These Human Rights Films Take Us Inside Nauru, A School for Troubled Kids, and The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Human Rights Arts & Film Festival (HRAFF) delivers some of the most compelling and moving stories of injustice and redemption each year. The annual festival screens an incredible array of features and documentaries that cover the many ways human rights are exploited and restored across the world.

This year, there are films that explore the incredible journeys asylum seekers face in their struggle to come to Australia, the homophobia that continues to shame many members of the LGBTQI community, and the pain of growing up young on the fringes of society. But HRAFF also shares many uplifting and moving accounts, demonstrating the resilience of the human spirit, the importance of community, and, above all, the overwhelming generosity of others.

The festival opens in Melbourne on May 5, before traveling to Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Alice Springs, Canberra, and Darwin. Ahead of the launch, we round-up our picks from the program.

Chasing Asylum, 2016

Branded as the film “the Australian government doesn’t want you to see”, Chasing Asylum is a highlight for the festival. The documentary goes inside Australia’s offshore detention camps, including Manus Island and Nauru, to show us how appalling, unliveable, and inhumane the living conditions are. Made for often confronting viewing, it is one of those rare documentaries that one hopes will lead to change–and only after our politicians watch it.

Dreaming of Denmark, 2015

A raw and unflinching documentary, Dreaming of Denmark chronicles one Afghani boy’s journey to Denmark to seek asylum. This gritty documentary shows the loneliness, pain and, sheer grief of the entire asylum experience, pointing out how so many others displaced by conflict in the Middle East struggle to find a country to accept them and sometimes simply an identity. In other cases, it’s sometimes to the will to live – to stay alive and continue fighting what seems like a lost cause. This documentary poses many of these questions and offers compelling viewing.

The Bad Kids, 2016

The Bad Kids is an uplifting look at a high school in the American mid-west that takes in “last chance” kids on the verge of dropping out of high school–or worse. The film focuses on three teens that have the odds stacked against them, including drug-addicted parents, teen pregnancy, and unliveable home lives. Thanks to incredibly passionate and determined adults who want to see these teens make a stable and supported transition into adulthood, we see these kids transform from potential self-ruination to promising futures as young adults.

The Stanford Prison Experiment, 2015

A riveting and compelling look at the infamous “Stanford Prison Experiment”, this eponymous film explores how the notorious case study demonstrates how not to conduct an experiment. The film stars the likes of Billy Crudup and Ezra Miller and chronicles how one psychologist chose to use graduate students at his university as playthings in an experiment looking at the relationships between prisoners and guards in a fictional prison. As you can imagine, things go awry quickly and the “prison” falls into chaos fast, making for provocative viewing. The film ultimately shows us how abused and exploited these young college boys were by this infamous experiment–and why it must never happen again.

Out to Win, 2015

Out to Win looks at the lives of some of the world’s most famous gay and lesbian athletes, focusing on trailblazers like Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King and Jason Collins, and their very public coming out stories. The film provides fascinating insight into the history of coming out in mainstream sports and shares some rare interviews with these queer icons of the sporting world. A fascinating chronicle of coming out on such a public stage, Out to Win is a really necessary look at the ongoing stigma so many LGBTQI athletes face both on and off the sporting field.

The Pearl Button, 2015

Filmed by celebrated Chilean documentary filmmaker Patricio Guzman, The Pearl Button profiles the last surviving members of some of Chile’s original native inhabitants. With lush scenery and beautiful camerawork, we learn the history of the original Alacalufe and Yaghan communities, many of whom have died out and now have few survivors left. What really stands out is Guzman’s preoccupation with water and the natural scenery of Chile, showing us how greatly water impacts humanity, in a very haunting and existential way.

They Will Have to Kill Us First, 2015

They Will Have To Kill Us First looks at a ban on Western music in Northern Mali after Islamic jihadists overran the country and imposed an extreme form of Shariah law. We learn about the many local musicians who were forced to hide or flee because of the ban and the incredible importance music has to a country where there is no national press and a very fragile sense of national and community identity. The documentary offers a beautifully redeeming story about how music enlightens and inspires these people and its fundamental importance in displaced countries like Mali.

Hooligan Sparrow, 2016

This controversial documentary follows Chinese activist Ye Haiyan (aka “Hooligan Sparrow”) as she fights to expose a sexually abusive high school principal. But in her quest to shame the principle Haiyan becomes the target of the Chinese state, interrogated by police, monitored by the government and assaulted by guards. The film soon enough becomes less a look at the high school principal and more a meditation on censorship in China. It shows the intensity of the Chinese government’s reaction to the gravity of this story, reminding us of the importance of these rights of human rights stories and the necessity that they be shared for all to watch.

The Human Rights Arts & Film Festival opens on May 5 in Melbourne before travelling around the country. Tickets are selling fast! You can find out more here.

Related:

Here's What You Should See at This Year's Melbourne Queer Film Festival

New Banksy Mural Lampoons 'Les Miserables' for Refugees

A Spanish Artist Subverted the Scars of a Refugee Camp [Exclusive Photos]