A panel of international figures joined forces today at the Venice Festival to pledge their support for filmmakers suffering oppression, harassment and imprisonment around the world.Participants in the panel included the Director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera, Vanja Kalurdjercic (Croatia, Director of the Rotterdam International Film Festival), Sinem Sakaoglu (Turkey, director), Orwa Nyrabia (Director of the Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival), Mike Downey (President of the European Film Academy) and Kaveh Farnam (Iran, producer).Vania Kaludjercic gave the context for the founding two years ago of the International Coalition Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR), arising out of a shared concern for independent storytellers whose lives and livelihoods at risk.
In those two years, the ICFR has helped filmmakers from Afghanistan to Egypt, Myanmar to Iran, and most recently, in Ukraine.She described how ICFR had mobilised the international film community to raise 420,000 euros, enough to help with emergency relocation, visas, shelter and other expenses for 400 filmmakers in Ukraine.She said: “The war in Ukraine showed the power of the film community, demonstrates to the whole world that we can stand up for ourselves and together help our colleagues under threat.”Orwa Nyrabia cited the ICFR’s success in helping filmmakers in Afghanistan – of 800 individual filmmakers and their families, 60% had been relocated to safe countries.
He added, however, “This is no longer a news story, but this doesn’t mean we forget.” And he cited the tragic case of Mantas Kvedaravičius, a Lithunian filmmaker murdered in Ukraine. “The fact that he was murdered so brutally makes us remember why we do all of this.
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