Human Rights Festival Collab

Despite the stormy weather (thanks Storm Bram!), our joint programme for this year’s NI Human Rights Festival proved to be a big success!

Delivered through a collaboration between Ulster University’s Cinematic Arts, Queen’s University Belfast (Dr. Lauren Dempster), Conflict Textiles (Roberta Bacic), INCORE (Prof. Élise Féron and Prof. Brandon Hamber), and the Tower Museum (Margaret Edwards and Bernadette Walsh), the programme brought together students, researchers, and the public to engage meaningfully with human rights issues through film.

My students and I delivered two events in Derry as part of the programme. The first was a screening of the powerful animated documentary Cade Heleny/Searching Heleny, followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Esther Vital. I was deeply inspired by Esther’s participatory filmmaking approach and her sensitivity when working with such a challenging subject (the disappearance of Heleny in Brazil.

The second event, Truth, Memory, Justice, was a curated short film programme by my Cinematic Arts student Jessica Buchanan and PhD researcher Tabassum Islam. It was wonderful to see them play such a central role in planning and delivering the event - proud teacher moment indeed! The films were followed by an insightful panel discussion with Brandon, Élise, Roberta, and Esther, chaired by Tabassum. It was great to see so many students in attendance especially as it's their last week before the Christmas break!

Our third event (smartphone filmmaking workshop) had to be cancelled due to the storm and campus closure, but we were very grateful that the other two events were able to go ahead safely. Many thanks to my great partners Lauren, Roberta, Élise, Brandon, Margaret and Bernadette for the smooth planning journey and to everyone who joined us across the 3 days.

Photos by Ben Lundy