The Hong Kong-based 1905 International Human Rights Film Festival has expanded to the Asia Pacific region in its second year, starting with Taiwan.
The festival, which launched in Hong Kong in 2016, will be held from May 17 to May 27 in Hong Kong, Taipei, Taizhong and Kaohsiung, with the aim of building an Asia-Pacific platform for films promoting human rights.
“The goal of this platform is to allow those in the human rights filmmakers community in the Asia Pacific to engage with each other, learn from each other and work together,” festival organizer Li Dan says.
“It can also serve as a bridge to bring some of the human rights filmmaking resources from Europe and North America to Asia, where there are fewer resources and less awareness of human rights.”
The festival aims to raise awareness about human rights violations through film screenings and discussions with filmmakers and activists. It was also launched with the goal of furthering social dialogue through the medium of film after organizers found a lack of human rights film festivals in East Asia.
This year’s festival showcases a mix of feature films, documentaries, and short films that focus on a broad set of issues ranging from domestic violence to transgender rights to ethnic cleansing.
