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Human Rights Watch Film Festival — A–Z of films

2011

  • D

  • The First Grader
    Review preview for The First Grader

    There is plenty of intriguing historical backdrop to this story, and Chadwick manages to incorporate much of it without losing focus on the very personal subject at the film's centre.

    David Graham · 3 out of 5
    The story of an 84-year-old Kenyan man's fight for education and equality.
  • Four Days Inside Guantanamo
    Review preview for Four Days Inside Guantanamo

    Has a quiet, thorough and compelling insistence, made all the more powerful by its measured approach.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
    Documentary based on security camera footage from an encounter in Guantanamo Bay between a team of Canadian intelligence agents and Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, then a 16-year-old detainee.
  • Granito
    Review preview for Granito

    The film is at its best in its footage of those who are picking up the fight that their parents began against Montt, these 'granito' - or grains of sand - who hope that by coming together they can make a difference.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    Documentary charting the Mayan people's fight for justice in Guatemala and the key role played by documentarian Pamela Yates.
  • The Green Wave
    Review preview for The Green Wave

    Ali Samadi Ahadi paints a poetic and heartfelt portrait of a nation oppressed.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    Story of the 2009 Iranian elections and subsequent protests, told by bloggers from within the country

  • I

  • Incendies
    Review preview for Incendies

    Though providing food for thought regarding the nature of conflict and how easy it is to tear a community apart, Villeneuve's heavy-handed approach to metaphor will not be for everyone.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    A mother's past sends her twin children on a Middle Eastern odyssey.
  • Life, Above All
    Review preview for Life, Above All

    Director Oliver Shmitz does a good job of balancing the immediate, visible tragedy of the characters we follow with a wider, national problem.

    James Benefield · 3.5 out of 5
    A 12-year-old girl struggles to protect her family as her stepfather descends into alcoholism and her mother becomes increasingly ill, in a small town full of prejudice and hostility.
  • Lost Angels
    Review preview for Lost Angels

    Napper paints a picture of a place that which may well be the last destination anyone wants to reach but which also, paradoxically, offers a substantial amount of hope for those who find themselves there.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
    The plight of those on Los Angeles' Skid Row.

  • M

  • The Oath
    Review preview for The Oath

    A low-key, but fascinating, documentary.

    James Benefield · 4.5 out of 5
    The story of two men whose fateful encounter in 1996 set them on a course of events that led them to Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo, and the US Supreme Court.
  • The Pipe
    Review preview for The Pipe

    In between helicopter shots of the glorious landscape and the slightly irritating finger-wagging, there's a good story here with a sprinkling of jaw-dropping moments.

    James Benefield · 3 out of 5
    A documentary about a County Mayo campaign against the laying of a new Shell oil pipeline.
  • Pushing The Elephant
    Review preview for Pushing The Elephant

    The film is at its strongest when it uses simple images.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    A mother is reunited with the daughter 12 years after she was separated from her during the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

  • R

  • A Small Act
    Review preview for A Small Act

    What gives the film an edge is its immediacy and emotional impact.

    Angus Wolfe Murray · 5 out of 5
    Giving poor children in Kenya a chance of further education and offering them hope for a better life.