11,575 participants at 22nd San Sebastian Human Rights Film Festival
The 22nd San Sebastian Human Rights Film Festival, organised by the Human Rights Area of the City Council and Donostia Kultura, took place between 4 and 11 April, with a wonderful response from the public and a prominent role for Basque cinema.
The event opened with the première in Basque Country of Pheasant Island and also featured the world première of the documentary Empoderío. Another Basque production, Flying Hands, was likewise screened during the festival. Meanwhile, the EITB Award for Best Short Film was bestowed for the first time, won by 16060 egun, in a section featuring eight titles.
From the visit to the opening ceremony by the team behind Pheasant Island, headed by its director, Asier Urbieta, and its stars Jone Laspiur, Sambou Diaby and Ibrahima Kone, down to the special award given at the festival's closing ceremony to film-maker Helena Taberna from Navarre, the festival featured in-person presentations of their films by directors including Lara Izagirre, Lidia Zelović, Marta Gómez, Nagore Eceiza and Paula Iglesias.
The various debates and roundtables also involved, among many other individuals, such leading figures as Esteban Beltrán, Director of the Spanish Section of Amnesty International; Raquel González, Coordinator of Doctors Without Borders in Spain; Juan Francisco Calvo, President of the Amical of Mauthausen and other camps, and of all victims of Nazism in Spain; the journalist Emilio Doménech; the United Nations expert in indigenous matters Anexa Alfred Cunningham; and the Argentinian writer Josefina L. Martínez.
8,648 viewers attended the film screenings during the Festival: 4,839 at the 21 sessions at the Victoria Eugenia and Principal theaters, 3,498 school pupils at the 9 Principal matinees, and 311 at the three sessions held at Tabakalera as part of the Film and Memory series.
2,264 people visited the 3 exhibitions held: Beyond Mauthausen. Francesc Boix photographer (Okendo Kultur Etxea, open until 31 May), California Dreamin' (Aiete Kultur Etxea, open until 8 June), and the 21st edition of art and human rights by children and youths (Victoria Eugenia Theatre).
The remaining activities (roundtables, theatre, the online game Konekta TÚ) involved 663 people.
Overall, an audience of 11,575 took part in the Festival.
