ONE WORLD

From November 16 to 23 November, the 2nd edition of the ONE WORLD BERLIN Human Rights Media Festival took place. ONE WORLD BERLIN is the partner festival of the One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in Prague that took place for the 7th time under the auspices of Václav Havel. ONE WORLD BERLIN was organized by the House for Democracy and Human Rights and EYZ Kino.

The Turkish film Oyun (The Play) by Pelin Esmer opened the festival on November 16 at Casino in Bethanien.
Latin America: Human Rights and Democracy vs. Neoliberalism and Globalisation and Chechynya Beyond the War were the two regional focuses. The award-winning documentary Coca, the Dove of Chechynya was shown at ONE WORLD BERLIN as a special preview.

Two other films in the Chechynya Beyond the War section, Dans Grozny Dans and Mutter Courage in Tschetschenien, show how artistic expression, specifically dance and theatre, play an important role in the struggle for human rights and dignity. Authors, too, have played a significant part in articulating utopian designs for living and fighting against state repression, as the 'authors in conversation' series of The Roland Collection illustrates. Music also can disseminate the human rights idea-be it through lyrics or as part of an empowering subcultural practice, as the African American teens and  young adults redefine and live the punk movement in Afro-Punk. Or the mere act of making music is in itself revolutionary – in Breaking the Silence: Music in Afghanistan the rich Afghan musical cultures reawaken after the Taliban had silenced them for many years. Musical protest in Germany was at the centre of an evening of discussion and films highlighted by a live performance by radical music collective Schwabinggrad Ballett.

Inspired by recent developments in popular culture which see a disturbing encroachment of right wing ideas into lyrics and image and also propose that this attitude might be a form of protest, too, ONE WORLD BERLIN screened a selection of films about what segments of the (usually coded as progressive) gay subculture find fascinating about Fascist aesthetics and even right-wing ideas and how openly gay right populist or right extremist politicians reconcile this contradiction (Skin Flick by Bruce LaBruce and Rosa von Praunheim's Männer, Helden, schwule Nazis).

Following the festival motto "the world is more than icons", part of the festival program examined the relationship between human rights and media: grassroots activists and committed individuals who uncover human rights abuses through the use of electronic media and the internet (Seeing Is Believing: Handicams, Human Rights and the News); first-person video blogging breaking open and expanding the narrow global media conglomerate coverage of the Iraq War and its aftermath (Baghdad Blogger); projects that teach marginalized groups or inhabitants of marginalized regions to use media as tools of empowerment (the Gender Montage programs from Russia and Ci and other post-Soviet countries). But the danger of manipulation through the media is also discussed, be it a dissection of the aforementioned  Iraq War coverage (Weapons of Mass Deception) or the appropriation of grassroots techniques for dubious purposes (Voices of Iraq). The reception and production of media against the grain will be further explored in practical workshop Video/Activism presented by the activist art group P M - Praxis Mobilitätshelfer in cooperation with Interflugs Independent Student Project Bureau of the Arts University Berlin.

Further highlights were a selection of award winners from One World Prague, including The Youngest-winner of the Directing Award, Audience Award winner The Source, The Peacekeepers, winner of the Václav Havel Award, as well as award winners from other festivals (Name and Number, Please-winner of the Human Rights Award at Shooting Europe 2005) and the BL!NDSPOT 2005-Making the Invisible Visible short film competition.