December 6, 2018 - UBRZAJ 2018 (Fast Forward 2018) IX Human Rights Film Festival will be held from 10-14 December 2018. According to the practice of the traditional December festival organized by the NGO Centre for Civic Education, the program will be held in three addresses – in Podgorica, Berane, and Kotor.
Human Rights Film Festival UBRZAJ, the first and only one of its kind in Montenegro, aims to contribute to raising the awareness of the importance of human rights and their protection and improvement, as well as a value framework that promotes harmonious relationships on any ground. UBRZAJ 2018 brings an excellent selection of 15 film achievements to be premiered in Montenegro and "movies that do not fear, who carry out the imaginative vivisection of social injustice, ironize powerfully and dream loud." That is why the motto of this year's festival is GLEDAJ I PAMTI! (WATCH AND REMEMBER!)
“The talk of human rights, whether in politics, science, or arts, sometimes comes across as a moving tale that the humankind tells while tucking itself to sleep, murmuring it almost by heart, terrifying and inspiring itself in turns by the wickedness of monsters and the revolts of the brave. Lulling itself, every time, by the certainty of the happy end and the inevitability of progress. And yet if we had learned anything on our laborious trudge towards full awareness of the inalienability of human dignity, it is that there is nothing certain or inevitable about this path and that falling behind is much easier than forging ahead. Have we watched carefully enough, do we remember enough of those times when we traded the humanity of others for our comfort when we surrendered the victims instead of sheltering them when we choose not to see the camps and not to remember places of suffering? How did we understand humanity then? Who counted as human and who did not? And what were we playing, refusing responsibility? We would like to have left far behind the obstinate ghosts of fascism, slavery, poverty, exploitation, disease, and war. Maybe would have done so, but we did not. They are our present too, and our reality. This is what the films of the ninth selection of the FAST FORWARD 2018 Human Rights Film Festival are telling us, each in its way. These films are not afraid: with courage and imagination, they cut to the quick of social injustices, mock the powerful and dream aloud. Films that fight and in which people fight. Is it enough to just watch and remember? Of course not, but this minimal entreaty already lifts the thin alibi of ignorance and represents, perhaps, the first step towards accountability," explains this year’s edition motto Paula Petricevic, philosopher.
UBRZAJ 2018 is realized in cooperation with KIC Budo Tomovic, Beldocs - International Documentary Film Festival, SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL, Cultural Center "Nikola Djurkovic" Kotor, Municipality of Kotor, Municipality of Berane, Center for Culture Berane and Gymnasium "Panto Mališić" Berane. The European Union supports UBRZAJ 2018 in Montenegro, as well as the Commission for the allocation of part of the incomes of the Games of Chance of the Montenegrin Government and the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro. Media Sponsors of UBRZAJ 2018 are RTCG, Television Vijesti, and daily newspaper Vijesti. Friends of UBRZAJ 2018 are also Metropolis, PG TAXI 19704 and Compania de Vinos Montenegro.
More information on projections and films can be found at the festival site: http://ubrzaj.me/
