Global Justice Cinema: Workshop on documentary film and world politics

Disclaimer: This event has been cancelled due to the Corona virus outbreak. 

Activists and journalists use cameras to document human rights violations; teachers use documentaries to educate on international law and world politics and NGOs and international organisations use video as a highly effective communication tool. Film is a very powerful medium in the field of global justice. For the workshop Global Justice Cinema, VU Amsterdam and the Asser Institute - specialised in international law and justice - join forces with human rights film festival Movies that Matter. In this workshop, you will learn to critically view and assess global justice films. You will get familiar with film as a source of knowledge, as a powerful tool to create impact with, and as an object of critique.  Moreover, we will discuss the value of documentary films for education and communication purposes. The workshop Global Justice Cinema will give you the best of both worlds: you will get great lectures in film and international justice by professors at the Asser Institute. And you get to see the latest international rights films, plus the chance to meet filmmakers and activists at the Movies that Matter Festival, in The Hague, city of Peace and Justice.  

Global Justice Cinema workshop programme

24 March, Tuesday
18:30 – Welcome and Introduction Dinner - Restaurant Spize, The Hague
20:00 – Film screening Activist Night – Movies that Matter Festival 2020, Theater aan het Spui, The Hague

25 March, Wednesday
At Asser Institute
9:00 – History and theory of international justice cinema
9:30 – Introduction to international justice cinema theory – Prof. Wouter Werner
10:45 – Break
11:00 – Thinking visually about International Politics - Dr Fransesco Ragazzi
13:00 – Lunch
14:00 – Storytelling and formal techniques – Dr Sofia Stolk
15:30 – Portraying absence, loss and trauma – Prof. Wouter Werner 

At festival venue
19:00 – Dinner at Restaurant Pavlov
21:00 – Film screening The Guardian of Memory

26 March, Thursday
At festival venue
09:30 – Evaluation The Guardian of Memory
10:00 – Meet and greet with Marcela Arteaga (director The Guardian of Memory)
11:00 – Lecture Impact and Communication
13:00 – Lunch and free time to visit festival exhibitions and VR cinema
16:00 – Camera Justitia Masterclass with Judge Christine van den Wyngaert (ICC, ICTY, ICJ)
20:00 – Camera Justitia Night

Speakers
Wouter Werner (Professor VU Amsterdam, specialised in documentary film and international law)
Sofia Stolk (Researcher at T.M.C. Asser Instituut/coordinator Camera Justitia at Movies that Matter)
Francesco Ragazzi (Filmmaker and Assistant Professor in International Relations at Leiden University)

For whom?
Film professionals, international law and justice experts, human rights activists, NGO staff, policymakers, Master and PhD students in film, media, art, (international) law, human rights and (international) politics. No specific background in both film and international justice is required.

Films that have been selected for this year’s competition are: Antigone (Sophie Draspe), La Causa (Andres Figueredo), Collective (Alexander Nanau), Corpus Cristi (Jan Komasa), The Guardian of Memory (Marcela Arteaga), nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up (Tasha Hubbard), Nuestras Madres (César Diaz); and The Scarecrows (Nouri Bouzid). The screenings of these films and documentaries are followed by interviews with the filmmakers and experts.