Workshops

Workshop Program at the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin

Deepen your knowledge and expand your skills with our engaging workshops! At the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin, we offer you a unique opportunity to delve into pressing topics and innovative techniques, all with the aim of fostering informed dialogue and driving social transformation. 

Special Highlight: Just starting your career and passionate about climate communication? Dive into our "My Voice" Creative Lab. Over three days, from October 13-15, 2023, you'll team up with seasoned professionals like climate journalist Sarah Schurmann and Video Campaigner/Director Anne Thoma to bring your project to life. Whether it's an article, a documentary, or a multimedia venture, here's your chance. 

All workshops take place at City Kino Wedding (Müllerstraße 74, 13349 Berlin).

Learn more about our hosts »

Friday, October 13th, 10 a.m. - noon: How listening is the key to better storytelling

The New Humanitarian, an independent, nonprofit newsroom that focuses on humanitarian crises, is trying to do things differently than traditional media practice. In this workshop, Middle East Editor Annie Slemrod discusses how listening has become an integral part of her journalism practice, and how it can help storytellers of all kinds. Using The Yemen Listening Project as a jumping off point, participants will come up with ideas of their own “listening projects,” big and small.

Host: Annie Slemrod

Tickets

Friday, October 13th, 10 am - 2 pm: Making Humanitarian Topics Accessible for Students

Interactive Workshop with Hands-on Examples

How do we best introduce complex humanitarian topics to the younger generation? In this workshop, we'll dive deep into the strategies and methodologies for crafting educational content on humanitarian issues tailored for students. Through hands-on examples, participants will develop practical approaches to foster understanding and spark curiosity.



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Friday, October 13th, 12 - 2 pm: True Colors Raising Your Voice with Clarity - Communicating with Appreciation

Looking to amplify your voice effectively within the NGO, journalism, documentary filmmaking, or political spheres? Voice coach Susanne Hauf will guide you on how to communicate clearly, authentically, and appreciatively. Join us to discover the unique nuances of your voice. Engage in hands-on exercises tailored to help you articulate yourself distinctly in various settings - whether moderating, protesting, or interviewing. Tailored for (young) professionals eager to harness their voice purposefully and powerfully.

Host: Susanne Hauf 

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Friday, October 13th, 7 pm - 9 pm: Ancestral Narratives (online)

Ancestral Narratives: The Role of Cinema in Communicating Socio-Environmental Issues

What does it mean to film, use the camera, edit and direct a film? Can these actions turn someone into a filmmaker? This workshop creatively discusses the concept of “indigenous filmmakers” and addresses how cinema, indigenous peoples and nature conservation intersect. The workshop amplifies the voices of those who harness the audiovisual medium as a creative and powerful way to promote tolerance and encourage respect for cultural differences. It aims to address the role of cinema in different production contexts, while discussing  about the use of image and audiovisual technologies in indigenous production to protect the Amazon and fight against the impact of human activity on Earth.  In an era marked by climate change's profound effects on the lives of millions across the globe, audiovisual production emerges as a relevant communication tool to raise awareness that we are integral parts of the same whole, essentially interconnected and interdependent. The lecturers aim to deconstruct stereotypes and prejudices in relation to the indigenous population, demonstrating the diversity of knowledge and worldviews between different peoples, communities and individuals. 


Host: Beka Munduruku & Kujãesage Kaiabi.

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Saturday, October 14th, 10 am - 12 pm: Gender at the Crossroads - An Intersectional Dive into Identity

Who Gets to Speak? Media, Diversity, and the Challenge of Exclusion

This workshop delves into the intersectionality of gender and how it intertwines with other facets of identity such as race, class, sexuality, and disability. We'll critically explore who gets represented in media and how the absence of diverse voices and perspectives can lead to the exclusion of certain groups.

Host: Zahra Nadar, Zan Times

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Saturday, October 14th, 12 pm - 2 pm: From Headline to Hate Online - Strategies Against Digital Hostility

Navigating Digital Aggression for Journalists and Filmmakers

How do you shield yourself from the storm of online animosities? Which resources are at your disposal? Designed for journalists and filmmakers, this workshop provides tangible tools and strategies to address digital violence. Together, we will focus on identifying, preventing, and effectively responding to online hate.

Host: Hate Aid

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Saturday, October 14th, 7 pm - 9 pm: The Camera is Theirs (online)

The Katahirine Network and the Film Production of a Collective of Indigenous Women in Brazil

This workshop is a unique opportunity to understand the complexities of film production and the collective organization between filmmakers in the creation of an indigenous filmography in the Amazon. Given the vastness and territorial, cultural and access disparities in the Amazon, each collective operates in different contexts, transforming its origin into a source of enriching reflections and a deeper understanding of the countless issues that involve the indigenous and ethno-environmental reality today. The workshop is innovative in placing the perspectives of indigenous women filmmakers at the center of the dialogue, by shedding light to the experience of the Indigenous Women’s Audiovisual Network Katahirine, a group of filmmakers –a non-indigenous concept, that wield their cameras, stories with creativity and autonomy. They are the filmmakers – a non-indigenous concept – who direct their cameras in a creative and autonomous way to the daily life of their villages, their ancestral rituals, their traditions and also to the challenges of climate change, mining, agribusiness and agriculture.

Host: Francy Baniwa

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Sunday, 15th October, 10 AM - Noon: Art and Socialchange: a practice in radicle listening and integrity

How can we help prepare and hold our society true the major death and rebirth that needs to happen so the future generations still have a chance for a fertile and abundant life? This is one of the questions Manuwi C Tokai holds to support her practice in radical listening and integrity. Manuwi is an Amazonian Indigenous Artis from the Kalinya Terewuyu nation who grew up in the Netherlands. True her work as an artist and advocate she makes an effort to contribute to the liberation of her people, who are still fighting the colonisation of their territories in the Amazone. This workshop is for people who are invested in their life’s in social change. Manuwi: “I have organised protest, actions and have been part of government negotiations. Also I have provided after care for activist after actions, and sometimes care for the families of those who did not make it to the other side. Giving care forces me in to a practice of radicle listing before action. It is the way that I know how to hold space and move in integrity. It’s how I leave my personal opinions and pain at the door so I am able to be in service to the best of my ability. And I F-up all the time!” This workshop will start with a short documentary about the repatriation of the Indigenous baby Wayam’Membo who’s body is still in a Dutch museum. The documentary fallows Manuwi C Tokai and her community in the beginning of this process. After watching the documentary together, Manuwi will explain her practice of radicle listening and integrity and invite us to write out a practice of our own that applies to our personal circumstances. Please bring pen and paper, pencil and notebook or something similar.

Host: Manuwi C Tokai

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Sunday, 15th October, 12 - 14 PM: Impact Production and Distribution Strategies

'Impact Producing' revolves around creating films and projects poised to ignite genuine social or environmental change. But how do we craft influential campaigns?  Together, we'll navigate the intricacies of these challenges and chart paths to transform your visions into reality.

Host: Khadidja Benouataf & Hasse van Nunen

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Wednesday, 18th October, 10 - 12 am: Consent Under Fire.

We know that No means No. But is Yes really Yes? For a documentary filmmaker this is an essential question and one that doesn't always have an easy answer. If you add a conflict or other high pressure setting, the stakes can get even higher and a wrong understanding may have unintended but disastrous implications. Please join us for a workshop in which we'll explore the idea of consent under the broadest possible terms.

Host: Leslie Thomas

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Leslie Thomas

Leslie Thomas

Producer/Director
Organisation: MIRA Studio

Leslie Thomas

Leslie Thomas is a co-founder of MIRA Studio, human rights advocate, feature narrative and documentary director, multi-media artist, and architect. Leslie is also the founder of ART WORKS Projects and an Emmy-award winning art director. She has designed and led-impact campaigns on grave human rights and social justice issues across multiple continents reaching both very large grassroots audiences and high-level policy leaders with the goal of making change. Recent and in-progress films include The Prosecutors, The Sharp Edge of Peace, I Londo Awe, Untitled Syria Justice Film, and Thursday’s Child.

Khadidja Benouataf

Khadidja Benouataf

Organisation: Impact Social Club

Khadidja Benouataf

Khadidja ist ehemalige Journalistin, Präsidentin des IMPACT SOCIAL CLUB und Mitglied des Beirats der Global Impact Producer's Alliance der Doc Society. Sie unterstützt Filmschaffende und Studierende durch internationale Fortbildungen (Dixit - Le film français, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg etc.). Khadidja engagiert sich als Podiumsteilnehmerin, Jurymitglied und konzipiert Impact Labs für renommierte Filmfestivals (BERLINALE, FIFDH, DOK LEIPZIG, MOVIES THAT MATTER etc.). Zudem hat sie einflussreiche Kampagnen für preisgekrönte Dokumentarfilme entwickelt.

Zahra Nader

Zahra Nader

Editor-in-Chief
Country: Afghanistan
Organisation: Zan Times

Zahra Nader

Zahra Nader is an Afghan journalist and editor-in-chief of Zan Times, a media that covers human rights violations in Afghanistan.

 She started her career as a journalist in 2011 in Kabul and joined the New York Times bureau in 2016. She has been bylined in publications ranging from Time and Foreign Policy to the Guardian, Globe and Mail and DW. 

In October 2022, Zahra has briefed the UN Security Council during the Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security. In February 2023, she was awarded the Kathy Gannon Legacy Award by the Coalition For Women In Journalism. 

She is also a Ph.D. student in Gender, Feminist & Women’s Studies at York University in Canada.

23. OCTOBER 2023