A programme 2.0 for the 19th edition of the FIFDH

For its 19th edition, which will run from 5 to 14 March 2021, the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights will include a programme intended for people of all ages combining a selection of international films in VOD format, live large-scale happenings, original audio and video content, a radio show and urban interventions.

The guests will include the activist Angela Davis, the writer Arundhati Roy, the director Milo Rau, the composer Max Richter, the artiste Ai Weiwei, the filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, the joint-founder of Black Lives Matter Patrisse Cullors and the author Alain Damasio.

Soltan Achilova

The 19th edition of the FIFDH is dedicated to Soltan Achilova, an independent photojournalist and reporter based in Turkmenistan. As a journalist and militant in one of the most closed countries in the world, she is one of the few Turkmen reporters to work openly with foreign-based independent media, thereby exposing herself to repression by a government which tolerates absolutely no dissident voices.

At the heart of this edition: new audiences

During this singular period in our history, there is a palpable need to interact. The FIFDH explores new forms of interaction:

• Vote for your favourite films in the official selection. The films on the FIFDH programme will be available online on demand. A people’s choice award will be presented for the first time at the end of the festival.
• Discover the hottest topics of both today and tomorrow. Every evening, the FIFDH will present a live keynote interview or debate with international guests.
• Meet activists from around the world. A daily event will bring you into contact with people who change the world, from Afghanistan to Senegal.
• Interact and ask questions. Leading political figures, artists and militants participating in the festival will be happy to answer!
• Climb aboard for an epic journey. For an entire year beginning in March, the festival will take you from Kinshasa to Geneva, following in the footsteps of women whose goal is to make public space their own.
• Express yourself. The FIFDH will launch a radio show recorded in the municipalities of Greater Geneva.

The festival will also go in search of new audiences, encouraging access to culture: more than 5,000 beneficiaries of the Colis du Cœur and numerous other associations as well as patients in the Geneva teaching hospitals (HUG) will receive invitations to watch the films programmed by the festival online free of charge. Several municipalities around Greater Geneva will also offer their residents invitations to discover the films online.