FEBRUARY 03, 2020: Pop the corn & feed the children: NITEP’s First Digital Film Festival

Films festivals can bring people together, disseminate alternative information, and encourage collaboration and engagement between people. By offering different perspectives and stories film festivals can be important tools of transformation. (Roy, 2016) From personal philosophical refections to radical political activism, film festivals compile a set of films that bring out emotions and critical reflection. Films can provide a critically reflective approach to learning in an interesting and relevant context that connects to our own experiences. They can provide an imaginative, passionate and flexible way to reach masses into caring about social justice “Imagination is not a luxury but is at the heart of social and political change.” (Roy, 2016 p. 34) Through films, we challenge our assumptions and expand our awareness of reality.

Watch below the winner of the Grand Prix in the Entertainment for Music at last year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, short film Bluesman by Brazilian rapper Baco Exu do Blues. Reflect on the meaning and narrative of the short films? What assumptions and stereotypes are highlighted through the short film? 

Below find NITEP’s First Digital Film Festival featuring only documentaries. Documentaries can expand your vision about global issues that are happening right around the world and evoke a transformation within.

NITEP’s Digital Documentary Film Festival

Political/Social Venue

Human Flow (Anything Ai Weiwei)

The Edge of Democracy

Living Undocumented

The Interrupters (Outreach)

Indigenous Venue

nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up

RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World

When Two Worlds Collide

Lorena: La de pies ligeros

Queer Venue

QUEER CITY | CIDADE QUEER

Paris is Burning

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson

Moroni for President

Education Venue

Schooling the World

Our People Will Be Healed

Waiting for Superman

The Right to Learn

Environment Venue

The Man Who Stopped the Desert

H2O MX

Rotten

An Inconvenient Truth & Sequel: Truth to Power

Before the Flood

Anti-Racism Venue

13th

The Central Park Five (When They See Us Story)

The Hunting Ground & The Invisible War

Period. End of Sentence

Uncovering the Truth Venue

The Act of Killing

The Great Hack

Breaking the Taboo

One Child Nation

Michael Moore’s Documentaries (Bowling for Columbine, Sicko, Fahrenheit 9/11)

A Please Don’t Watch Venue

Living On One (not worth your time)

 

Resources

  • Roy, Carole (2016) Documentary Film Festivals: Transforming learning, community building, and solidarity. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.