On 8-17 December 2006, Warsaw hosted, already for the sixth time, the International Film Festival WATCH DOCS. Human Rights in Film organized by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art and the Social Institute of Film. This year a new formula was developed for the festival – film competitions. (18-DEC-06)

Written by Marta Lempicka/HRH Warsaw


Competitions

Two competitions took place during the festival: a full length film competition as well as short film competition. The international jury headed by India’s most outstanding documentary filmmaker, Anand Patwardhan, judged the full length films competing for the WATCH DOCS award. The competition for short film, competing for the Jacek Kuroñ award, was judged by a jury headed by Marcel £oziñski. Both competitions included 18 documentaries from around the world, produced in the years 2005 – 2006.
The jury decided to divide the WATCH DOCS award between two moving documentary films from two different parts of the world: the Israeli documentary “Avenge But One of My Two Eyes” by Avi Mograbi – for the self-critical analysis of the role of refreshed mythology in promoting the policy of exclusion and revenge and “On a Tightrope” by Canadian Peter Lom – for the subtle depiction of issues relating to religion and national identity in a remote region of communist the People´s Republic of China.
Jean-Gabriel Périot received the Jacek Kuroñ award for “Even if She Had Been a Criminal…”, in which he uncompromisingly and bravely warns us of the destructive effects of a crowd usurping the right to administer justice.
The jury of the short-film competition gave honorable mention to Grzegorz Pack for the film “Go to Luiza” (“IdŸ do Luizy”). The audience award was given to “Street Fight” directed by Marshall Curry.   

Supporting films and events

Out of competition the audience had an opportunity to see films in the following theme paths: “behind the scenes of election campaigns”, “us, newcomers”, “the specter of Fascism”, “travels to the East – Asia”, “at school”, “RSA after Apartheid”, “Kosovo”, “Cuba”, “we’re all women”, “being yourself”, “the discreet charm of propaganda – part I – audiovisual Nazi propaganda”, and additionally “new Polish films”, “gestures of reconciliation” (selected films from the Goethe-Institute competition) and a retrospective on the artistic works of Anand Patwardhan.
The screenings were accompanied by meetings and discussions with film directors, experts, and non-government organization activists. The festival also included an exhibition of photography by famous Italian photographer Olivier Toscani, entitled “Thought is forbidden: the face of repression in Cuba” at the club M25.
This year’s festival accumulated an audience of around 15 thousand. All in all, 114 documentaries were presented.       

The Marek Nowicki festival award

lozinskiSince 2003, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has been awarding the festival prize to directors for outstanding achievements in depicting human rights in film.
The Board of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights made the decision to name this prize in remembrance of Marek Nowicki (1947 – 2003), the co-founder and long-term President of the Foundation, co-founder of the Helsinki Committee in Poland.
This year the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights awarded the Marek Nowicki festival prize to Marcel £oziñski (photo), one of the founders of the of the Polish school of documentary filmmaking, nominated to an Oscar in 1994 for the film “89 mm from Europe”. Marcel £oziñski is also an educator, a lecturer at the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing and head of studies at the Dragon Forum. His latest film “How It´s Done” is considered as one of the more interesting Polish documentaries in recent years.