Border Crossing: A Threefold Critical and Reflexive Inquiry into Human Rights Film Festivals, in Particular Movies that Matter Festival

This thesis focuses on human rights film festivals, in particular Movies that Matter Festival (MTMF) – a relatively small yet significant human rights film festival based in the Netherlands. Alongside the festival itself, I investigate the MTMF 2019 film program and the process of film programming leading to its creation. As a film festival with a focus on human rights issues, one can expect MTMF to attempt a varied and all-encompassing approach to its selection of themes and films. Although MTMF does not centre its film programming (and consequently its film program) to gender and genre inclusivity, it is precisely this that offers an opportunity for the study of gender and genre. In this thesis, I examine how MTMF, and specifically the film programming undertaken in 2019, draws on recent developments in contemporary human rights theory in order to implement inclusivity and diversity. As I shall establish, inclusivity and diversity are pillars of both critical film festival studies...Show moreThis thesis focuses on human rights film festivals, in particular Movies that Matter Festival (MTMF) – a relatively small yet significant human rights film festival based in the Netherlands. Alongside the festival itself, I investigate the MTMF 2019 film program and the process of film programming leading to its creation. As a film festival with a focus on human rights issues, one can expect MTMF to attempt a varied and all-encompassing approach to its selection of themes and films. Although MTMF does not centre its film programming (and consequently its film program) to gender and genre inclusivity, it is precisely this that offers an opportunity for the study of gender and genre. In this thesis, I examine how MTMF, and specifically the film programming undertaken in 2019, draws on recent developments in contemporary human rights theory in order to implement inclusivity and diversity. As I shall establish, inclusivity and diversity are pillars of both critical film festival studies and human rights film festivals. To achieve this goal, I have organized this thesis into three main chapters. In the first chapter, I study the significance of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (1948) to human rights theory and human rights film festivals today. Moreover, I investigate the fundamental theoretical concepts from human rights theory that apply to the field of human rights film festivals. In the second chapter, I closely examine 50502020 Pledge for Gender Parity and Inclusion in Film Festivals (2018) and study the MTMF 2019 film program from the perspective of gender and genre. I question the impact a film programmer’s, as well as filmmaker’s gender, may have on a film, especially given that the majority of films released in both commercial and art-house cinemas present the male gaze, as I shall demonstrate. I end with a third chapter that offers a close analysis of the process of film programming, an area which my research reveals to be sadly under-examined by film festival scholars. Here, I delve into the methods and power structures of film selection, deriving from film programmers’ presupposed ideas of on what a human rights film and a human rights film festival could be.Show less

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Border Crossing: A Threefold Critical and Reflexive Inquiry into Human Rights Film Festivals, in Particular Movies that Matter Festival