One World documentary film festival to spark debate on safety and human rights

The 25th edition of the One World festival of human rights films has “the cost of safety” as its main theme. Films will ask people to reflect on how the Russian invasion of Ukraine, energy crisis, climate change, and social insecurities have affected them.

Viewers have a chance to see 75 feature-length documentaries and 10 virtual reality films.

Festival director Ondřej Kamenický said that the theme is meant to boost the debate on what safety and human rights mean to people in the 21st century and in 2023 after several crises have raised the issue of what price people are willing to pay for safety. The topic is reflected in all categories.

The topic is reflected in the festival’s four competitive and eight non-competitive categories. One section focuses on Ukraine, while the others deal with women’s power, sustainability, relations, the sense of being uprooted, social media, and new gods.

Almost two-thirds of the screenings will be accompanied by debates with the authors and other figures. The festival also has short films for children, screenings for schools, and virtual reality.

The festival’s first film will be “Overcome the Darkness,” made by a team of Ukrainian filmmakers during the first weeks of the war. The narrative features testimonies from Ukrainian people facing the Russian invasion. Producer Olga Beskhmelnytsina and one of the directors, Yegor Troyanovsky, will introduce the film.

At the opening ceremony at Prague Crossroads, the Homo Homini prize for the promotion of human rights will be presented to Venezuelan human rights activist Javier Tarazona.

Another highlight in the schedule is “The Killing of a Journalist,” which is part of the Czech Competition section. It looks at the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and huis fiancee Martina Kušnírová in Slovakia in 2018.

Kamenický said that over the festival’s 25 years, over 3,000 films have been screened for several million people all over the Czech Republic. The festival’s ongoing goal is to shed light on human-rights topics along with social, public, and political topics, and problems of regions that are not that well known.