The One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival is getting ready for its 22^nd edition running in Prague from 5-14 March, with an aim to further focus on climate change and its impact. The main category dedicated to environmental topics is entitled UnEarthed and, along with 15 more categories – three of them competitive as well – a total of 133 documentaries hailing from over 60 countries will be screened, with 21 world or international premieres and 6 European premieres. The festival will open with the poetic Oscar-nominated Macedonian documentary Honeyland [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara …
interview : Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir …
fiche film] by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov.

On this year’s focus, One World’s programming director Ondřej Moravec mentioned: “By combining creative documentaries, accompanying events and VR projects, we hope to provide a broad overview of the climate crisis – compared to other festivals that also address this subject, the diverse range of perspectives is truly unique. For instance, you can attend a workshop on fermenting seasonal vegetables, see a film on environmental racism (a subject almost nobody talks about in our country), explore nature in a dead forest at DOX, or immerse yourself in an emotional VR environment.”

In International Competition, 13 documentaries will compete for the Best Film and Best Director awards. Among the selected films, Polish documentarian Agnieszka Zwiefka’s Scars (Germany/Poland), which follows the life of a former female fighter of the Tamil Tigers, will have its world premiere, while Swedish director Peter Torbiörnsson will be presenting the international premiere of Ninosca (Sweden), his portrait of a woman from Nicaragua who the director followed for 40 years, from childhood until her emigration to Spain. The rest of the selection, comprising of European productions and co-productions, includes: Radu Ciorniciuc’s Acasă - My Home [+lire aussi :
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interview : Radu Ciorniciuc
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fiche film] (Romania/Luxembourg), John Webster’s Eye to Eye [+lire aussi :
interview : John Webster
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fiche film] (France/Germany/Switzerland), Meng Han’s Smog Town (China/Netherlands/South Korea), Iryna Tsilyk’s The Earth Is Blue as an Orange [+lire aussi :
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interview : Iryna Tsilyk
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interview : Benjamin Ree
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fiche film] (UK/USA), Espen Wallin, Margreth Olin and Katja Høgseth’s The Self Portrait [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] (Norway) and Arno Bitschy’s This Train I Ride [+lire aussi :
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The Czech Competition, entirely dedicated to domestic filmmakers, will screen a total of eleven films, five of them having their world premieres at the festival. Among the picks are Caught in the Net [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] (Czech Republic) by Barbora Chalupová and Vít Klusák, which investigates what happens to young girls in the virtual world; Doggy Love (Czech Republic) by Linda Kallistová Jablonská, which follows musher Jana and her team for the longest sled dog race in Europe; Grief (Czech Republic) by Andrea Culková, which explores the emotions evoked by climate change in a group of women; Nomand Meets the City (Mongolia/USA/Czech Republic) by Anji Sauvé Clubb, in which the 50-year-old protagonist abandons the steppe to move to Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar; and The Czechs Are Excellent Mushroom Pickers (Czech Republic) by Apolena Rychlíková, who examines climate change in her country from an extra-terrestrial viewpoint.

As in previous years, in a joint effort with the Institute for Documentary Film, the One World Festival is organizing the 9^th edition of the East Doc Platform (7-13 March), the largest industry event for documentary filmmakers in Central and Eastern Europe. The programme will include the presentation “Czech Docs… Coming Soon”, featuring five upcoming Czech and co-production documentaries in post-production; and the East Doc Forum, where 21 feature-length documentaries in development and in production from the region will be pitched. The programme also includes masterclasses by Swedish filmmaker and journalist Fredrik Gertten (Push [+lire aussi :
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interview : Fredrik Gertten
interview : Leilani Farha
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interview : Nikolaus Geyrhalter
fiche film]), as well as a panel discussion on the topic “Filmmaking Against Dictatorships: How to Shoot and Keep Your Freedom”, where filmmakers will share their experiences.

After the festival’s run in Prague, the event will travel to 35 cities across the Czech Republic, with an additional stop in Brussels.