Promo Movies that Matter Festival 2013 by Motoko
movies that matter festival 2013
The Movies that Matter Festival 2013 took place from March 21-27 in Filmhuis Den Haag en Theater aan het Spui in The Hague. Check here for the film programme and here for more information about festival themes and specials.
Movies that Matter would like to thank all volunteers and ambassadors who helped us organise the festival. Without you it wouldn't have been possible! This year, 20 ambassadors promoted the Movies that Matter Festival 2013 and more than 80 volunteers helped make it a success: thank you for your effort and hope to see you next year !
Movies that Matter Festival 2013 kicks off with 'The Act of Killing'
On Thursday 21 March, the Movies that Matter Festival kicked off with the screening of The Act of Killing in the presence of director Joshua Oppenheimer. In his ‘documentary of imagination’, as Oppenheimer labels the film himself, he challenges unrepentant death squad leaders to dramatise their role in genocide. The hallucinatory result is a cinematic fever dream, an unsettling journey deep into the imaginations of Indonesian mass-murderers and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit.
In the 1960s, Anwar was a small-time gangster who sold movie tickets on the black market. He found an idealized self-image in the gunslinging heroes on the screen. Coming out of the midnight show, he and his friends felt "just like gangsters who had stepped off the screen," and were enraged by the communists who boycotted American films — the most popular and profitable. When the government of President Sukarno was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his cohorts joined in the mass murder of more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese and intellectuals. Anwar and his friends take pride in their past and are eager to recreate it in the form of movie scenes with elaborate sets, costumes, pyrotechnics and extras enlisted to play victims. But as movie violence and real-life violence intertwine, Anwar's boastfulness gradually gives way to expressions of unease and regret.
Cinema Delicatessen will release The Act of Killing in Dutch film theatres on 23 May, followed by special Movies that Matter on Tour screenings and debates in fifteen Dutch cities.
Go here for more info about The Act of Killing in the Movies that Matter On Tour programme.
About the festival
The Movies that Matter Festival is The Hague's film and debate festival on human rights, peace and justice. The festival is the Netherlands' main platform for engaged cinema, with dozens of documentaries and movies of passionate filmmakers being screened every year. Films that stir the debate about human rights, human dignity and situations where these are at stake. The films often have their first and final screening at the festival.
Apart from the regular film programme an elaborate "in-depth" programme of talk shows and debates, among other things, enables the audience to exchange views with international human rights defenders, film makers, politicians and journalists.
The festival features a festive opening night, an award ceremony on the closing night, an educational programme, special private screenings and activities related to the festival, such as a photo gallery, a play and music performances. Thanks to the support of our partners, a selection of festival films find their way to television and the Internet, and go on a national roadshow in February, March and April.
The festival has two main sections: A Matter of ACT, Amnesty International's competition programme consisting of ten documentaries that deal with remarkable human rights defenders, and Camera Justitia, the competition programme on law and justice: the rule of law, international law, legal dilemmas and miscarriages of justice.
Each year a number of varying themes are covered, and two 'the best of' programmes are being presented.
Many international guests have visited or participated in the festival. Among others the late Nobel Peace Price winner Wangari Maathai, Princes Mabel of Oranje, Bianca Jagger, the currently imprisoned filmmaker Jafar Panahi, Oscar winning directors Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Daniel Junge and Gavin Hood and the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo.
The next edition of the festival will take place form March 20th - March 26th 2014.
Go here to read a retrospective of the Movies that Matter Festival 2012.
Click here to view the CNN report on the Movies that Matter Festival.
In-depth programme
Unlike other festivals the Movies that Matter Festival presents elaborate in-depth programmes for most film screenings.
In debates, Q&A sessions, workshops, talk shows, seminars and masterclasses visitors can enter into conversation with national and international guests. These programmes also inform the public about, for example, the film's background and the choices that have been made during its shooting. The contribution of representatives from the world of theatre, politics, science and business, to name but a few, often leads to surprising discussions that give the audience a panoramic view of the subject
