Documentary | Human Rights Watch Film Festival

Murder, drug addiction, hijacking cars, running away from home: these are just a few of the crimes that the girls from the rehabilitation center for juvenile delinquents in Tehran have committed.

Grandma Gil in South Korea, Grandma Cao in China, and Grandma Adela in the Philippines were amongst thousands of girls and young women who were sexually exploited by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.

A first-hand account of the perilous journey made by a group of Syrian refugees.

With surprising warmth, humour, and humanity, The Good Postman provides valuable insight into the root of a timely and internationally relevant discussion of refugees and asylum.

For almost their entire lives a group of forty-something classmates have grown up together and are reaching the age of 50 with varying degrees of frustration. Anita, Rita, Ricardo and Andrés feel that the school they attend for people with Down’s Syndrome is confining.

Welcome to the war-torn heart of the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, where doctor Tom Catena selflessly and courageously serves the needs of a forgotten people.

The Settlers cracks open the world of Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank: their daily lives, their worldviews, and their position within Israel.

Both a real-life courtroom thriller and a moving human drama, The Uncondemned tells the gripping story of a group of young international lawyers, activists, and Rwandan women who fought to have rape recognized as a war crime.

In this powerful documentary, Juan, Jarad and Antonio, ages 14 to 16, face decades in prison in California, where juveniles older than 14 can be tried as adults for violent crimes.

Dubbed, “The Egyptian Jon Stewart,” Bassem Youssef hosts the most popular television programme in the Middle East.

Watatu follows the story of three men whose lives become intertwined as one of them becomes radicalised.

The new film from celebrated documentarian Alanis Obomsawin chronicles the events following the filing of a human-rights complaint by a group of activists, which charged that the federal government's woefully inadequate funding of services for indigenous children constituted a discriminatory practice.

With immense sensitivity for its subjects We’ll Be Alright highlights just how arbitrary and abusive the Russian care system can be.

What Tomorrow Brings follows one year in the life of the first all-girls school in a remote, conservative Afghan village.

In the early 1980s, death squads roamed the Guatemalan countryside in a war against the unarmed indigenous population that went largely unreported in the international media.

What happens when the thirst for power and riches takes priority over human life?

(T)ERROR is the story of Saeed "Shariff" Torres, a 62-year-old former Black Panther-turned-counterterrorism informant for the FBI, and the first documentary to place filmmakers on the ground during an active FBI counterterrorism sting operation.

Right now, more than 80,000 people are in solitary confinement in the US - locked in tiny concrete boxes where every element of their environment is controlled.

In our media-saturated world, victims of wars and mass violations of human rights are often depicted as bodies rather than as individuals.

In our hyper-mediatized world, victims of human rights violations are often depicted in terms of bodies rather than individuals.

Gennadiy Mokhnenko has won accolades for his work rescuing abused, drug- and alcohol-addicted kids from the streets of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, but his methods — including abduction and de facto imprisonment — have made him a figure of much controversy.

An unsettling and eye-opening exploration into the spread of the radical ideology of the Red Mosque Islamic school in Pakistan, which trains children to devote their lives to jihad, or holy war, from a very young age.

Multi-award winning filmmaker Andreas Koefoed intimately portrays ordinary children in extraordinary circumstances

The editor of The Sunday Times during the heyday of investigative journalism, Sir Harold Evans spent over a decade fighting for compensation for the victims of thalidomide, a Nazi-developed drug whose postwar exploitation by British drug companies led to tens of thousands of children being born with serious defects.

With unprecedented access, Cartel Land is a harrowing look at the journeys of two modern-day vigilante groups and their shared enemy – the murderous Mexican drug cartels.

More than one million asylum seekers and migrants have arrived in Europe by sea.

Dayne Pratzsky, also known as “The Frackman,” takes on the energy giants.

How far would you go to fight for your child’s rights? When Coy, a six-year-old transgender girl is banned from using the girls’ bathroom at school - her parents take a stand.

A group of activists protesting the alleged rape of six girls by a school headmaster and a government official quickly become fugitives.

Since fleeing his native North Korea to defect to the south, the artist Sun Mu has worked under a defiant alias meaning “no boundaries” to criticize the repressive regime of Kim Jong-un.

In August 2013, a military defector with the code name “Caesar” smuggled 53,275 photographs out of Syria.

Inside the Chinese Closet exposes the difficult decisions young LGBT individuals must make when forced to balance their quest for love with parental and cultural expectations.

What is life like in a place where the antiabortion movement has made access to legal abortion almost impossible?

Legendary author, activist, and playwright, Larry Kramer gave voice to the outrage and grief that inspired a generation of gay men and lesbians to fight for their lives

Violence is part of everyday life in Colombia, where the military, guerrillas, paramilitaries, and drug cartels have been fighting for decades, and hundreds of thousands of people have been killed.

From its international premiere at Critics Week in Cannes comes Mediterranea, a riveting drama on migration.

A political thriller and a musical journey,No Land's Song never loses sight of its real center - the female voice.

In Out to Win gay and lesbian professional athletes discuss coming out, and the effect it had on their lives and sporting careers.

Riding at night through the streets of Eastside Los Angeles, the Ovarian Psycos are an unapologetic crew of women of color.

Danae Elon exposes a deep, complex, and painful portrait of Jerusalem today.

What does it take to operate safely in a conflict zone and return with material that succeeds on both an editorial and ethical level?

Salam Neighbor uncovers inspiring stories of individuals who find themselves in Jordan now living as refugees - rallying, against all odds, to rebuild their lives and those of their neighbors.

Solitary tells the stories of several inmates sent to Red Onion State Prison, one of over 40 supermax prisons across the US, which holds inmates in eight-by-ten foot solitary confinement cells, 23 hours a day.

Winner of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary and World Cinema Audience Award for Documentary, Sonita follows a determined and animated Afghan teen.

Suited tells the story of Bindle & Keep, a Brooklyn tailoring company that caters to a diverse LGBTQ community

Tempestad is an emotional, contemplative journey told through the voice-over of two women victimized by their country’s corruption and injustice.

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is a feature documentary that includes eyewitness accounts from the first members who joined the organization to rank-and-file members in cities like Chicago, Oakland, Los Angeles, and NY.

THE DIPLOMAT tells the remarkable story of the life and legacy of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, whose singular career spans fifty years of American foreign policy from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

Virtual Reality (VR) is an expanding arena for immersive and interactive content.

In 2011, the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan by the Metropolitan Police sparked intense riots in London.

The great Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán (The Battle of Chile, Nostalgia for the Light) chronicles the history of the indigenous peoples of Chilean Patagonia, whose decimation by colonial conquest prefigured the brutality of the Pinochet regime.

The Return examines this unprecedented reform through the eyes of those on the front lines—prisoners suddenly freed, families turned upside down, reentry providers helping navigate complex transitions, and attorneys and judges wrestling with an untested law. At a moment of reckoning on mass incarceration, what can California’s experiment teach the nation?

Director Joanna Lipper elegantly explores past and present as she tells the remarkable story of Hafsat Abiola, daughter of human rights heroine Kudirat Abiola, and Nigeria's President-elect M.K.O. Abiola, who won a historic vote in 1993 that promised t

Women were on the front lines of the uprisings that swept the Arab world in 2011.

During this unique masterclass, Human Rights Watch emergencies director Peter Bouckaert and leading photojournalist Marcus Bleasdale discuss the techniques and strategies of international crisis reporting and multimedia storytelling.

Through a clever mix of stop motion animation and interviews, The Wanted 18 recreates an astonishing true story: the Israeli army's pursuit of 18 cows.

As the deaths of Jordan Davis, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner galvanize the public, the moving 3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets brings the conversation back home—to the impact felt by families across the country for whom reform can’t come fast enough.

At a public hospital in Nicaragua, OBGYN Dr. Carla Cerrato must choose between following a law that bans all abortions and endangers her patients or taking a risk and providing the care that she knows can save a woman's life.

Representations of human suffering and injustice are not only aesthetic choices; they are political and ethical choices. In an era where images can be captured in one place and consumed instantly around the world, we examine the proposed concept of "a right to the image".

Abounaddara is a collective of filmmakers working towards providing an alternative image of Syrian society. It was founded in 2010 in opposition to the prevailing representations of Syria found in the Western media.

Over two years, Sudanese filmmaker Hajooj Kuka lived alongside farmers, herders, and rebels displaced to the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountain regions, filming their lives within hillside hide-outs and refugee camps.

Burden of Peace follows Guatemala's first female attorney general, Claudia Paz y Paz. Burden of Peace is an epic tale of personal sacrifice, hard-fought change, and hope.

Growing up transgender in rural North Carolina, Cole has remained remarkably upbeat despite rejection from his family, school and church.

Over the course of more than three years, director Camilla Nielsson gained exclusive access to the inner circles of politics in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Drawing the Tiger tells the story of a rural Nepalese family that has lived for generations as subsistence farmers, today surviving on less than a dollar per day.

When atrocities are committed in countries held hostage by ruthless dictators, Human Rights Watch sends in the Emergencies Team, a collection of fiercely intelligent individuals who document war crimes and report them to the world.

A visual essay in five parts, Evaporating Borders is told through a series of vignettes that explore the lives of asylum seekers and political refugees on the island of Cyprus.

First to Fall is an intimate story of friendship, sacrifice, and the madness of war. It bears witness to the irreversible transformation of two friends, and the price they pay for their convictions.

Former US Navy SEAL Chris Beck embarks on a new mission as Kristin Beck. Kristin's journey in search of the American ideals that she protected have a whole new meaning as she lives her life.

The warriors in Of Men and War have come safely home to the United States after serving their country in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they are unable to escape the battlefield that rages in their own minds.

Josefin grew up in Sweden hearing a family myth about how her Peruvian aunt, Augusta, died in armed struggle for poor people in Peru. Augusta La Torre created the violent Maoist guerilla Sendero Luminoso or Shining Path, together with her husband Abima

For the Abounaddara Collective, "films should burst out like bullets to break the silence. They should tell the Syrian story with great narrative intensity and make the viewer look at reality differently."

TEACHING IGNORANCE asks: How do the Palestinian, Israeli Arab, and Israeli Jewish educational systems teach the history of their peoples?

Filmmaker Francois Verster explores how music and storytelling can serve as an outlet for citizens to process political upheaval.

In 1982, Nick Yarris was sentenced to death for a brutal crime.

The Look of Silence is Joshua Oppenheimer’s powerful companion piece to the Oscar®-nominated The Act of Killing This unprecedented film initiates and bears witness to the collapse of fifty years of silence.

In 1944, teenagers Thomas & Edith were interned by the Nazis in Budapest. Alone and afraid, they fell in love.

The photographer Sebastião Salgado was a refugee in the 1970s, fleeing the military dictatorship in Brazil. He became a global wanderer, photographing epochal events of violence and displacement, including Rwanda, Bosnia, and the war in Iraq.

Accomplished documentarian Fernand Melgar is renowned for his powerful investigations into the injustices of Swiss society. His latest offering, The Shelter, charts a cold winter spent at an emergency shelter for homeless migrants in the wealthy city o

I knew that people would one day take to the street, and I knew that I would participate. - Hend Nafea

The Trials of Spring multimedia initiative image

The Trials of Spring is a multimedia initiative that aims to elevate the stories of women. This program will feature a selection of short films and a discussion with the project's multi-disciplinary team.

For the last 20 years, notorious activists the Yes Men have staged outrageous and hilarious hoaxes to draw international attention to corporate crimes against humanity and the environment. Armed with nothing but quick wits and thrift-store suits, these

If change happens one person at a time, by opening minds and replacing hatred with understanding, what will the future hold for the next generation of Israeli and Palestinian children?

October 2001: As US-led forces invade Afghanistan in search of Osama Bin Laden, 22 members of China's Uyghur minority happen to be in the country. These Turkish-speaking Muslims are fleeing repressive authorities in Beijing, which view them as dangerou

A powerful combination of investigative journalism and nature documentary, Virunga is the incredible true story of a group of courageous people risking their lives to build a better future in a part of Africa the world's forgotten, and a gripp

WE WERE REBELS tells the story of Agel, a former child soldier who returns home to help build South Sudan – the youngest country in the world.

A cautionary tale about the toll of American oil investment in West Africa, Big Men reveals the secretive worlds of both corporations and local communities in Nigeria and Ghana.

Director Madeleine Sackler goes behind the scenes with the Belarus Free Theatre, an acclaimed troupe of imaginative and subversive performers who, in a country choked by censorship and repression, defy Europe's last remaining dictatorship.

What happens when your child comes out to you? My Child answers this question as it introduces a courageous and inspiring group of mothers and fathers in Turkey, who are parents of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals.

South African filmmaker Khalo Matabane was an idealistic teenager with fanciful ideas about a post-apartheid era of freedom and justice when the great icon of liberation Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990. In a personal odyssey encompassin

One hot August night in 2006, in New York's Greenwich Village, a group of young African-American lesbian friends are violently and sexually threatened by an older man. Out in the Night uncovers how their lives leading up to that night compell

Private Violence explores a simple but deeply disturbing fact of American life: the most dangerous place for a woman in America is her own home.

Filmed between August 2011 and August 2013, Return to Homs is a remarkably intimate portrait of a group of young revolutionaries in the city of Homs in western Syria. They dream of their country being free from President Bashar al-Assad and fi

This engaging tragicomic documentary follows women inmates through a 10-month drama therapy/theater project set up in 2012 by director Zeina Daccache at the Baabda Prison in Lebanon.

Sepideh is a young Iranian woman who dares to dream—of a future as an astronaut.

The Beekeeper relates the touching story of Ibrahim Gezer, a Kurdish beekeeper from southeast Turkey, and his unusual experience of integration into the seemingly conservative heart of today's Switzerland.