This weekend, 23 different academic departments across campus will come together to present what has become both a staple and highlight of the fall semester: The Human Rights Film Festival.

Organized primarily by Roger Hallas of the English department and Tula Goenka of The television, radio and film department, the Human Rights Film Festival will kick off on Thursday night with “The Man Who Saw Too Much,” a film centered around international social issues.

The film will be introduced by director Trisha Ziff and will conclude with a Q&A. When choosing films, Hallas and Goenka said they wanted to be able to give students the most educational and beneficial experience possible. Therefore, they work to find films whose directors are available over Skype or in person.

“The Man Who Saw Too Much” follows a photographer who has filmed a diverse set of current human rights issues, from Syrian refugees to restricted same-sex love. If these issues sound familiar, that’s certainly intentional. Because the festival is completely curated, Goenka and Hallas have the freedom to select films that are relevant to today’s political climate.

The festival features independent films of high quality that have yet to find distribution, each with a different approach and interpretation of a human rights issue. The one thread they will all share this year is the theme of this year’s Syracuse Symposium: “place.”

While focusing on place, students can expect to see films from across the globe and near to home.

“It’s very easy for people to say human rights issues only happen outside the United States — that we’re perfect”, Goenka said.

She said it is therefore necessary to showcase featuring films that students can relate to on a cultural level. This year’s festival will not feature any films from directly inside the United States, but does have one from Canada, providing the signature North American flare.

Two constants in the festival’s line ups from year-to-year are LGBT issues, Hallas’s concentration, and films addressing issues in South Asia, Goenka’s concentration. Besides those two staples though, students and faculty can expect topics and locations to vary from year to year.

“The world is large, and we don’t want to just focus on the same part of the world. We try to change the part of the world we’re covering and the issues we’re covering,” Goenka said.

Published on September 28, 2016 at 9:56 pm