Festival de Cine y Derechos Humanos, screened Justice for Sergei in May 2012 in Barcelona.
The Festival is directed by the filmmaker Toni Navarro and organized by the cultural association "La Mirada". It has a double aim:
1.- To promote and to create a platform for the exhibition and distribution of films with the topic of the human rights as a key element.
2.- To raise awareness and to strengthen the respect towards the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the distribution of the mentioned films. The Festival will do travelling showcases with the awarded films from previous years in several cities around the world, such as Amman (Jordan), Seville
(Spain), Bogotá (Colombia), Caracas (Venezuela), Istanbul (Turkey) Athens (Greece) Teheran (Iran). More information can be found here.
The fifth edition of One World Romania Documentary Film Festival on Human Rights hosted a screening of Justice for Sergei. The festival took place in Bucharest, Romania from March 14th to March 19th, 2012.
Here is some background information from the festival website: 'This world is wonderful. It would look even better if some documentaries would not open our eyes. We solemnly recognize: we are the ones who spoil the picture of the human race. While Romania’s image in the world is fiercely guarded by many of our citizens, some weaker countries have been left defenseless. Thus, we have been plotting with filmmakers from around the globe: be it Brits or Egyptians, Mexicans or Estonians, Italians or Americans, they are all irresponsibly driven to speak about sufferings, injustice, corruption or family dismay.'
In May of this year, One World Romania is including Justice for Sergei in its 'on tour' program with screenings in Chisinau, Moldova. Please visit the festival website for more information.
Justice for Sergei screened in Paris, France at the Festival International du Film des Droits de l’Homme (FIFDH) in March, 2012. The FIFDH has been, for the last 7 years, with over 80 projections, the most important cultural manifestation on the theme of Human Rights in France. Each year, the festival offers directors from all over the world the opportunity to present their work and to meet the public. Justice for Sergei was selected out of over 500 films that were submitted this year. FIFDH took place from March 6th – 12th, 2012 in Paris. For more information, please visit the festival website.
On Friday, December 9, 2011, Justice for Sergei screened at Karama, the first Human Rights Film Festival in Amman, Jordan. Initiated in 2010, Karama advocates for human rights, invites debate, encourages critical thinking and civil engagement through the screening of human rights films and their post-screening Q&A’s and debates.
In order to deepen critical thinking and widen its reach, Karama also draws on culture and the arts, hosting musical concerts, theater performances, poetry readings and visual art exhibitions that deal with human rights issues. Jamison Firestone, Sergei Maginitsky’s employer, attended the screening of the film at the Round Theater and participated in a Q&A afterwards. Details can be found at the festival website.
Justice for Sergei had its Asian premiere at Flashpoint, the human rights film festival in Mumbai, India. Following on the successful and impactful first edition, the 2nd edition of FLASHPOINT Human Rights Film Festival was held from Dec 7th – 10th, 2011 at Alliance Francaise de Bombay.
Flashpoint in Mumbai takes on a gamut of bêtes noires from violence, fundamentalism and corruption to gender discrimination and homophobia. This year the festival screened 18 films that take a critical and empathetic look at several human rights issues in, as diverse countries as, Kenya, Senegal, Columbia, Israel, Iraq, Kurdistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Cameroon, USA and India. More information about the festival can be found here.
The influential Watch Docs Film Festival in Warsaw, Poland screened Justice for Sergei in December, 2011. Watch Docs is the world’s second largest human rights film festival and the third biggest film festival in Poland, garnering an annual audience of over 70.000 viewers in the whole country; it is also Warsaw’s oldest documentary film festival.
The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights founded the festival in 2001. HFHR implements education, intervention and monitoring programs. A significant portion of its activity concerns human rights in states of the former Soviet Union. Directors Martin Maat and Hans Hermans attended the screenings and were grateful for the warm welcome they received from the festival organisation. While in Warsaw, both directors were interviewed by Pawel Chelchowski of the Polish national newspaper Gazeta. His interview (in Polish) can be downloaded here. More info about Watchdocs can be found at the festival website.
The Amnesty International Film Festival in Vancouver, Canada hosted a screening of Justice for Sergei on Sunday 20th November, 2011. The Amnesty International Film Festival believes in the power of film to tell important stories about one of the most pressing issues of our time - human rights. For that reason the festival presents film events every year in more than 40 communities across Canada, from Victoria, BC, to St. John's, Newfoundland, and north to Whitehorse and Haines Junction, Yukon.
Many of the films are made by independent filmmakers who continue to work against long odds, short finances, and threatening politics to tell compelling and powerful stories of human struggle, sacrifice, and triumph. Please visit the festival website for more details.
Justice for Sergei screened on November 13, 2011 at the Canadian Free Thinking Film Festival in Ottowa, Canada.
The Free Thinking Film Society organizes the festival. “All too often”, the festival states at its website, “cultural festivals in Ottawa forget that not everybody is from the left side of the spectrum. As such, we will try to bring to Ottawa, every year, films and speakers that otherwise would not show in the capital. We want to engage the public in serious debate - something that is seriously lacking in all too many events.”
Festival website.
The African premiere of Justice for Sergei took place at the Kenya International Film Festival, held in October, 2011. The ten-day festival screened over 300 films produced in 55 countries.
The Kenya International Film Festival has come from a very humble beginning of a small local films festival to an international festival attracting films globally. The festival takes pride as the fastest growing festival in the region with the potential of becoming the leading festival in Africa. The mission of the festival is to challenge local filmmakers to contribute products which are indeed truly African and can transverse international borders.
More information on this fast growing festival can be found here.
Justice for Sergei was the opening film of the human rights film festival Ad Hoc: Inconvenient Films on October 20th, 2011 in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Ad Hoc: Inconvenient Films is an annual documentary film festival established in 2007. The mission of this non-profit initiative is to raise awareness on human rights issues around the world and to connect them to those that are present in Lithuania.
By presenting documentaries on various human rights topics, inviting filmmakers and activists from all over the world, organizers hope to encourage public debates on human rights issues and ways to address them. “Ad Hoc: Inconvenient Films” is so far the only film festival of this kind in the Baltic States.
Jamison Firestone, the employer of Sergei, attended the screening.
Please visit the festival website for more information.
The award-winning documentary Justice for Sergei was the opening film of the prestigious One World Film Festival Brussels. On the evening of May 17, 2011 the film opened this festival aimed at European lawmakers and politicians in the BOZAR Centre of Fine Arts.
One World Brussels offers a chance to see some of the best documentary films from this year's One World in Prague - the largest human rights film festival in Europe. The directors of the film, Martin Maat and Hans Hermans, attended the screening and said they felt honored by the festivals decision to select Justice for Sergei as opening film. “The tragical fate of Sergei Magnitsky has had the attention of a lot of European lawmakers for some time now. This resulted in the resolution of the parliament on a visa ban for the people involved in Sergei's death. We hope the screening of our film and subsequent forum discussion will increase the pressure on the Russian authorities to properly investigate what happened to Sergei”, said Hans Hermans.
General information about the festival can be found here.
Justice for Sergei had its official world premiere at the leading Movies that Matter festival in The Hague, the Netherlands on Sunday, March 27, 2011. Movies that Matter is the Netherlands' main platform for engaging cinema, with dozens of documentaries and movies of inspired filmmakers being screened every year. The screening of Justice for Sergei wasfollowed by a debate with lawmakers and the filmmakers on the legal possibilities to punish those responsible for the death of Sergei Magnitsky. A second screening of the film took take place on Monday, March 28. More information can be found here.
The film has also been selected by the prestigious OneWorld Film Festival in Prague, Czech Republic. OneWorld is currently the largest Human Rights Film Festival in Europe. The festival program includes the best documentary films created in the previous year, which have won awards at prestigious international festivals, along with investigative and activist films that draw attention to serious issues and human rights violations. The festival hosted 3 screenings of Justice for Sergei in Prague. More information can be found at the festival's website. Filmmaker Martin Maat attended the screenings and was interviewed by Czech National Television.
Justice for Sergei won First Prize at DocuDays, the Human Rights Festival in Kiev, Ukraine. More information on the award and excerpts from the jury report can be found at our 'news' page. Docudays took place from March 25 and 31th, 2011. Besides a film fest in the city of Kiev, DocuDays also hosts a traveling festival throughout Ukraine. Last year, people in 118 Ukrainian cities were able to visit the documentaries. Please visit the festival’s website for more information.
The London based Frontline Club hosted a special screening of Justice for Sergei in March of 2011. Frontline is the London hub for a diverse group of people united by their passion for the best quality journalism. It is home to over 200 talks and screenings a year. Director Martin Maat will be present at the debate following the screening. Here you can make reservations and find more information. Alongside the London programme, Frontline Russia will be touring with the film through Russia.
A special avant-premiere took place at the Human Rights Human Wrongs (HRHW) festival in Oslo, Norway on 5th February, 2011. The Human Rights Human Wrongs Film Festival (HRHW) is organized by The Human Rights House, Oslo and Oslo Dokumentarkino (the Oslo Documentary Cinema). One of the attendants of the screening writes: ”The applause afterwards was phenomenal. And since the story is so strong, many of the audience had tears in their eyes after the screening.” The screening of the film was followed by a debate on the lack of rule of law in Russia and Azerbaijan. Please visit the festival website for more information.