The 11th Paris International Film Festival on Human Rights, which took place from February, 5th to February, 12th 2013 at the Nouveau Latina and eight other cinemas located in Paris and in the Paris area, came to an end last Tuesday with the Prize winner announcement and the award ceremony. Four juries awarded six prizes and two special mentions.

/ PROFESSIONNAL JURY /

A jury composed of professionals from the cinema and journalism industries as well as the militant sector awarded a Grand Prize and a Special Jury Prize. The jury members were Bernard Bolze, the founder of the International Prison Observatory ; Léna Mauger, a journalist and the Assistant Managing Director of the XXI French magazine ; Isabella Pisani, the purchasing and documentaries coproduction manager at LCP (the French Parliamentary Channel) and Stefano Savona, a documentary filmmaker.

/ GRAND PRIX /
/ A SUMMER WITH ANTON / Directed by Jasna Krajinovic /

Twelve-year-old Anton lives with his grandmother in a small house outside Moscow. It is summer vacation, and we watch Anton playing with his friends on a lake, sitting around at home, dancing in front of the mirror, drawing and getting read aloud to by his grandma. He tells the camera what he likes to do for fun. One day, Anton grabs a gigantic backpack and pulls on some army pants that hang low on his slender frame. Just like most other Russian children, Anton will be spending the summer at one of President Putin's youth military training camps. It's very exciting, for the kids get to sleep in army tents, line up for roll call, go on campaigns and practice shooting. No campfires or scouting expeditions, but defense techniques and long marches - this is how you grow up to be big and strong. But politics also play a role at this disciplined summer camp: in a classroom, the children hear from war veterans about the dangers of terrorism and extremism and watch gruesome videos about the continuing violence in the Caucasus. Then they go play "little Chechen" in the woods. This quiet, commentary-free film is bathed in the warm tints of a summer idyll, but it also features children learning to point guns at one another. And if you're big and strong, can you still call home to your grandma?

/ SPECIAL MENTION OF THE JURY /
/ NO BURQAS BEHIND BARS / Directed by Nima Sarvestani et Maryam Ebrahimi /

This film has been entirely shot in a women prison in Afghanistan. This exceptional and unprecedented access allow us to explore how « moral crimes » are used to control women in Afghanistan. Through the portraits of these women, whose only mistake was to follow their own path and sometimes their hearts, the film lets their voices, their distress, and their hopes be heard. All the inhabitants of the prison, the guardians, and the visitors, have their say. Their testimonies draw the contours of this closed world and of the destinies of the women who meet there.

/ FLEURY-MÉROGIS DETENTION CENTER JURY /

For the first time within the festival framework, a jury composed of prisoners and prison staff was organized at the Fleury-Mérogis remand house. In partnership with the inter regional management of Paris Prisons Service (DISP), the Paris FIFDH offered to show five films from its programme planning which were open to the prisoners from the remand house and animated by speakers related to the movies. All the jury members attended to the Closing Ceremony to award a Prize.

/ GRAND PRIX /
/ THE BOYS OF BARAKA / Directed by Heidi Ewing et Rachel Grady /

On September 12, 2002 twenty « at risk » 12-year-old boys from the tough streets of inner-city Baltimore left home to attend the 7th and 8th grade at Baraka, an experimental boarding school located in Kenya, East Africa. Here, faced with a strict academic and disciplinary program as well as the freedom to be normal teenage boys, these brave kids began the daunting journey towards putting their lives on a fresh path. «The Boys of Baraka» focuses on four boys: Devon, Montrey, Richard and his brother Romesh. Their humor and explicit truthfulness give intimate insight into their optimistic plans, despite the tremendous obstacles they face both at home and in school. Through extensive time with the boys in Baltimore and in Africa, the film captures the kids’ amazing journey and how they fare when they are forced to return to the difficult realities of their city. The film zeros in on kids that society has given up on--boys with every disadvantage, but who refuse to be cast off as «throw-aways».

/ STUDENT JURY /

The student jury has been organized in partnership with the Francas association and the Institut d’Etude du Développement Economique et Social (IEDES) [French Research Institute in Social and Economic Development] which is affiliated to the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne College, and supported by the Altermondes journal. It was composed of three IEDES students, Victoria Ahoueli, Fadwa Mhidia and Emilie Traub ; a Francas volunteer, Asma Safsaf ; and Hélène Robert, a film and modern language student.

/ GRAND PRIX /
/ ONE DAY AFTER PEACE / Directed by Miri Laufer et Erez Laufer /

Robi Damelin lost her younger son David to a Palestinian sniper’s bullet while he was manning a military checkpoint in the West Bank. At first Robi tried to contact her son’s killer, who is now serving time in an Israeli prison. She wanted to launch a dialogue with him and his parents, but the Palestinian refused. After all, he explained, her son was part of the forces of Occupation army that was denying his people their sovereignty. Undeterred, Robi decided to return to South-Africa to see how the country where she was born had embarked on a quest to achieve forgiveness and reconciliation after decades of apartheid. The Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) began operating soon after South Africa finally abandoned apartheid. Fifteen years later, Robi meets with perpetrators from both sides of the conflict, and tries to understand the motivations that brought them to confront their victims and publicly declare their crimes. Was the expected pardon (given by the TRC to everyone who told the truth) their only incentive? Was it the ultimate realization that acknowledging the pain they caused, combined with sincere remorse, could really achieve reconciliation and ensure a better future for everyone?

/ SPECIAL JURY PRIZE /
/ THE TINIEST PLACE / Directed by Tatiana Huezo Sánchez /

In 1979, a civil war broke out in El Salvador, Central America, which lasted 12 years and left more than 80,000 dead and thousands missing. Many villages were laid waste by the army and even ceased to exist on official maps of El Salvador. The film is a story of the survivors of this war, who strove to rebuild their villages from the ashes about man kind’s ability to arise, to rebuild and reinvent himself after surviving a tragedy. A story about a people that have learned to live with their sorrow; an annihilated town that re-emerges through the strength and deep love of its’ inhabitants for the land and the people. A tiny place nestled in the mountains amidst the humid Salvadorean jungle.

/ SPECIAL MENTION /
/ SUMMER WITH ANTON / Directed by Jasna Krajinovic /

Twelve-year-old Anton lives with his grandmother in a small house outside Moscow. It is summer vacation, and we watch Anton playing with his friends on a lake, sitting around at home, dancing in front of the mirror, drawing and getting read aloud to by his grandma. He tells the camera what he likes to do for fun. One day, Anton grabs a gigantic backpack and pulls on some army pants that hang low on his slender frame. Just like most other Russian children, Anton will be spending the summer at one of President Putin's youth military training camps. It's very exciting, for the kids get to sleep in army tents, line up for roll call, go on campaigns and practice shooting. No campfires or scouting expeditions, but defense techniques and long marches - this is how you grow up to be big and strong. But politics also play a role at this disciplined summer camp: in a classroom, the children hear from war veterans about the dangers of terrorism and extremism and watch gruesome videos about the continuing violence in the Caucasus. Then they go play "little Chechen" in the woods. This quiet, commentary-free film is bathed in the warm tints of a summer idyll, but it also features children learning to point guns at one another. And if you're big and strong, can you still call home to your grandma?

/ HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND APPRENTICES JURY /

For the third year, collaborating with the Cinémas Indépendants Parisiens (Parisian Independent Cinemas) association, which coordinates the high school students and apprentices to the cinema program within the Paris area in the Paris school district, the festival keeps working close to the young audience with the “high school students and apprentices jury from Paris – Paris area for the Human Rights”. Among the films presented by the festival, the jury will watch a selection from the Paris Independent Cinemas. The high school students and apprentices jury will be chaired by Christian Borghino and composed of Paris high school students and apprentices, who all participate in the national high school students and apprentices to the cinema program: Clarisse Berrada, William-Emir Bouchacourt, François-Xavier Hutteau, Walid Slimane, Aïssatou Tall and Chen Weiyin.

/ HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND APPRENTICES FROM PARIS AND ILE-DE-FRANCE FOR THE HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE /
/ SUMMER WITH ANTON / Directed by Jasna Krajinovic /

Twelve-year-old Anton lives with his grandmother in a small house outside Moscow. It is summer vacation, and we watch Anton playing with his friends on a lake, sitting around at home, dancing in front of the mirror, drawing and getting read aloud to by his grandma. He tells the camera what he likes to do for fun. One day, Anton grabs a gigantic backpack and pulls on some army pants that hang low on his slender frame. Just like most other Russian children, Anton will be spending the summer at one of President Putin's youth military training camps. It's very exciting, for the kids get to sleep in army tents, line up for roll call, go on campaigns and practice shooting. No campfires or scouting expeditions, but defense techniques and long marches - this is how you grow up to be big and strong. But politics also play a role at this disciplined summer camp: in a classroom, the children hear from war veterans about the dangers of terrorism and extremism and watch gruesome videos about the continuing violence in the Caucasus. Then they go play "little Chechen" in the woods. This quiet, commentary-free film is bathed in the warm tints of a summer idyll, but it also features children learning to point guns at one another. And if you're big and strong, can you still call home to your grandma?

/ SPECIAL MENTION /
/ HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE / Directed by Stephen Maing /

« High Tech, Low Life » follows the journey of two of China’s first citizen reporters as they travel the country – chronicling under reported news and social issues stories. Armed with laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras they develop skills as independent one-man news stations while learning to navigate China’s evolving censorship regulations and avoiding the risk of political persecution. 

The film follows 57-year-old “Tiger Temple,” who earns the title of China’s first citizen reporter after he impulsively documents an unfolding murder and 27-year-old “Zola” who recognizes the opportunity to increase his fame and future prospects by reporting on sensitive news throughout China. From the perspective of vastly different generations, Zola and Tiger Temple must both reconcile an evolving sense of individualism, social responsibility and personal sacrifice. The juxtaposition of Zola’s coming-of-age journey from produce vendor to internet celebrity, and Tiger Temple’s commitment to understanding China’s tumultuous past provides an alternate portrait of China and of news-gathering in the 21st century.

See you in March 2014 for the 12th Paris FIFDH !

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