The documentary Catalogne: l’Espagne au bord de la crise de nerfs (Catalonia: Spain on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) will introduce the debate on self-determination at the 16th International film festival on human rights (FIFDH), to take place from 9th to 18th March this year in Geneva, the festival has told CAPA TV, the report's producers.
The FIFDH is the main international event dedicated to cinema and human rights. It's held in parallel to the annual main session of the UN Human Rights Council. In 2014, more than 25,000 visitors attended the screenings and debates. In 2017, more than 800,000 followed the events online, according to festival statistics.
The festival highlights human rights violations around the world through films and public debates and is attended by filmmakers, human rights activists, politicians, dissidents and experts. The full Festival program for this year will be released at the end of February.
FIFDH 2018's poster, by Ai Weiwei
From Angelina Jolie to Josep Stiglitz
"The FIFDH brings together filmmakers, artists and defenders of human rights around cinema and different debates where they exchange information, denounce human rights infractions and propose specific actions whilst the main session of the UN Human Rights Council is being held," festival sources say. "It's a great success with a young audience eager to take part in the debates held in 43 places around Geneva."
Previous participants include Barbara Hendricks, Juliette Binoche, Rithy Panh, Gael García Bernal, Angelina Jolie, Reda Kateb and William Hurt; the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Ai Weiwei, Russell Banks, Taslima Nasreen, Jorge Semprún and Nancy Huston; and the Nobel Prize recipients Shirin Ebadi, Joseph Stiglitz and Tawakkol Karman, among many others.
The FIFDH is an independent festival supported by 130 patrons which include Amnesty International, Doctors without Borders, the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, the Swiss Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Ford Foundation.
One step from implosion
Catalogne : l’Espagne au bord de la crise de nerfs was broadcast by Arte, the Franco-German public TV channel, at the end of December 2017. It was produced by Capa, a French press and production agency with some 250 employees and turnover of 10 million euros a year (£8.8 million, $12.3 million).
CAPA has made over 3000 productions, including news reports, news magazines, documentaries, television dramas, corporate films and multimedia. One of their 2017 documentaries, Le Studio de la Terreur (Terror Studios), about Islamic State's propaganda machine was nominated for an Emmy.
The documentary on Catalonia is by Sylvain Louvet, Gary Grabli and Julie Peyrard, who explain the Catalan conflict for a European audience. They travel to different key places and analyse developments over the last few months.
The Catalan independence movement "is the crisis which has shaken Europe, since the 1st October referendum and the 'yes' victory", says the documentary, which narrates all subsequent developments: the declaration of independence, article 155 with the firing of the Catalan government and the dissolution of the Parliament, the deputies in prison and in exile and the election. "Spain is one step away from implosion, Europe is holding its breath", they conclude. "How have we got here? What are the roots of this unprecedented crisis? What are the consequences for the EU? Is there a risk of contamination?", asks the documentary: