One of the festival's highlights is a retrospective and presence of Zhao Liang - a leading documentary filmmaker who will receive the annual Marek Nowicki Prize awarded by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights to documentary filmmakers for outstanding achievements in dealing with human rights. Four of Zhao's films will be screened during the festival, one of them being the well known "Petition" - the WATCH DOCS Film of Decade, chosen by ten film critics, experts and
In the competition for WATCH DOCS prize the audience will watch the best international documentaries discussing the broadly understood problems of human rights realized between 2009 and 2010. Over a dozen films, selected from ca. 1200 entries, will be presented in the competition this year, including the Locarno Film Festival noted film "Tahrir Liberation Square" picturing the revolution in Egypt from the closest perspective, Italian "The Castle" in which one of the biggest European airports becomes a metaphor of Europe trying to restrain the migration from the South (premiered at Hot Docs Toronto), Sundance Festival awarded film "The Redemption of General Butt Naked" - a story of an astonishing metamorphosis of the Liberian Ex-Rebel Leader and a Estonian "Pit No 8" showing a 13 year-old boy from Ukraine who supports his whole family working in an illegal main...in his backyard. This year's jury comprises of Hana Kulhankova - the director of One World Festival in Prague, Klara Grunning-Harris from Danish Film Institute, Polish Filmmaker and the author of the acknowledged documentary "Chemistry" - Paweł Łoziński, and the British documentary filmmaker - Marc Isaac, who will host this year's master class.
The Festival program features four sections: I Want to See - a review of documentaries related to events, people and issues which are in the center of human rights defenders attention including "I was worth 50 sheep"; Close-up - this year dedicated to the Arab world featuring "No More Fear" (premiered at Cannes 2011), a documentary on the revolution in Tunisia; Discreet Charm of Propaganda presenting propaganda war films from the former Yugoslavia and New Polish Films - the most interesting documents concentrating on social issues, including "Phnom Penh Lullaby" and "Argentinean Lesson".
The Festival program features three thematic retrospectives: the 2nd part of Shelved Gems presenting the most remarkable documentaries and feature films stopped from distribution by censorship, this time by the Western European one, the second retrospective focuses on different forms of intolerance like racism or xenophobia, among others excellent "The Black Power Mix tape 1967-1975"; and the third retrospective dealing on corporate social responsibility accompanied by the discussion with corporation representatives.
This edition of WATCH DOCS is accompanied by meetings with renowned documentary film directors, discussions with human rights activists and special screenings. The festival will also feature a 3-day international conference, among its speakers being Prof. Wiktor Osiatyński and former French Minister of Justice in Mitterand's government - Prof. Robert Badinter.
WATCH DOCS is a joint project of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the Center for Contemporary Arts Ujazdowski Castle and Social Institute of Film. Free entry to all screenings and events accompanying WATCH DOCS. The screenings will take place in four venues - the Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, "Muranów" cinema, "Kultura" cinema and the Old Library of Warsaw University. Following the Warsaw edition WATCH DOCS will be presented in 40 polish cities in 2012.
