Human Rights Arts and Film Festival 2012

Overview

Australia's premier cultural event devoted exclusively to exploring human rights issues through creative media is back in May and June for its fifth year running.

The not-for-profit Human Rights Arts and Film Festival — championed by patrons Margaret Pomeranz, the Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, Isabel Lucas, Warwick Thornton and Geoffrey Robertson QC — will be showing first in Melbourne and then across Australia, coming to Sydney from May 29 to June 1. The festival uses a variety of media, such as film, art and music to celebrate awareness, participation and inspiration by telling the stories of people around the globe who are facing and triumphing over human rights issues.

This year's selection includes a heartening doco about two girls embroiled in Thailand’s 30,000 child boxing tournaments. Buffalo Girls (7pm, May 29) shows the exploitation of the children involved, plus the adults, even their own family members, who take pleasure in watching the so-called sport, betting on the gory outcomes.

On May 31, the Chauvel will host an evening of international shorts from countries as diverse as Germany, Singapore, Lebanon and Cuba. There will be documentaries, dramas, animation and musicals. Among the handpicked selection is Barking Island. Winner of the Palme d'Or for best short film at Cannes, the animation is based on the real events of Constantinople's stray dog problem in 1910.

And on June 1 there's a screening of enlightening and moving short films by Australian filmmakers. The eclectic collection will explore issues from race and equality to stories from behind bars, an adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood, and the life and times of a much-loved transgendered icon (Carmen Rupe, directed by Lucy Hayes). It's also a chance to see films like The Chicken Hawk and the Crow, an animation in the Yanyuwa language with English subtitles, and Unity in Diversity — a documentary featuring children from the Springvale community talking about their journey to Australia.

The full programme in Sydney and across Australia's major cities is available on the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival website.

Image from Baldguy (Skallamann) dir by Maria Bock, screening in the International Shorts program.