News

One World presents the Sundance Documentary Fund

The One World Human Rights Film Festival and the Karlovy Vary IFF present a collection of films from the Sundance Documentary Fund. To mark the 10th anniversary of the SDF, One World selected six excellent films made thanks to the fund's support. Among them is the Czech premiere of the Sundance Award-winning documentary Iraq in Fragments.

Karlovy Vary IFF • 6.7. – 8.7. 2006

Other films presented are:

Do You Remember Sarajevo

6.7. 10:00 Panasonic Cinema, 7.7. 12:30 Cinema B – Thermal

The Inner Tour

6.7. 16:00 Panasonic Cinema, 8.7. 10:00 Cinema B – Thermal

Iraq in Fragments

6.7. 19:00 Panasonic Cinema, 7.7. 10:00 Cinema B – Thermal

Maquilapolis: City of factories

6.7. 10:00 Panasonic Cinema, 7.7. 12:30 Cinema B – Thermal

My Country, My Country

6.7. 13:00 Panasonic Cinema, 8.7. 12:30 Cinema B – Thermal

The Refugee All Stars

6.7. 21:30 Panasonic Cinema, 8.7. 15:30 Cinema B – Thermal

For more information go to: http://www.kviff.com/?lang=en

Rudolf Vrba died

Rudolf Vrba, who as a young man escaped from Auschwitz and provided the first eyewitness evidence not only of the magnitude of the tragedy unfolding at the death camp but also of the exact mechanics of Nazi mass extermination, died on March 27 at a hospital in Vancouver, Canada. He was 81. After the war Dr. Vrba went on to become a distinguished medical researcher in Israel, Britain, the United States and Canada, writing dozens of papers. But his greatest importance is as an author of a much different paper — one with diagrams of gas chambers and crematories. With remarkable specificity gained from camp jobs that gave him unusual access to various corners of Auschwitz, including the gas chambers, Dr. Vrba told the unknown truth about it.

To pay honors to this exceptionally brave man, One World Festival presents annually Rudolf Vrba Award to the best film in the category named Right to Know. The documentaries selected for this category refer to human rights violations all over the world.

The main prize goes to Jaro Vojtek’s film Here We Are

In keeping with tradition, the Rudolf Vrba Award for the best film in the category Right to Know will be awarded not by filmmakers, but by a jury comprising important personages in the sphere of human rights and social issues. The Rudolf Vrba Jury, comprising Ondřej Cakl (Czech Republic), Emilie Horáčková (Czech Republic), Debbie Stothard (Malaysia), Senay Ozdemir (Netherlands), and Zoé Valdés (Cuba), has decided to award to the prize to Coca – The Dove from Chechnya (Eric Bergkraut, Switzerland 2005). The jury also decided that honorary mention must be made of Angelika Schuster and Tristan Sindelgruber for their documentary Operation Spring.

This year, the jury awarding the Czech Radio Prize for the creative utilisation of music and sound in documentary film comprises Jiří Hraše, Vlastimil Hankus and Karel Fisl. The award will go to the film Touch the Sound (Thomas Riedlshemier, Germany 2004).

The One World Festival also offers viewers the chance to vote for their favourite film. Following a careful count of the votes, it is clear that the most popular film with audiences at this year’s One World is The Shutka Book of Records (Alexandr Manic, Serbia and Montenegro, Czech Republic, Finland). The Pilsner Urquell Audience Award was presented by a representative of the Pilsner Brewery, the traditional and highly esteemed General Sponsor of the One World Festival.

For the first time this year, the winner of the Best Short Film will receive financial recognition of CZK 50 000, kindly donated by the City of Prague. The special mayoral jury consisted of Hermann Barth (Germany), Jennifer Jones (USA), Sannette Naeyé (Netherlands), Hugh Purcell (UK), and Keith Shiri (Zimbabwe, UK). Following lengthy deliberations, the jury gave the Mayor of Prague Award to the documentary Dear Muslim (Kerstin Nicking, Germany, Poland 2005).

The Grand Jury faced the challenge of selecting the winners of two categories: Best Director and Best Film. The jury entrusted with this difficult task consisted of Antoine Cattin (Switzerland), Peter Kerekes (Slovakia), Arunas Matelis (Lithuania), and Filip Remunda (Czech Republic). Regrettably, Mercedes Moncada Rodriguez was forced to cancel her participation in the jury at the last minute after falling ill with malaria while filming in Nicaragua.

The four-member jury awarded the prize for Best Director to Jenz Schanze for his film Winter’s Children – The Silent Generation.

The jury also decided that honorary mention must be made of Miroslav Janek for his documentary Vierka (Czech Republic 2005), and Grzegorz Pacek for Go to Louisa! (Poland 2005).

Jaro Vojtek, the director of Here We Are (Slovakia 2005) was receive the Czech Minister of Culture Award for Best Film. This year, for the first time, the award includes a financial remuneration of CZK 50 000.

Jury selects clip promoting environment protection in the Czech Republic

On the penultimate day of the One World festival, Greenpeace received The Most Relevant 2006 award, conferred by a special jury to a short promotional film that has the potential to spearhead a nationwide public awareness campaign. The film confronts images of the Czech Republic’s industrial landscape with the sound of the Czech anthem. The audience at yesterday’s NonComm event had the opportunity to see a diverse selection of amusing short promos addressing social issues from all around the world. Both amusing and shocking, the clips covered serious subjects such as domestic violence, environment protection, animal cruelty and testing, bullying and drink driving. “Because all these issues are important, it was difficult to choose. We decided to highlight this clip because of its potential to be effective in the long-term,” Věra Krincvajová from Czech Television said at the prize-giving ceremony. The One World festival plans to make the NonComm category a regular feature.

One World Films On-Line Attract More Than 16 000 Visitors

As it did last year, One World is again offering films on-line. This time, ten entire films and thirty trailers are available. So far, more than sixteen thousand Internet users have viewed the films accessible at the website of Czech Television. The documentaries Brother Gordon, The Seagull flying against the Wind, The Clown Children, Frontlines – Laos, There Are Women In Russian Villages, The Beach Rampage That Never Was, Elechek, Say Amen!, Moment of Fury and Women’s Happiness or Men’s Dignity are still available on-line. Even people unable to visit One World in any of the fourteen towns in the Czech Republic where it is being held are thus provided with the opportunity to see some of this year’s festival films.

Václav Havel presented his award to Milena Kaneva

Two films were screened yesterday at the opening ceremony of the International Human Rights Festival One World. Václav Havel was there in person to present his special award, and a commemorative plaque, to Milena Kaneva, the director of Total Denial (www.totaldenialfilm.com). Havel, the first Czechoslovak president after November 1989, chose the film from a selection of documentaries put forward by a committee consisting of Helena Dluhošová, Martin Vidlák and Šimon Pánek (the head of the People in Need). Following the award ceremony, festival guests and partners had the opportunity to watch Saša Gedeon’s short film Unisono and the opening film of the festival, Oscar-nominated Darwin’s Nightmare. Total Denial will be screened with English subtitles at 9 pm on Friday, March 3^rd.

Ales Bialicki receives Homo Homini award from Václav Havel

On Wednesday, Václav Havel presented the Homo Homini award to Ales Bialacki. The award ceremony took place in the prestigious premises of the Prague Crossroads, administered by the Vize 97 Foundation. The following day, Václav Havel attended the screening of Darwin’s Nightmare, the opening film of the Human Rights Documentary Film Festival One World, as well as awarding Milena Kaneva for her film Total Denial. The opening ceremony on Wednesday also included the announcement of the winners of the literary competition for secondary schools, “Behind the Curtain of Forgetting – Communist Czechoslovakia.” The winner was Michal Mojžíš from the Český Krumlov Gymnasium, second prize went to Kristýna Chmelinová from the Olomouc-Hejčín Gymnasium and Tereza Hejdová from the Zikmund Winter Gymnasium in Rakovník received the third prize. The awards were presented by Marek Švehla, the editor-in-chief of the weekly Respekt, Karel Strachota, the head of the One World Project for Schools, and Naděžda Kavalírová, the chairperson of KAN, the Czech Confederation of Political Prisoners.

Grand Jury Member Mercedes Moncana Rodriguez ill with malaria

Mercedes Moncana Rodriguez, the talented Spanish director and member of One World’s Grand Jury, has fallen ill with malaria while shooting her latest film in Nicaragua. Regrettably, this long awaited and distinguished festival guest will not be able to attend the Human Rights Documentary Film Festival One World. The entire festival team wishes her a swift recovery.

Films of One World in prisons

This year the men and women serving time in Czech prisons will have the opportunity to see films featured at the One World International Human Rights Film Festival. Screenings will be held in the facilities Praha-Ruzyn, Praha-Repy, Hradec Kralove, Kurim and Svetla nad Sazavou. During March, inmates in men’s and women’s prisons will be able to see films such as Visioning of Tibet, Favela Rising, Beyond Reasonable Doubt, and others. The inmates of Kurim prison can even look forward to a weeklong festival, during which they will be able to view five films from the current One World selection.

Film Before Flying Back to the Earth won in Zagreb

On Sunday in Zagreb in Croatia finished film festival Zagreb DOX. The main award was given to new Arunas Matelis – member of Grand jury in coming One world festival – film Before Flying Back to the Earth. 30 recognized film from over the world took part in international competition. The film almost time has a leadership in audience choice also.

It's a third competition of the film by Arunas Matelis in international film festivals and third main award. Before Zagreb DOX the film received Golden Dove in Leipzig , Silver Wolf in famous Amsterdam IDFA. The film was nominated of European FilmAcademy for Best European Doc 2005, got Lithuanian national and culture award and was recognized as the best Lithuanian film of 2005. Te film Before Flying back to the Erath will be screen during the Human Rights Documentary Film Festival One World in Reflecting images program.

People in Need - Czech TV Foundation Sokolska 18, 120 00 Praha 2, Czech Republic Tel. +420 226 200 474, mail@oneworld.cz.