A Common Future Film and Arts Festival (Third Edition) Bamenda-Cameroon

Press Release

The Bamenda Film and Arts Festival will run from July 15-22, 2013 in selected halls and cafes at the Bamenda municipality. The festival which is in its 3rd edition seeks to articulate local, national and international issues through film and arts. It is a lineup of the most sort after box office films in Cameroon and abroad that clearly address related issues like governance, trafficking, the respect of human dignity, discrimination and above all, respect of international conventions and protocols. Being about the only film festival in this part of the country, the Bamenda event, which is the 3rd edition, promises to be an awareness raising medium par excellence.
Through arts, the festival shall gather over 100 students to participate in shinning the light on human rights and their drawings shall later be displayed at a gallery on a university campus throughout the festival period. Through this, students shall be brought to promote, defend, and raise awareness on human rights issues in Cameroon, especially that of upholding the rights of women, girls, children, disabled persons, refugees, prisoners and immigrants. It shall also shine the light on rape and sexual assault in the school milieu. This festival uses arts and film as a creative tool to disseminate knowledge and to influence public opinion on human rights issues. The festival shall screen some 30 selected films which each address the concerns of humanity and range from violence against women through non-discrimination to the upholding of human dignity in all its forms. The arts festival shall complement the film screenings as it seeks to ignite and instill the culture of human rights in the youth, especially in the school milieu as schools are at the centre of every community. The Bamenda festival reaches out to the audience as most of the screenings shall be on various community halls, cafes and university centre in the Bamenda municipality. Each screening shall be followed by a panel discussion and questions and answers from the audience on salient points. Another novelty this year shall be the organization of parallel conferences in halls in Bamenda on issues like ‘access to information by journalists, domestic violence, the domestication of international protocols and conventions and more importantly, the rights of human rights defenders’. These conferences shall be organized in partnership with the Yaoundé-based United Nations Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa and other Bamenda-based NGOs already working in the domain. .
The objectives of the festival are to improve the quality of Human Rights awareness and knowledge among the population of the Northwest Region. It shall also promote the core values of the International community’s human rights principles of a world free of discrimination, conflict and human rights violations through film festivals. The festival aims to encourage many more Cameroonian film makers and producers to inculcate human rights as key themes in the development of their films as an efficient and effective communicative vehicle in human rights education and sensitization. The primary target is the common man in the street that has hardly had an opportunity to receive human rights education, talk less of understanding the essence of the very first principle of human rights that ‘all human beings are born free and equal in rights and dignity.’ The festival would enable human rights education and sensitization to for once, leave the cozy confines of conference halls into the much flexible entertainment medium. The secondary audience would be the NGOs and Civil Society activists and film makers who are called upon to step up their activities as the festival seeks to celebrate the work they have done in the past. Some of the films to screened at this year’s festival are: Forgotten Europeans (threats discrimination),
. Integrating people of African decent in Bolivian society ( also treats discrimination),
. Human Rights defenders Speak up to end discrimination (Human rights defenders),
. Giving voice to the victims and survivors of trafficking (trafficking in persons),
. Sierra Leone: Ensuring equal opportunities for persons with disabilities. ( disabilities, ‘Secrets and Doubts’ from Serbia, ‘La premiere fois’ and ‘L’Histoire de Nelie’, films on rape by the Cameroonian producer, Dieudonne Nana, films on children’s rights like ‘Les enfants esclaves from Benin, Les inseparables, Anna, Bazil et le trafiquant, Le travail d’intérêt général en Afrique, films on gender equity like Fanta, Lani, Agnikè, Les maux du silence, films on domestic violence and HIV/AIDS like ‘Le mariage, Rythmes d’amitié, ‘Dans la peau d'une mere’, ‘Breaking out of the man box’, ‘widows at war, ‘rape and incest’, ‘The Will’, Tears from an Angel’, ‘Wild Life Palvar’ etc, etc. This highly mediatized event shall end with a mobile press conference that would take media practitioners on a ride around the region as they digest succinct information on human rights that had suffered from apathy in mainstream media in the past few years.

Gwain Colbert Fulai
Co-Founder: A Common Future

Tuesday 25 June 2013

GENERAL ROLES OF THE FESTIVAL

GENERAL ROLES OF THE FESTIVAL
DEFINITION AND OBJECTIVES
ARTICLE 1:
a) A Bamenda Human Rights Films and Arts Festival abbreviated (BHRFAF) has been created in Bamenda, regional capital of the North West of Cameroon. It shall hold yearly.
Bamenda Human Rights Films and Arts Festival is organized by a Common Future Productions.
b) Bamenda Human Rights Films and Arts Festival is a venue par excellence to promote the culture of human rights in Cameroon using film and Arts as vehicles to communicate fundamental Human rights values.
c) Bamenda Human Rights Films and Arts Festival falls within the framework of activities of a Common Future Organization and the international Network of Human Rights Film Festivals promoted by Movies That Matter in the Netherlands.
d) Bamenda Human Rights Films and Arts Festival would be an annual event and would be a registered and protected trade mark, and a multi-risk insurance would be guaranteed before, during and after the event.
ARTICLE 2: ACTIVITIES OF BHRFAF
The Bamenda Human Rights Films and Arts Festival shall seek to promote the production and screening of human rights films in Cameroon.
It shall also serve as a meeting point between producers and consumers of films both from Cameroon and abroad and a venue par excellence for the promotion of local Cameroon films to the foreign audience. In this light, festival promoters shall assist in linking up local film producers and directors to their peers in others countries so as to share good practice and exchange experiences.
ARTICLE 3:
Certain activities within the Bamenda Human Rights Films and Arts Festival as judged by the organizing committee shall be awarded financial rewards. In such situations, a specialized jury composed of the following shall be set up:
President: A Common Future Production
Rapporteur: A man or woman of culture
Members: A representative of the administration / Arts and Culture Ministry, CSOs, Human Rights Groups, Journalist, Association.
The jury must not be less than three persons.
ARTICLE 4:
Prizes shall be as follows:
a) Best overall festival film
b) Best Human Rights film
c) Best human rights artist
d) Best human rights film producer
e) Best human rights film director
f) Best female human rights film producer
g) Encouragement prizes to selected films.
ARTICLE 5:
No prize can be given in ex-aequo. In a situation of parity, the decision of the President of the Jury is final. Decisions of the jury, taken in camera, can not be challenged.
ARTICLE 6:
Prizes consist of a trophy or certificate containing an amount of money.
ARTICLE 7:
Members of the jury are not authorized to be part of any competition in which they are called to deliberate.
ARTICLE 8: THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
In order to ensure a hitch-free organization of the festival, A Common Future Productions shall put in place an organizing committee structured in the following manner:
a) A General commissariat of the festival.
b) A Sub-committee for the selection of films.
c) A Sub-committee for prizes and event programming.
d) A Sub-committee for mobilization and publicity.
e) A Sub-Committee for lodging and transportation.
f) A Sub-Committee for health and insurance.
ARTICLE 9:
The organizing committee meets monthly until two months to the event when it will meet weekly. After the festival, the organizing committee holds an evaluation meeting and a report is presented to a Common Future for reporting and exploitation.
ARTICLE 10: PARTICIPATION CONDITIONS
Films to be projected at the Bamenda Human Rights Films and Arts Festival shall under go meticulous selection and screening rights shall be signed.
ARTICLE 11:
Participation for the prize awards shall be subjected to further specific regulations.
ARTICLE 12:
Moderators and Panelists invited to the film festival or the education programme shall be taken care of by a common future.
ARTICLE 13:
A common future shall ensure the visibility and promotion of all activities during the festival using all available media.
ARTICLE 14:
At the end of every festival, A Common Future can give authorization to any media of its choice to carry out special audio-visual productions and broadcast of the event.
ARTICLE 15:
Photo coverage of the Bamenda Human Rights Films and Arts Festival is subject to prior authorization by a common future.
ARTICLE 16: FINAL DISPOSITIONS
All correspondences related to the Bamenda Human Rights Films and Arts Festival must be addressed to Mr. GWAIN COLBERT FULAI, Co-Founder and Executive Director, A Common Future, P.O. BOX 747 Mankon-Bamenda, Tel: (237) 77 85 24 76 / (237) 99 11 82 08, email: acommonfuture1@yahoo.com.
ARTICLE 17:
Taking part at the Bamenda Human Rights Films and Arts Festival means total acceptance of these general roles which are deposited at Crown Chambers, Bamenda.

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