FIFDH 24

In looking to dub The Lion King into Quechua, the language of the Incas, not only is Fernando, a Peruvian voice actor enriching the life of his 8-year old son Dylan, he is also trying to save his indigenous tongue from extinction. “What we aim to do through our film, a joyful story of a very proud indigenous man, is to transform Quechua from a language of the oppressed into a language of power,” said producer Paloma Iturriaga.

After being forced to flee their country after the Taliban takeover of 2021, four charismatic and influential Afghan women are the focus of this immersive, powerful and confrontational documentary. As they adjust to life in a new country away from their culture and the support of their homeland, they fight to place once more the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan at the forefront of world attention.

The StoryBoard Impact Award (10,000 CHF) was won by the Peruvian project Hakuchu Munayta by Augusto Zegarra while the Sublimages Impact Award was handed to the Brazilian Brotherhood of Weeping Men by Helena de Castro. An additional 10,000 CHF award was given by StoryBoard, in association with the South Africa-based Sunshine Cinema, to the Kenyan film The Battle for Laikipia.

Doc Society’s Sandra Whipham provided a sobering account March 11 of the current streamer-led documentary landscape, but offered a large measure of hope in urging independent makers to wrestle back financial, executive and creative control. “We need to imagine a new global pool fund where resources are shared equitably to every region, where local experts can make decisions about what and where to spend. Funding this work at scale [and] funding the distribution and impact strategies that we know are effective is the answer to the nightmare of AI-generated content, creative conformity and political retreat we find ourselves in.”

Kenyan producer Samuel Ekomol was awarded a CHF 10,000 (€10,425) StoryBoard Collective grant 11 March at FIFDH to help fund local community screenings of Tribeca 2023 winner Between the Rains, directed by Moses Thuranira Thiane and Andrew H Brown. Filmed during a prolonged period of drought, the film tells the story of a conflicted young shepherd who questions his own identity as a warrior while observing the erosion of the culture that has thus far shaped every aspect of his life.

Impact Accelerator marks the start of a new collaboration between the Swiss promotion agency and the Geneva-based philanthropic organisation. The call for applications is aimed at Swiss producers planning an international impact campaign. Through the new partnership, 3 projects will be supported from 2024 through 2025. Deadline for application: April 30.

Mariana Marín Romero is in Geneva to give a March 11 case study on the impact campaign for the Mexican animated doc Home Is Somewhere Else, which looks at the struggles of young migrants and counts up the human cost when families are torn apart. “I think animation helped us with audiences for them to really listen to the stories,” she explained to BDE before FIFDH doors opened. “When we did the community screenings, we noticed that they worked.”

Since its premiere in Venice last autumn, Andrés Peyrot’s feature documentary God Is A Woman has been feted by critics and audiences alike, and has sparked strong debate about some of the issues it raises. Peyrot was at FIFDH (Geneva) where he showed the film and took part in a panel (March 10 ) on ‘the rights of indigenous peoples: decolonising perspectives and imaginations.” The Swiss-Panamanian director also took time to speak to BDE.

Being designated as a ‘foreign agent’ can have a terrible impact on journalists and activists in contemporary Russia as Putin looks to curb any kind of criticism or agitation against his special military operations in Ukraine. The provocative documentary Of Caravan and the Dogs, which world-premieres at FIFDH, astutely documents the personal danger, and severe punishment meted out to, those wanting to take a stand and defend the truth.

The Geneva-based International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) kicks off March 8, heralding a 10-day focus on human rights and the role cinema can/must play in upholding them. “The strength of an event such as FIFDH lies in its ability to unite those who aid us in deciphering the intricacies of the world, reflect on collective solutions and remind us of the need to take action,” underlines co-director Laura Longobardi.