International Film Festival WATCH DOCS. Human Rights in Film features not just film screenings, but also important and engaging debates.
 

Together with experts, activists, journalists and filmmakers, we will focus on the condition of the rule of law in Poland, repressions after the Belarusian protests, the climate crisis, the fate of migrants in the dramatic standoff on the Polish border, and even the situation in post-Soviet republics.

Eminent journalists and subject-matter experts will moderate the discussions, including Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska, Bartosz Węglarczyk, Agata Kowalska, Edwin Bendyk and Ludmila Anannikova.

SATURDAY 11.12 6:30 p.m.

"Judges sentenced? Europe in the face of the assault on free courts in Poland.

Moderator: Agata Kowalska

The WATCH DOCS debate will take place after the festival opening film, "Judges Under Pressure" (dir. Kacper Lisowski, prod. Iwona Harris) - screening starts at 5:00 p.m.

What is, what can and what should be Europe's response to destruction of judicial independence in Poland? Where will the increasingly ostentatious disregard by Poland's politicians of Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights judgments lead us? Poland’s collision with Europe raises real questions about the country’s future in Europe and the future of Europe itself.

SUNDAY 12.12 6:15 p.m.

Belarus: the landscape after the battle.

Moderator: Ludmila Anannikova

The WATCH DOCS debate after the screening of the film "When the Flowers Are Not Silent" (dir. Andrej Kutsila) - the screening starts at 5:00 p.m.

What is life like today in a country where a dictatorship has forcibly suppressed social protests of enormous scale and vitality? We want to talk about Belarus today and the possible scenarios for its future from the perspective of human rights defenders and artists.

MONDAY 13.12 7:30 p.m.

Our final frontier - will Poles agree that migrants have the right to life?

Moderator: Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska

The WATCH DOCS debate after the screening of the film "Shadow Game" (dir. Eefje Blankevoort, Els van Driel) - the screening starts at 6:00 p.m.

The festival audience will have an opportunity to meet people helping migrants in Polish forests near the Belarus border. Our guests also include Kenneth Roth, head of Human Rights Watch and Lydia Gall, author of the HRW report on human rights violations on the Polish-Belarusian border.

TUESDAY 14.12 7:45 p.m.

There are no laws on a dead planet. The European Green Deal and human rights.

Moderator: Edwin Bendyk

WATCH DOCS debate after the screening of the film “70/30" (dir. Phie Ambo) - the screening starts at 6:00 p.m.

The European Green Deal and human rights, but also the European Green Deal and contemporary Poland. In our debate, we will also touch on more general issues like ways of responding to the environmental crisis, formulated in the language of human rights, and whether we are dealing with the convergence of the global environmental movement that of human rights defenders.

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^{The debates " Judgment on judges? Europe facing attack on free courts in Poland”," Belarus: the landscape after the battle.”, “There are no rights on a dead planet. The European Green Deal and human rights." were prepared as part of the watchdocstogether.eu project, which is supported by the European Union under the European Parliament's communications grant programme.}

^{The European Parliament was not involved in the preparation of the debates; the information forwarded is not binding on the European Parliament and it accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the information and positions expressed within the framework of the project, which, in accordance with the applicable rules, rests solely with the authors, interviewers, editors or broadcasters of the programme. The European Parliament shall also not be held liable for direct or indirect damage which may result from the project.}