Human rights film making plays a critical role in creating social change within the greater community. It brings to light the harsh realities that millions of people face on a daily basis across the world. HRAFF as a film festival gives a broad yet distinctive look into the injustices and inequalities that exist internationally by screening a vast array of films under different categories. This helps provide a wholistic view of human rights issues that exist in our world today that many people may not even know about. By screening these films at a film festival with such a large platform and reach (such as HRAFF) it creates an opportunity to create change within the broader community. In addition to this, HRAFF running the key three campaign in conjunction with the call to action videos encourages the audience go a step further and directly take action to help people in need. It creates an opportunity for the audience to engage and create positive and influential change in society.

 

Film festivals can play a large and imperative role in creating social change if they are executed correctly. There are many elements that culminate to a successful film festival including, the films that are screened and the messages they engage with. The way the film festival promotes its key ideas and themes to the audience, as well as the atmosphere and general organisation of the event. Ways that human rights film festivals can create social change is by running campaigns (often based off current real world issues) that promote the audience to engage with, reflect upon and take action. Whether it be big or small, if one person changes their behaviour, actions or even decides to help another person in another way then a film festival is successful in creating positive social change. For example, if a human rights film festival focussed their program solely on Indigenous people and ran an overarching campaign aiming to change social stigmas surrounding Indigenous people. And then 100 people changed the way they spoke to (or about) Indigenous people, or felt empowered to help an organisation related to Indigenous people that was promoted by the festival; than the film festival has helped create social change. This is a small example, but is one way that a human rights film festival can use their platform and reach to create social change.

 

Film makers and producers can face a huge array of problems when trying to effectively communicate issues and messaging across to a global audience. When communicating to global audiences film makers have to be aware of every aspect they present on screen, their script, images and semiotics. It’s vital that every element of the film be accessible to the audience to ensure the widest reach and impact. As well as this, it’s important that the key messaging and imagery presented in the film is delivered tastefully and not used inappropriately. It’s also essential when delivering information, ideas and images relating to a particular human rights issue to a global audience that it is authentic and accurate. Human rights film makers and producers must be aware of all of these elements to be able to deliver an effective and communicative film to a global audience.

 

For my call to action video my intended purpose was to create an authentic perspective of someone who doesn’t feel as if she belongs in Australia. I wanted to give her a voice (and a platform,) to speak for the millions of people across Australia (and the world) who don’t feel as if they belong in the place that they call home. The purpose of this video was to create a connection between Fhermary and the audience. I wanted to evoke empathy and solidarity on a human level, to create a connection and build a bridge for new relationships. I knew exactly what I wanted to create and achieve when initially beginning this project and I feel as if I have achieved this to the best of my ability given the current constraints.

 

To complete this project in its entirety presented a few obstacles – but not as many as I initially predicted. The first and most difficult obstacle was filming, especially at the height of the coronavirus lockdown. With no access to any camera gear, lighting or microphones I had to make do with my iPhone and the environment where I filmed. I was lucky enough to be able to film my talent  which was a huge relief and helped me majorly going into post production in terms of the video and audio quality as well as the interview direction. The only other obstacle I faced whilst creating this project was not receiving the instant feedback and help I would usually receive on campus. Initially it was a challenge to have to be able to make decisions on the videos direction and content with the very short time limit. It was also hard to be able to find a pace and rhythm that I liked and thought was effective as well as having enough content within the video to be able to generate the desired impact. I persevered through this unavoidable obstacle by filming my monitor and sending it to friends, family and my production team for their opinion and thoughts on the project. I saved audiences, and used different people at different stages throughout the project to be able to grasp how effective or ineffective different elements of the video were. This was useful in trying to gain what was working and what wasn’t working, especially in the initial stages.

 

If I am honest, working within the ‘production team’ that I did, had little to no impact on my call to action video. Initially at the start of the semester there was a lot of collaboration, but moving into an online learning space my call to action video has become an individual project in which I only used my production team for guidance when I needed it. It has been a real challenge to work in a group over the duration of the semester as I feel as if we could never get as much work done as we did on campus. My ideas and knowledge about cinema and social change have come from researching into call to action videos, and campaigns individually and by using techniques that I have learnt from previous projects and internships to be able to effectively shape my video the way that I envisioned.

 

With this project being put under the public eye I was very pedantic about the content and messaging I was promoting and was highly attentive to detail. It helped influence me to make sure that the project was delivered to the highest possible quality to ascertain maximum results. On a personal level this project was really important to me as Fhermary is one of my good friends, and giving her a voice and a platform was a really special thing for me to be able to do. On top of being able to connect with audiences, above anything I wanted her story and her personality to be given a chance to shine through. This personal connection and standard I set for myself in combination with the knowledge that the video would be going into the public eye helped me also find a balance between the personal and objective perspective.

 

On a final note, I’m very proud and happy to create the work that I did. It has helped me grow as a film maker in a multitude of ways. I learnt how to navigate and direct an interview and to extract the answers I wanted to create impactful messaging. I learnt a lot of new skills in After Effects (a program I have never really used previously,) and how effective typography can be in communicating key messages throughout these very short videos. I also felt as if I utilised and developed my skills as an editor over the duration of creating this project, from changing cuts to fixing audio and colour grading. I feel as if I gained a lot of confidence by working on this project throughout the duration of the semester, for which I am grateful for. Overall I am very happy with the call to action video I created, despite the fact I’d love to have an extra minute to be able to really drive the point home, you can’t always get what you wish for.