All of teaching and learning is about the development of the human spirit. If education is not relevant to young people, they will not engage. What was so powerful about the film we used is that it spoke both to the human spirit and to the specific subjects we were studying. It is rare that you find both. —participating teacher, Human Rights Watch International Film Festival High School Program

The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival (HRWIFF) features films that showcase the stories of activists, dissidents, and survivors from all over the world. The films help put a human face to threats to individual freedom and dignity, and celebrate the power of the human spirit and intellect to prevail.

In 1994, Bruni Burres, director of the HRWIFF, decided to expand the festival’s outreach to high school students through screenings at local movie theaters in New York City and Los Angeles. Looking back at those screenings, she recalls, "The responses from the teenagers were inspiring to me. Young people wanted to know what they could do to make a difference, why these injustices still existed in the world." Building on the success of these screenings, Burres wanted to find a way to sustain the interest in social issues that the films had sparked among the students. She felt these stand-alone screenings only "scratched the surface" of human rights and social justice education. Although a film that deals with issues such as colonialism, immigration, racism, or the global economy—and their impact on human beings—can be very powerful, Burres believed that this experience needed to be extended further.

At the same time, high school teachers expressed the need for opportunities to bring these discussions into a classroom setting where their students would be able to explore the issues in greater depth. Out of this experience, the HRWIFF High School Program was born with the following goals:

• To develop a human rights presence in high school and after-school settings through film, video, photography, and Web resources.

• To craft film and resource guides for educators to support important, and sometimes difficult, conversations in ways that engage young people to respond critically to human rights concerns.

• To demonstrate how artistic media such as film and video can facilitate personal expression and raise political and social awareness.

In 2000, with generous support from the Open Society Institute, the HRWIFF launched its pilot high school program. Starting with several high school and after-school partners, the program investigates what it means to support teachers’ use of provocative content in classrooms settings. Free of charge, it makes human rights-related films available to high school and after-school educators, working with them to align the selected films with their curricular goals. To support the use of the films, the program has also begun to draft post-screening discussion guides that will include relevant background materials and online resources.

Once a film has been chosen, the program coordinates classroom visits from the filmmakers themselves—a critical piece of the equation. The most important lesson learned during the pilot year was that the filmmaker’s visit is essential in creating links between the film, students’ experiences of the film, and the critical discussions that ensue. "It’s not just because they’re filmmakers or celebrities, it’s that human contact. . . . The filmmakers that we’ve brought in are not that much older than the teenagers themselves; they’re very attuned to what youth are doing. . . . Just as a purely human element, it’s exciting," Burres comments. One participating teacher vouches that: "It was a transformative experience for the students in the class. They still talk and refer to it today."

Whether the issue was understanding the consequences of poverty or connecting global issues with local activism, students at the various screenings were able to create a personal connection to the content of the film, and the filmmaker played a crucial role in making these connections possible. Students came forward with questions for the filmmakers and were able to have in-depth discussions about topics such as love, race, violence, classism, the future, and family. Students spoke up on teen pregnancy, talked about the hard choices they face every day, and about the difficulty and importance of coalition-building when organizing for change. Another participating teacher summarized one wide-ranging discussion: "Some of the most significant points of discussion had to do with class issues, living between two worlds and cultures, drugs among ethnic minorities, the harsh reality of inner-city survival, the judicial system in our country, and a better understanding of what it is like to be poor in America."

This year, teachers in the program continue to integrate films within different curriculum areas. They are incorporating them within traditional subjects—using them for classes on specific topics such as immigration—and screening them as part of after-school youth groups. The HRWIFF High School Program also introduces students to the art of filmmaking. It gives them an opportunity to look at media with a more critical eye, examine different ways to tell a story, and begin to think about what they can create as individuals. With the right amount of support and resources, the discussions generated by the films promote the development of students’ critical thinking and their ability to see human rights in a new light. The filmmaker’s visit makes this possible by allowing students to connect on a more personal level to many of the issues emerging from the discussions. "They are so used to seeing movies, but in this case the filmmaker is real . . . makes it real. It’s inviting them to look critically and reflect on their own lives . . . and know that they can tell a story about it," another teacher comments. Burres also describes the power of the filmmaker’s visit: "Having them talking to each other, having that honest conversation with the filmmakers, you could see it on some of those kids’ faces. You know they took something away with them, and that’s the best thing in the world."

The High School Program also integrates a critical and persuasive teen voice by commissioning youth producers to create human rights-related media that is distributed as part of the program. This is done through a partnership with youth producers from Youth Organizer’s Television (YO-TV), the Educational Video Center’s advanced media production program. To date, four videos have been produced and are being used by participating high schools.

Currently, the High School Program has teachers participating in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and California. The program hopes to continue extending its scope to other schools and after-school programs around the country. Plans for the future include expanding resources online; creating a collection of teacher-generated curriculum materials; compiling an archive of student work; and developing a printed catalog that categorizes films by grade level, subject area, and learning standards.

As an organizer and participant, I hope the program will continue to educate and empower students and allow them to experience the defining moment in life—when they are able to see the world through a new lens. The HRWIFF High School Program hopes to provide students with an opportunity to look through that lens and make a permanent impact in their own lives and society, with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a very real difference.

If interested in receiving more information or participating in the HRWIFF High School Program, please contact Helga E. Pérez at perezh@hrw.org.