Sonita, competing at the One World / Jeden svet festival. (source: Courtesy of Jedne svet)
The event that brings engaged movies focusing on global issues such as human rights, the environment, migration and sustainable consumption will also stage ten debates with filmmakers and present an accompanying programme for children and youths, both reflecting the topical events worldwide, including for example extremism, migration and the situation in Syria.
The leitmotif of the 17th year is Lets Do Away with Fences – calling for a pragmatic solution to problems, instead of building up barriers, the SITA newswire wrote.
Apart from various non-competition sections, there will be an international competition, for a second year, evaluating documentaries about extraordinary people fighting for justice. The films in this section are Sonita, Almost Holy, The Free Voice of Egypt – Nawal El Saadawi, They Will Have to Kill Us First, and Transcending Fear – The Story of Gao Zhisheng.
Festival guests include Israeli-Dutch documentary maker Benny Brunner, Belgian-US filmmaker Nathalie Borgers, Veronika Víchová of the Kremlin Watch programme, former Moscow correspondent for the Czech newspaper Hospodářské noviny, Ondřej Soukup, political communciation theoretician Jan Křeček and social analyst of new media Petr Lupač.
The festival lasts until October 18, and after screening 53 Slovak and foreign movies in eight sections and organising events at five venues in the capital (cinemas Mladosť and Film Europe, the Film and TV Faculty of the VŠMU academy, KC Dunaj and the Open Gallery), it continues in a series of regional festivals taking place in 25 Slovak cities and towns.
