Bamenda Gathers Momentum Ahead of Human Rights Film & Arts Festival

 

The Bamenda Human Rights Film and Arts Festival has been announced to run from July 15-21, 2012. According to a Press Release issued by Gwain Colbert Fulai, of A Common Future, the event will take place in selected halls and cafes in the Bamenda Municipality. The festival which is in its second edition seeks to articulate local, national and international issues through films and arts. The festival is also a lineup of the most sorts after box office films in Cameroon and abroad that clearly addresses related issues like governance, trafficking, respect of human dignity, discrimination and above all, the respect of international conventions and protocols.

It is hoped that through arts, the festival shall gather over 100 students to participate in shinning the light on human rights and their drawings shall later be displayed at a gallery on the university campus throughout the festival period. Through this, the students shall be brought to promote, defend, and raise awareness on human rights issues in Cameroon.

According to the Release, some 18 selected films with each addressing human rights issues shall be screened. The communiqué further states that all the films selected were chosen within the context that each address the concern of humanity and violence against women.

According to Gwain Colbert Fulai, the festival is intended to encourage many more Cameroonian film makers and producers to inculcate human rights as a key theme in the development of their films as an efficient and effective communicative vehicle in human rights education and sensitization. Besides, it also seeks to promote the core values of the international community’s human rights principles of a world free of discrimination, conflict and human rights violations.

The 18 films selected for the festival are: Widows at War and Wildlife Palavar produced and directed by Chop Samuel; Vice & Virtue as well as Asoni directed by Keka Sylvester; Tears from an Angel by Ihehon; Perverted Angel and Une Vie, Une Histoire by Alfred Amandy; Elemo by Nchoutu Rami; The Evidence by Ngato Noutosii; Before the Sunrise by Agbor Gilbert; Your Mother, My Wife by Molimo Cletus; The Woman’s World by Itambi Delphine; Atonement Calabash by Akuro Titus; Pension by Nyincho James; The Storm by CHRAC; Thinking Out of the Man Box by Anthony Porter; Rape and Incest produced by Aunties Association and the German Technical Cooperation.

A Common Future it should be noted is a leading national organization that works to transform lives and build common frontiers by proposing alternative models of masculinity that are not in opposition to models of femininity and that allow men and women to share love, decision making and productive health issues. The Festival is organized in collaboration with the Netherlands based Movie That Matter, the International Network of Human Rights Films Festivals, the North West Regional Delegation of Arts and Culture, The Bamenda City Municipality as well as some local organizations.

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