The second Human Rights Film Festival Berlin took place from 18 to 25 September 2019. Once again, stories of courageous people, their fears, joys and hopes, took centre stage. The films identified human rights violations and denounced them. While 25 documentaries had examined our world’s crises the year before, the 2019 festival edition showed 40 documentaries in 70 screenings.
The festival was opened by political scientist Prof Dr Gesine Schwan, patron of the 2019 HRFFB. Many of her publications focus on the topic of ‘democracy’ and the question of who bears responsibility in democratic processes.
‘Representative democracy [must] be supplemented, supported and underpinned by much more participation from the people (...) This also increases the chance that citizens will be able to contribute more of their interests and competencies, which ultimately leads to identification strengthening the interest in democratic processes once more.’ (The European, 21 April 2019)
2019 Honorary President: Ai Weiwei
Ehrenpräsident 2019: Ai Weiwei
We felt especially honoured that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei took on the honorary presidency of the festival.
The 2019 Human Rights Film Festival Berlin was organized by Aktion gegen den Hunger in cooperation with Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
