The “Karama – Beirut Human Rights Film Festival” kicks off its seventh edition on 5 October 2023, at 7 PM at Sunflower Theater, in Tayyouneh, Beirut, under the theme ‘Hold On.’ Organized by NGO ‘Art Factory 961,’ the festival is held in collaboration with the United Nations Information Centre in Beirut (UNIC Beirut) and in partnership with the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Lebanon and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The festival focuses on holding on to the basics of the Human Rights Charter and on the diversity and inclusion of marginalized groups. The seventh edition of Karama Beirut Human Rights Film Festival is dedicated to call for everyone, through art and films, to re-read the provisions of the International Charter of Human Rights as agreed upon and announced by humanity, in order to reconsider the interpretive formulas, and to re-work according to them as standards of justice and fairness. The festival runs from 5 to 8 Octoberand features 13 films, from several countries in the world in an attempt to restore clarity to human rights practice, which means preserving human dignity and diversity everywhere, as a founding principle of human rights in our country. A wide range of films, fiction, and documentary all of which will be screened, subtitled in both English and Arabic. Themes included among others: Diversity and inclusion of marginalized groups, war, refugee rights, women’s rights, migration, slavery, and labor rights. Debates and Q and A’s will be organized after almost every film with the presence of the directors of the films from all over the world. In addition, a master class to refute common myths and fallacies in media toward persons with disabilities will be implemented during the days of the festival. Karama – Beirut Human Rights Film Festival (KBHRFF) is a film event that contributes, among other well-established and renowned human rights film festivals in the world, to spreading a cinema that denounces racism, hate discourse, discrimination, and injustice. In 2021, the fifth edition of the festival was held under the theme ‘Occupy the Void’ and focused on the power and aspirations of young people for social and political change through public political participation. In 2019, the fourth edition of the festival was held under the theme ‘Talk to Her’ and promoted Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality, while the third edition, held in 2018 under the motto ‘Free the Word,’ aimed to support the freedom of expression that is liberated from traditional official models. In 2017, the second edition addressed the theme ‘New Identities’ and focused on identities conflict, whereas the first edition was held in 2016 under the theme ‘The Others,’ and aimed to raise awareness on the rights of refugees and minorities in Lebanon and the Arab World.

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon