It’s your right to see the best of what our world and its people have to show you on screen, and this year’s Human Rights Arts and Film Festival is a terrific place to start.
Categorising its movies into four distinct categories—Bodies, Ancestors, Environment, and Distance—HRAFF 2022 seeks to connect people through storytelling over ten days, 21 events, and seven venues across Melbourne. You can nab your tickets and see the full lineup here: the festival will run from April 28 to May 7.
Some of the lineup’s gems have already been nominated for Oscars and premiered at other festival’s, such as the animated refugee story Flee and Eve Orner’s rousing call to action Burning. But there’s just as many fresh finds, all with a focus on humanity and progress.
Opening night selection Dear Future Children tells the stories of three international activists in Hong Kong, the US, and Chile. The film is itself directed by 21-year-old Franz Böhm with a startling urgency that should linger in the air at the Q&A and post-film premiere drinks event.
Just because these films have such serious and compelling subject matter, though, doesn’t mean Melburnians should expect to leave stony-faced. Compassionate Maori drama Cousins will open with a fantastic kapa haka performance by TuiaTHT and Melbourne’s own Western Edge Youth Arts has arranged live performances before screenings of Queen of Glory and The Man Who Sold His Skin.
Finally, HRAFF’s closing night for 2022 will feature a rock performance by local blues funk talent Jag—an appropriately explosive ending to accompany the rock-doco Fanny: The Right to Rock. You don’t want to miss out on any of these interconnected, humanising local events, Melbourne—be sure to check out the whole HRAFF lineup here to witness your fellow humans on the big screen.
