MA Documentary Film students form a judging panel for the An-Sophie Fontaine Human Rights Award in Documentary Film at Fastnet Film Festival 2023
Every year over 5 days at the end of May, Fastnet Film Festival lights up the lively village of Schull, a small coastal town in Ireland. Dedicated to bringing together both established and emerging filmmakers to celebrate the craft of short filmmaking, and to engage in the exchange of ideas and expertise. Over 500 short films from over 40 countries are entered into the festival each year.
Ironically, the host town of Schull has no cinema. Applying their creative vision, Fastnet festival transforms local spaces and businesses into brilliant screening venues in every corner of the village. This ‘up close and personal’ experience encourages filmmakers, audiences and visitors to discover alternatives and explore the village and its treasures. The festival hosts Q&As, premieres, workshops and discussions with incredible film experts alongside its competition, which considers a multitude of categories and invites filmmakers to share their work in a public arena.
One of these prizes is The An-Sophie Fontaine Human Rights Award in Documentary Film, sponsored by the Screen School at University of the Arts London. To contribute to the legacy of the award and remember the foundation of the award, every year the MA Documentary Film students from the London College of Communication form a judging panel for The An-Sophie Fontaine Human Rights Award in Documentary Film at Fastnet Film Festival.
An-Sophie Fontaine was a talented student of the MA Documentary Film at LCC who tragically died in 2016 at the age of 25. An-Sophie was passionate about how documentaries can be used to explore and express human rights issues, in particular how this medium can be used to represent marginalized peoples. Her graduation film “Are you a Rohingya?” was based on a community of Rohingya refugees in the UK and the traumatic and tragic situations that forced them to flee. The inaugural Award was set up in her name, and every year is presented by selected students and staff from the MA Documentary Course at the awards ceremony in Schull this coming May.
Understanding the role of film in social justice is crucial, and having the opportunity to judge a human rights award has enabled us to engage with different discourses, and also consider the complexity of the position and impact of documentary films on film subjects, makers, audiences and the wider world. Examining the impact of films, and also understanding the potential for films to incite social change, are important considerations for all filmmakers. Our Documentary Film MA course places heavy emphasis on interrogating the ethics of filmmaking, and the festival component of our course has been a great opportunity for us to continue the discussion of ethical practices and approaches in documentary film.
We began our judging panel journey by considering: ‘What makes a compelling human rights doc?’. Throughout the process we’ve had regular debates about human rights, taking into account different interpretations, different ways human rights can be represented, and the impact that human rights content can have in documentary film. Our idea for the criteria was to judge everything in relation to human rights. Rather than assume a definite understanding or accept a ‘universally’ accepted definition of human rights, we want to embrace different schools of thought and ideas about human rights. Ultimately, we want to be inclusive and open up the discussion in order to recognise the different and progressive ways in which human rights can be presented, celebrated, and empowered through documentary form.
At each stage of the judging process, our student body has engaged deeply in deciding criteria and fair practices for judging films and the degree to which they document and fairly present subjects surrounding human rights. Through February, our cohort has watched the documentary entries for Fastnet Festival, and we’re looking forward to continuing the process until a winner has been selected. We’re also all really excited by the prospect of attending the Fastnet Film Festival in May; it’s a great opportunity to see the project to the end, and also to recognize the work of the filmmakers and the festival organizers.
The article is written by Holly Bootman.
Holly Bootman is a documentary filmmaker, currently studying MA in Documentary Film at the University of the Arts London. Having obtained an undergraduate degree in International Social and Public Policy and Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, Holly aspires to make films exploring historical and contemporary social and economic issues across the globe.