In Movies:
The 2009 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival
For its twentieth edition, the 2009 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival delivers not only a strong message about the abuses to human decency endemic around the globe — from anti-Semitism to cluster munitions to female genital mutilation — but also a glance at the recent past of issue-oriented documentaries. New nonfiction films make up the bulk of this year’s slate of 21 features and 11 shorts from 17 countries, showing in New York from June 11 to 25.
Unlike previous years, the festival is also showcasing five previous winners of the Nestor Almendros Award, named for the Spanish cinematographer who worked extensively with Eric Rohmer and Francois Truffaut and was one of the festival’s founders. Of these five films, at least two, 2004’s Born Into Brothels and 2006’s Iraq in Fragments, are nothing short of classics, and one, 2008’s The Sari Soldiers, is a strong also-ran for that label. Seen altogether, they comprise some of the most eye-opening documentary work of the modern era, where compassion and artistry work in complementary fashion…
Full(ish) coverage of the festival can be read at filmcritic.com.
Chris Barsanti 