4th International Film Festival “Human Rights in Film” organized by The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights took place in Warsaw between December 10th and 15th, 2004. The main themes of the 4th Festival were the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea, faces of terrorism, Latin America, incarceration institutions, discrimination against sexual minorities, refugees, Tibet, Palestine – Israel and the Holocaust.
This year´s festival program boasted nearly 70 films, which were screened in four different places. As in the previous edition, these were documentaries and reports, though there was also presented one short feature and one educational film.
Among festival guests were such famous international documentary filmmakers as Olenka Frenkiel, Ewa Ewart, Fabrizio Lazzaretti, Karoline Frogner, Petr Lom, Arthur Dong and Nancy Nicol.
This year, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has selected Fabrizio Lazzaretti to be the recipient of the prize for excellent achievements in showing human rights in film. Fabrizio Lazzaretti is a director, director of photography and producer of remarkable documentaries and reports that stand out for their carefully composed visual impact, vivid personas and courage in getting to the truth. In addition to Jung and Justice – in time of war, included in the festival program, Lazzaretti´s latest works include: Socialmente pericolosi – an image of a Criminal Psychiatric Hospital that is reminiscent of a concentration camp, and Afghanistan – Year 1380, a sequel to his celebrated film, Jung.
In cooperation with the Polish Humanitarian Organization, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights have also prepared a set of films devoted to humanitarian aid.
The Festival was accompanied by the EUROPE.doc documentary review – a look by the International Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) at the European Union. Films selected by the organizers of the largest European documentary festival could be seen at Warsaw´s KINO.LAB on December 16 – 19, 2004.
