FIFDH: The Anti-TikTok Festival
There was no doubt this morning that the new team at the helm of the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) had seized the moment as they lifted the veil on the program of its 22nd edition.
“How to make sense of our times in a world marked by the interdependence of geopolitical, economic and social crises, the weakening of multilateral institutions and the climate crisis?” questioned Laila Alonso Huarte and Laura Longobardi. As editorial co-directors of a human rights festival, their answer was: “Use the power of images, their roles, and their representations to probe these changes, and bring together those who reflect on collective solutions and remind us of the need to act.” Among the guests this year and taking part in the forum’s debates* are Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dmitry Muratov, Indian economist Jayati Ghosh, American activist Angela Davis, critical theorist Bernard Harcourt, and French philosopher Corine Pelluchon.
Russia and the Middle East will figure prominently in the program, through the screening of both fiction films and documentaries, but from post-colonialism to ecocide, our coexistence with other living species, technology, and the rise of the BRICS and the Global South, this edition will also explore emerging themes and issues in depth, making FIFDH the anti-TikTok festival. Between “resistance and revolt,” in the words of its organizers, the festival will again offer us a lesson in courage and a call to action from artists, human rights defenders, activists, public intellectuals and academics.
*Full disclosure:
The G|O is a media partner of the FIFDH. Starting next week, we will be offering free special coverage of the event. We are also producing three of the Forum’s panels, on March 9, 12, and 17. Stay tuned.