCE to continue with this type of mainstreaming human rights, but also to further improve in the programme in all its aspects. Fast Forward Human Rights Film Festival enters in the fifth – jubilee edition which will be marked again by excellent selection of films whose common denominator is the belief in inalienable human dignity and power of creative and daring individual to encourage change, then visits of the authors, premiere of one Montenegrin human rights film at the Festival, as well as the pilot edition of the Festival in Kotor. In addition, there will be organized two panels, during and after the Festival, on topics related to LGBT rights and dealing with the past.
The Festival will be opened on 10 December, International Human Rights Day, with the film “Living Eyes” at 20h00 directed by Senad Šahmanović, who will address the audience with the crew after the screening. It will be followed by Montenegrin premiere of world famous documentary “20.000 days on Earth”, directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, which follows a fictitious day in the life of singer Nick Cave, starting at 21h00.
On Thursday, 11 December, the Festival will be presented films “Maidan”, by Sergei Loznitsa, telling the story about the civil uprising against the regime of president Yanukovych that took place in Kiev (Ukraine) in the winter of 2013/14; then “The Good Son” directed by Shirly Berkovitz from Israel, which talks about Or, a young Israeli man secretly saving for sex reassignment surgery in Thailand; and Palestinian drama award at the Cannes Film Festival, “Omar”, directed by Hany Abu – Assad. Shirly Berkovitz will be the guest of the Festival, and she will address the audience after the screening of her film.
On Friday, 12 December, on the repertoire are films “Art / violence” directed by Mariam Abu Khaled, Udi Aloni and Batoul Taleb, then “The forest” directed by Siniša Dragin about socialist friendship between Yugoslavia and Romania and espionage affair and Mauritian candidate for the “Oscars” film “Timbuktu” by Abderrahmane Sissako. Siniša Dragin will be the guest of the Festival, and he will address the audience after the screening of his film.
Saturday, 13 December, will be followed by the screenings of “Mom and Dad” directed by Franziska Schonenberger and Jayakrishna Subramanian, then “Naked” by Tiha Gudac, story about the family drama of political prisoner on the Naked Island, and Polish candidate for the “Oscar”, film “Ida”, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski.
The festival will be closed on Sunday, 14 December, with the screening of the documentary “Salt of the Earth” by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro, who has his Montenegrin premiere at the Festival less than two months after the world premiere.
Before this latest projection, during the closing ceremony, will be awarded the annual prize in the category of individuals and organizations for the affirmation of human rights and civic activism. The winners of last year’s awards are journalist Tufik Softić, insider Goran Stanković and NGO Centre for Women and Peace Education ANIMA from Kotor.
Fifth Fast Forward Human Rights Film Festival will be also marked by its Boka Kotorska edition, where will be screened in cinema “Boka” in Kotor films “Naked” and “20.000 days on Earth” on 12 December and films “Omar” and “Salt of the Earth”on 13 December.
The goal of Fast Forward Human Rights Film Festival, the first and only of its kind in Montenegro, is to raise awareness amongst the citizens of Montenegro about relevance of human rights, their protection and promotion, and foster a system of values which underpins harmonious relations between different people – whatever the grounds for their difference.
Fast Forward Human Rights Film Festival 2014 is part of a broader project “Fast Forward Human Rights!”, which CCE is implementing with the support of the EU Delegation in Montenegro, and co-financing of the Commission for allocation of revenue from games of chance, the Embassy of Canada and the Heinrich Boll Foundation, as well as a partnership of the Montenegrin National Theatre, Beldocs and Cultural Centre “Nikola Đurković”.
In the previous four editions of the Festival, the audience in Podgorica had the opportunity to see 51 films, which are in an active manner dealing with human rights. Entrance to all screenings is free. The Festival’s programme and further information can be found at the http://ubrzaj.me/. Video clip that promotes Festival can be downloaded at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQhUhb3qDeo.
Svetlana Pešić, programme associate