Cinema for Peace Foundation

Film Project Manager Trial Task

1. Consider a film festival dealing with the theme of "Threats to Democracy."

Please suggest a film to be screened and a guest speaker for the following topics.
Please include an explanation for each choice.

a. Suppression of political opposition in Russia

Films: “Citizen K” (2019), directed by Alex Gibney, and/or “Navalny” (2022), directed by
Daniel Roher.

The first is a portrait of Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkosvky, who first came to
prominence as the proprietor of his native country’s first private bank, in the nineties,
before venturing into the oil and telecommunication businesses. Over the following
decade, he morphed into a politically conscious public figure, opposing Vladimir Putins’
increasingly authoritarian hold on power. He ended being imprisoned on embezzlement
and tax evasion charges and serving a ten-year sentence in Siberia before seeking exile
in London, where he finances anti-Putin activism and has become an advocate for
human rights and democracy. The second picture follows Russian opposition leader
Alexei Navalny as he investigates the circumstances leading up to the poisoning by state
agents that nearly took his life in 2020. He ends up getting a confession from one of his
culprits. Both features offer a harrowing glimpse into Putin’s administration unlawful
handling of those who refuse to surrender to his rulings.

Speaker: we could have journalist Christo Grozev, who leads investigations at the
Bellingcat website on security threats, clandestine operations and the weaponization of
information by the Russian government, and/or Nobel-prize winning Russian journalist
Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the now-suspended newspaper Novaya gazeta, which
has run damning reports on human rights violations, electoral frauds and all-
encompassing corruption by Russian authorities.

b. China and political prisoners

Film: “Dead Souls” (2018), a three-part documentary by one of China’s leading

contemporary filmmakers, Wang Bing.

A look at the atrocious memories of about 20 survivors of a “re-education” camp in

northwestern China. They were deported there by the communist regime in the 1950s
under the accusation of being “rightists” and were faced with exhaustive workloads, poor
hygiene and exposure to extreme heat and cold, along with sleep and food deprivation.
It is estimated that up to 3,200 “detractors” were sent to Jiabiangou and that only about
500 came out alive. The film holds up a mirror to present-day China, where hundreds of
thousands of Uighurs endure the same fate as the elderly “rightists” and the regime
works diligently to erase all traces of past and current assaults on human rights and
freedom of expression.

Speaker: Ai Weiwei, arguably Beijing’s most widely-known dissident (now London-

based), Badiucao (another exiled Chinese artist –and former assistant to Mr. Weiwei–,
currently living in Australia) and/or Hua Ze, a human rights activist who was the subject
of a documentary herself (“Broken Harmony: China’s Dissidents”) after uncovering the
whereabouts of a missing colleague who had reported on corruption within government
following the massive Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

c. Social media and big tech

Film: “The Great Hack” (2019), directed by Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer

A piercing indictment of data privacy blind spots in the current internet landscape and of
big tech’s “none of our business” indulgence with illegal information mining that ends up
reshaping the political discourse in real life, as illustrated by the Brexit vote and the US
presidential election in 2016.

Speaker: we could have Cindy Cohn, executive director at the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, or Paige Collins, senior speech and privacy activist also at EFF. The
Electronic Frontier Foundation is a nonprofit championing digital privacy and free
speech. They have been active since 1990.

2. Create a list of institutions that provide funding for people's tribunals or

humanitarian cultural works, and list the requirements for application. At
least 4 institutions.

- Sundance Institute: they have a Documentary Fund that is “especially keen to

raise the voices of underserved or underrepresented communities from around the
world in the service of building a more fair, free, and open society”, as stated on
their website. The fund prioritizes projects originating from Africa, China, India, Latin
America and the Middle East, as well as submissions by indigenous and diaspora
artists from all over the globe. Applications are accepted at any production phase.
Candidates are asked to fill out an online application (featuring items such as
summary, connection to the community, project timeline, intended audience and
impact and funding to date). They must also file line-item budgets.

- Prince Claus Fund: this Dutch fund aims to support artists and cultural
practitioners from Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa,
“especially where cultural expression is under pressure”, as outlined in their
website. They bestow awards that seek to address the needs of different stages of
a career in the arts métiers. The Seed Awards, for instance, give out 100 grants of
5,000 euros each to recipients who are in the first five years of their professional
careers and “whose artistic work engages with pressing social and/or political
issues within their own local context”. Requirements include a reference letter, a
CV, a pitch that answers the question “what drives you as an artist?”, a completed
application form and a work sample or review.

- Ford Foundation (JustFilms): their focus is on supporting projects that explore

social justice issues and that seek to challenge inequality. Organizations and
networks that help further these projects are also within the institution’s reach (what
they call “the 21st-century arts infrastructure”), according to their mission statement.
An online submission form containing synopsis, production timeline, budget,
funding sources and visual samples must be filled out.

- International Film Festival Rotterdam (Hubert Bals Fund for Script and Project
Development): for more than 30 years, the HBF has supported filmmakers from
Latin America, Africa, Asia, parts of Eastern Europe and the Middle East, from script
development to post-production. It aims to boost film production in territories “where
freedom of speech and a solid film infrastructure are lacking”, as summarized on its
webpage. Their selection process is composed of two phases: in the first,
candidates fill out an application form with artistic information, as well as financing,
sales deals and technical details. The projects that do advance to the final round
then have to submit a full dossier (including treatment, visual concept, director’s
and producer’s statements, complete financial plan, schedule, etc)

Also of note: IDFA’s Bertha Fund, the ACP-EU Culture Programme and its grants
for co-productions in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and Berlinale’s World
Cinema Fund

3. Create a list of countries or regimes where mass atrocities are taking place.
Mention the nature of the grave crimes and statistics on deaths. At least 5.

Syria – the U.N. estimates that more than 13 million people are in need of assistance
in a country that has been ravaged by war for more than a decade now. During this
time, more 5.5 million people have fled to neighboring countries or to Europe. A deep
economic crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and the collapse of Lebanon
has seen prices for essential food items skyrocket. In addition to food insecurity, the
Northwestern parts of the country have seen water shortages that put a strain on the
health system. UN’s Human Rights Council estimates that more than 306,000 civilians
lost their lives due to the conflict over its first ten years (2011-2021).

Democratic Republic of Congo – In one of the world’s five poorest countries, around
5.5 million people have been internally displaced due to intercommunal conflicts and
up to 27 million are in need of assistance. Ebola and measles outbreaks, the Covid-19
pandemic and natural disasters have only made matters worse. Gender-based
violence is also a major concern there. It is believed that more than 6 million people
have perished over the last 25 years of this Congolese civil war.

Ukraine – the Russian invasion just crossed the five-month mark last week. According
to the U.N., by early July 7 million people had been internally displaced by the war and
a little over 5 million had fled abroad. There have been multiple reports of bombings of
schools, hospitals, sports facilities and residential buildings. Women are said to have
been targeted for sexual abuse. According to the UN, around 11,500 civilian casualties
had been recorded until mid-July (5,000 deaths, 6,500 injuries)

China – More than 1 million Uyghurs have been detained since 2017 in so-called “re-
education camps” set up by the Chinese central government in the northwestern region
of Xinjiang. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty have published damning reports
accusing China of crimes against humanity for its handling of the 12 million-strong
ethnic minority, mostly Muslim. Beijing is reportedly targeting Muslim religious figures,
banning religious practices and bringing mosques down. Inside the camps, interns are
subjected to forced labor and Uyghur women are mass sterilized. China’s central
government says that Uyghur “extremist” views are a threat to national security. There
are no reliable estimates on the number of casualties resulting from Beijing’s offensive
in Xinjiang.
Venezuela - According to the U.N., in excess of 5 million people have left the South
American country due to concerns over violence, food security and a complete collapse
of essential services. Human Rights Watch states that the Nicolás Maduro
administration is “responsible for extrajudicial executions and short-term forced
disappearances”, while also prosecuting civilians in military courts, jailing opponents
and torturing detainees. In November 2021, a prosecutor at the International Crime
Court said he would open an investigation into possible crimes against humanity
committed on Venezuela. Access to healthcare and adequate nutrition are far from a
given in many parts of the country.

4. What are the most recent films you have seen and recommend?

“Vitalina Varela”, Pedro Costa’s engrossing meditation on time, love after death, faith
and things unsaid, all under the direst of circumstances in a Lisbon suburb; and “Amigo
Secreto” (Secret Friend), Maria Augusta Ramos’s firm investigation on how Brazilian
mainstream media bought into the narrative of the Lava-Jato (Car Wash) operation as
a never-before-seen takedown of state corruption in Brazil and failed to grasp its anti-
left bias, only to see a series of message leaks erode the task force reliability.

5. Which films do you consider the most valuable this year?

“Mariupolis 2”, directed by Mantas Kvedaravičius and Hanna Bilobrova, “Flee”, directed
by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, “Writing with Fire”, directed by Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu
Thomas, “Summer of Soul”, directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, “Lunana; A Yak
in the Classroom”, directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji, “The Power of the Dog”, directed
by Jane Campion, “Great Freedom”, directed by Sebastian Meise, “Prayers for the
Stolen”,directed by Tatiana Huezo, and “The Hand of God”, directed by Paolo
Sorrentino.

6. Where would you raise funds for the following:

a. Taiwan Film Festival: Open Society Foundations, Alliance for Securing

Democracy, Alliance of Democracies, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy
b. Bucha Film Library: European Cultural Foundation, True Story (UK-based
documentary streaming platform), East Doc Platform, DEFA Foundation (the
German institution has offered financial support to Ukraine’s top film archive,
Dovzhenko Centre, which is headquartered in Kyiv; ICFR (International Coalition for
Filmmakers at Risk)
c. Cinema for Peace Foundation: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the
European Commission, Fondation Yo et Anne-Marie Hamoud, the NAACP (US)

7. Which movie would you suggest to screen and who would you suggest to
present it?

“Gyuri”, a delicate examination of world-renowned photographer Claudia Andujar’s

decades-long engagement with the Yanomami struggle to get their land in the Amazon
demarcated by Brazilian authorities. The goal was achieved in 1992, but nowadays
loggers, miners, fishers, hunters, drug dealers and all sorts of intruders prey upon the
indigenous territory, putting them again at risk, while Jair Bolsonaro’s administration
turns a blind eye to this lingering menace. We could invite shaman and indigenous
activist Davi Kopenawa, who is featured in the film as a close friend of Andujar’s and
over the last decade has become a best-selling author in Brazil, to introduce the
screening and take part in a Q&A with the audience right after the film.