Festival

Festival presentation: 

International Film Festival WATCH DOCS. Human Rights in Film concentrates on showing human rights oriented documentaries which combine important message with the cinematic quality. Besides competition section where films compete for a WATCH DOCS award (around 20 titles), each year there are three permanent programme sections - "New Polish Films", "Discrete Charm of Propaganda" and "Close up" (in 2009 devoted to the post-soviet universe). The festival programme is complemented by various thematic retrospectives dealing with social and / or historical phenomena as terror or dictatorships, retrospective of the laureate of Marek Nowicki Prize awarded by Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, special screenings and many more. Festival is rich with accompanying events – discussions, panel debates, Q & A sessions with the filmmakers, workshops, meetings with experts, etc. Each year we invite more than 40 foreign guests – filmmakers, festival organizers, activists, etc. – who meet with the public and take part in industry events.

Edition: 

10

Festival Logo: 

Theme: 

Documentary

Category/Format: 

Documentaries

9th International Film Festival WATCH DOCS. Human Rights in Film takes place in Warsaw / Poland starting on 4th of December. 

WATCH DOCS concentrates on showing human rights oriented documentaries which combine important message with the cinematic quality. Besides competition section where films compete for a WATCH DOCS award (around 20 titles), each year there are three permanent programme sections - "New Polish Films", "Discrete Charm of Propaganda" and "Close up" (in 2009 devoted to the post-soviet universe). The festival programme is complemented by various thematic retrospectives dealing with social and / or historical phenomena as terror or dictatorships, retrospective of the laureate of Marek Nowicki Prize awarded by Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, special screenings and many more. Festival is rich with accompanying events – discussions, panel debates, Q & A sessions with the filmmakers, workshops, meetings with experts, etc. Each year we invite more than 40 foreign guests – filmmakers, festival organizers, activists, etc. – who meet with the public and take part in industry events.Festival started in 2001 and since the beginning is organized by Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw and Social Institute for Film. Since 2006 WATCH DOCS has the competition formula. Until 2008 there were two competitions - one for feature length docs and the other for shorts. Starting from 2009 there will be just one - this year around 20 documentaries will compete for WATCH DOCS award (which has also financial dimension). Films in the competition are judged by international jury composed of human rights activists, other festival programmers/organizers from all over the world, and filmmakers. Films awarded at WATCH DOCS include: "Avenge but one of my two eyes" by Avi Moghrabi (2006); "On a Tightrope" by Peter Lom (2006), "Even if She Was a Criminal" by Jean Gabriel Periot (2006); "Losers and Winners" by Ulrike Franke & Michael Loeken (2007); "Bridge Over the Wadi" by Barak Heyman (2007); "Behave" by Maria Ramos (2008); "To See if I'm Smiling" by Tamar Yarom (2008); "Fighting the Silence" by Femke & Ilse Van Velzen (2008). During the Festival, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights awards its Marek Nowicki prize for oustanding achievements in presenting human rights in film (beneficiaries of Marek Nowicki Prize: Errol Morris, Rithy Panh, Kim Longinotto, Anand Patwardhan, Marcel Lozinski, Maciej Drygas).

International edition of WATCH DOCS, taking place in Warsaw in December is followed by Travelling WATCH DOCS Festival which reaches more than 30 polish cities in the following year. The program of travelling festival is based on the IFF line-up, and arranged individually according to the agreements with producers / distributors.

WATCH DOCS is one of the founder members of Human Rights Film Network.Entry form and regulations are available for download at http://www.watchdocs.pl