MEKK member Ingrid Fadnes was invited to moderate a conversation about the current situation in the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) at this years HUMAN Rights & HUMAN Wrongs International documentary film festival. In several cities in Central America, the humanitarian situation is similar to what we see in wars. Murders, extortion, kidnappings, rape, forced recruitment to criminal gangs, terrorization of communities, huge economic costs, drug trafficking and impunity have led to a humanitatian crisis in many areas in Central America. It affects access to basic health services, minor infections become life threatening and infant mortality increases. This violence is a major cause of the refugee flow towards Mexico and the USA. The panel conversations was between Loretta van der Horst, director of the screened movie Behind the Blood, Morten Tønnesen-Krokann, Senior Advisor at Red Cross Norway & Ingrid Tjoflåt, nurse with experience from Red Cross hospital in Honduras.
Fadnes also presented the movie Radio Silence from Mexico at the film festival. Radio Silence concerns the safety and security for journalists working in Mexico. The film tells the story of the mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui who was fired from the radio station where she has worked for years in 2015. Supported by more than 18 million listeners, Aristegui continues her fight. The film tells the story of this quest: difficult and dangerous, but essential to the health of democracy. A story in which resistance becomes a form of survival.
Masterclass at the festival
The mastercourse in Investigative Journalism and Cross Border Cooperation at OsloMet organized three masterclasses with filmdirectors and investigative journalists in collaboration with the Human documentary Film Festival.
One masterclass was with Petr Lom, a documentary filmmaker, currently residing in The Netherlands. He has a PhD from Harvard University, USA and had a position as Associate Professor at The Central European University when he decided to become a filmmaker in 2003. Lom has made several films, the latest is Angels on Diamond Street screened at the festival.
Another masterclass was with the investigative journalist Ruth Hopkins and her current projects on the security company G4S. Hopkins is an award winning investigative journalist, based in South Africa. She worked as a journalist and editor with the Wits Justice Project in Johannesburg from 2012 – 2018, producing content about wrongful convictions, lengthy remand detention, police brutality and various other criminal justice issues. Together with director of the film Prison for Profit, Ilse van Velzen, they talked about their project revealing grave workers’ rights and human rights violations committed by the private security company G4S.
The last masterclass was with the norwegian film director Tonje Hessen Schei and her lastest project on Artificial Intelligence. Schei made the award winning film Drone in 2014 and her newst film iHuman will be screened on cinema around the world this spring.
