Javier Vilalta is the visible face of Human Fest, the film festival dedicated to the dissemination of Human Rights that is held this February in our city. But this edition has a very special note, because with it Human Fest celebrates its first ten years of life. It was time, well, to take stock. That's what this thing about round figures has, that attract attention, that force us to do what they call memory. Add and continue. GERARDO LÉON
Ten years of festival. What do you think has been achieved in this time??
Well, I think that the festival has had an evolution. What was born as a film sample, It is currently a festival that has the standard format expected of a festival. We have not only a very interesting program at a national and international level, but I think we have managed to combine the two issues, cinema and human rights. That is to say, the cinematographic quality part along with some debates, high-quality human rights forums.
And from now on, what do you think is left to do?
Well I think that, after ten years, There is a lot to do because it is as if we have returned to the beginning. That is to say, The festival was born with the idea of raising awareness about human rights, in raising awareness in society, but at the same time we talk about Human Rights, we talk about gender, we talk about LGTBI, we talk about refugees, It turns out that the world is changing in a very radical and very surprising way., totally moving away from the principles established by our Magna Cartas, in this case the Spanish Constitution or the Charter of Human Rights. Therefore, we are becoming a necessity, not only as a cultural week or a film week, but that Human Rights should enter the school itinerary to avoid what is happening now, of the drift in which issues such as gender are being raised, LGTBI issues, asylum issues, that twenty years ago it was unthinkable that any citizen would consider.
What news have you prepared for this edition??
Bueno, Well this year the truth is that it is the tenth anniversary and it is a celebration. The main novelty is that we opened at the Talia Theater, the day 14 February. The second news is that we have opened several new sections. One is the section mixed upin which we are going to project themes that, for whatever, maybe we have not faced (We have a selection team and, sometimes, we don't select everything we want to select). And then the other novelty is that we are going to do a Romani film section, film directed and produced by people of the gypsy ethnic group. And the other new thing we have this year is that we are going to be audited by the BDS organization, which is an organization that boycotts products or entities that subsidize Zionism or are against the Palestinian state. They asked us about it and the truth is that we are waiting to see what happens. And then the other big news is that, how do you know, We are members of the Human Rights Film Network (We are one of the three national entities that are in the global network of Human Rights festivals; is San Sebastian, us and sahara) and the guest festival this year is the Nuremberg Human Rights Festival. And the latest news is that we are going to hold a festival meeting together with the Filmoteca, the map, because we want Human Rights to be transversal in all the festivals that take place in the Valencian Community.
And already within the programming, Anything notable compared to other editions??
Within the programming we are going to have a very diverse official section, as we always do. Among the topics that we are going to discuss this year is, above all, the situation in Brazil., with a very interesting film as it is Police killing. We return to the issue of violated peoples, as is the case of the Sahara with the film Hamada. There is a film that I think is very important and that captures the entire evolution of the extreme right in Europe, which is just beginning here in Spain, and what would the movie be? Golden Dawn Girls. I have my favorites, although they don't always win, but, For example, For the first time we are going to address the issue of mental health and prison with the film Making Sense Together, highly recommended. There are environmental issues and there is also one to highlight, The movie Neither Eve nor Adam. An intersex story, an interesting film about the issue of gender binary, on issues related to sexuality. This year we also have a very gender vision, so I would invite everyone not to miss the official section. Yes what to say, besides, that we have six premieres in Spain, which is very good.
Why is cinema important in the dissemination of Human Rights?? What is special about cinema in this work??
I always say that cinema is an instrument to communicate, that an image communicates much more than a thousand words. Cinema presents you with a series of stories that enter through audio and vision and ultimately reach the sensation. There is a moment in which the viewer connects with the stories that are told and that transforms the interior.. A person is not left out, either you like it or you don't like it or it opens up critical thinking inside you on an issue that perhaps you were very clear was one way.. And hence it is documentary cinema, that is to say, we don't have fictional cinema, But they are all real stories told by their protagonists and that does not leave you indifferent..
It seems a little complicated that a more political cinema or with a certain social charge or denunciation, apart from festivals like yours, reach the general public. What do you think this circumstance is due to??
The great challenge of Human Fest is that, precisely. That's why we do the festival in general spaces.. We project at the MUVIM, we screen at Cine-estudio D’or, we screen at La Filmoteca, We project at the Doctor Pesset Mayor School, and this year we are going to do something at the Talia and at the October Cultural Center. I have never called our cinema, political. Our cinema is not political, is Human Rights and Human Rights are apolitical. And I'm going to explain myself. They are apolitical because they are innate to human beings.. There is a traditional view in which it seems that, when we talk about Human Rights, are facing left. No, no, Human Rights are impeccable, that is to say, They are rights that are marked and that are innate, regardless of political options. And that's the secret. I think it is something that political speeches, all politicians should respect. I mean, A party that does not respect Human Rights could not be legalized. Having said that, We started out as a very minority festival., but we are among the three festivals with the highest attendance in Valencia in all our global activities, there I understand both the forums and the projections. The other day a person from La Filmoteca told me that, regarding attendance in the room, We are the festival that has the most attendance and that is very important. I mean, that we have had growth. Since I started directing the festival in the sixth edition (which then had not been done for three years), we recovered it in a very amateur way, but very professional and we have gone from an audience of a thousand or two thousand people and we are now at almost eight thousand who have attended the festival. We try to generate something that moves people to action., not to see situations so negative that I think, we're going to leave it like this, what are we going to do. We try to make it a friendly cinema, committed and carry on the dialogue, the debate on issues that happen here, because what happens in the West has repercussions in Asian countries, from Africa, of the American continent, affects a lot.
But, apart from the festival, It seems that there is a barrier that prevents this type of cinema from reaching the general public.. It does not reach the large commercial halls. What do you think causes this blockage??
Mira, For a documentary film to reach the general public, it has to be produced by a large production company.. Now we have a blockbuster movie that isThe silence of others, produced by Pedro Almódovar's production company, that is sweeping all the cinemas. It is true that we also have to see who is behind the big production companies. The same thing happens with the media., There are certain topics that are not interesting to discuss.. Therefore, what doesn't make it to the big screens, does not exist. That's why festivals like ours or like the San Sebastián Human Rights Festival or the Sahara Festival., What are the relevant festivals?, the Docs-Barcelona or the Docs-Valencia, which also deal with documentary film themes, It is important that they exist because it is like a rereading or a reeducation of society. That's why I believe that documentary film should be part of the school itinerary.. But what you say is true, It has to be a great production for it to arrive. We also try to balance our film selection., that it is not just great productions, but that they are also small productions of people who want to tell something. That's why we have the section “One minute, a right” which is a more amateur cinema, a cinema made in schools and universities. But what you say is true, It is very difficult to get to the big screen because it is dominated by big American and European productions that have a lot of budget..
Before you suggested something that I think you have commented on some forums, I am referring to the idea that there is a kind of regression in the consideration of Human Rights in the world. I wanted you to tell me what you think the cause is..
Three years ago Antonio Ariño, the vice-rector of Culture of the University of Valencia, he already warned. That is to say, there is a deterioration in communication by a society in which we do not accept what is different, we do not accept poverty. Then it is also true that we are not aware that the Western way of life depends on the impoverishment of continents like Africa or the exploration of its resources.. We are becoming more and more selfish, The reason for the origin of the letter of declaration of Human Rights that, precisely, It was the period of wars in Europe, the first world war, World War II, in which we Europeans need to emigrate and be welcomed in India, in South America and Africa, and we have forgotten. And then there is also a reflection that hurts me deeply, very much.: that in the end we come to the conclusion, on the seventieth anniversary of the declaration of Human Rights, that it is a declaration of human rights of a white Western man/woman. That is to say, than what happens in other countries, which is the typical Human Rights festival that talks about what is happening in Africa, what's happening in Asia, of what happens in South America, We have given it a twist and we are talking about the violation of Human Rights here, in Spain and in Europe. Data. We just have to look at the non-compliance., For example, of Spain of international treaties. Hot returns, with the current government. A recent report said that last year they returned hot 697 personas, approximately, when we have been condemned with the previous conservative government for hot returns by the European Court of Human Rights. We are in a moment in which we ignore the resolutions of the courts. Currently in Spain we have, it is said, arrested politicians, but we have politicians imprisoned in prisons with a preventive measure that if it were a story from South America we would radically oppose. We now have people of certain tendencies being persecuted for their freedom of expression. Instead, we have an upward growth of the ultra-right, of misogyny, of homophobia. So, We are currently in a very dramatic situation regarding human rights..
Regarding this setback, Should we be self-critical in the dissemination of this awareness in favor of human rights or consider whether there is something in the message that may have failed?? Is there anything that needs to be reviewed about how they are proposed or that perhaps is not being done well??
Yeah, fully. Mira, From the public administration the problem is that, if it does not appear in the school itinerary, not reported, is not educated in values, in rights... About seven years ago we did a study on the street in which we asked people what Human Rights were and the vast majority did not know how to say it.. We have elevated them so much that we are not aware that we do not own them. Regarding dissemination… I work in an organization, not Ambit, where we work on the reintegration of prisoners with serious mental disorders (I always say it: more than 40 % of people in prison have serious mental disorders), and there the administration does not openly commit to raising awareness on Human Rights. This festival is organized by the Foundation for Justice together with ten other organizations. One of my goals seven years ago was precisely for it to be a festival hosted by the public administration, that was within the itinerary, to work on school issues. And what has happened is that, bueno, Yeah, we have a great presence, but for the team we are part of. There is great volunteering, but the funding is minimal. I mean, a Human Rights film festival in Valencia, given the importance that the topic may have, It is only financed with ten thousand euros by the Valencia City Council, and for six thousand euros that arrive a year or so later from the Generalitat. I mean, there's not really a bet. What is happening to us is that now we are worrying about what is happening, but it should not surprise us. If we have ignored them for all these years, it is normal for people to think that because immigrant people come, because there is a gender policy, because there is an LGTBI policy, people are afraid because there has been no education in society about these issues, in values. And those are the consequences we currently have.
Do you think there is something in the message itself that can be reviewed?, something that, in the end, does not arrive or fails to set? Could it be that there is something that is not well thought out?, that there are other reasons that, for some reason, they do arrive and they are not being evaluated?
Man, Of course. The reason that is not being evaluated, and I'll give you an example, are the media. The media are responsible for what reaches a person and does not reach them.. We have a very good anecdote and it is that we, at the beginning of the last festival, we held a round table on the assessment of the media. It must not have been liked very much because throughout that week we did not appear in any media because the speakers who were there blamed the issue of Human Rights precisely on the media.. It doesn't arrive. It does not arrive because there is an interest in it not arriving. And then it is also true that third sector entities (and intone the my faultas director of Ambit or former director of the Foundation for Justice) we make a speech a lot for our own, and that means that if we sensitize only progressive people with a certain idea... We would have to build bridges, Some points of reflection should be made in forums such as retirement homes, popular universities. This year we are doing it with the popular universities. We have had a schedule since October that will end in December of 2019 approaching older people. There is something new that we are going to discuss this year and it is precisely that perhaps human rights are not treated in the correct way.. For that there is an update that the Barcelona Human Rights Institute is leading, which is emerging Human Rights., that make them evolve to the current language. Access to new technologies, access to public healthcare… There comes a point where, with the crisis, The previous government decided that, In order for us all to have access to universal healthcare, healthcare would have to be taken away from immigrants., but it was not analyzed that if there was no budget it was because there had been misappropriation of funds. Nowadays there is a time when corrupt people are amortized and seen as normal, and that's a big problem.
This year, which marks the tenth anniversary of the festival, A political cycle closes with the May elections. What do you expect to happen with the current panorama??
What do I hope will happen?? I have personally decided not to do any type of advertising for any type of party that violates Human Rights.. Human Rights are the rights of children, women's rights, the rights of each person to access healthcare, to freedom of movement, to the issue of sexual freedom, to religious freedom. Therefore, What I would like to see happen is for the governments that govern us (we are talking so much at the European level, national, regional and local) had as their axis the fulfillment of the principles that we have set for ourselves. We start on a large scale with the fact that the European Union currently systematically violates Human Rights with the entire issue of refugees., migrant people. At a state level I would like the party or parties... which are obviously going to be parties that are going to govern, we have already lost the bipartisanship, which is positive, and now there are two planes: either we go too far to the right or, I'm not saying that the extreme left in this country is the extreme left., I don't consider it, because in the end what we are talking about is parties that comply or do not comply with both Human Rights and the Spanish Constitution. And the truth is that there are some parties that clearly comply with it., but currently I believe that there is a party or two that do not comply with what the Spanish Constitution says or what Human Rights establish.. I think that's a limit., a spectacular red line. In Europe, traditionally, The ultra-right parties have had a cordon sanitaire and I believe that in Spain they should have a cordon sanitaire. And in the Valencian Community and in the Valencia city council, where i live, I would like it to be a government that respects human rights and freedoms.
How do you value the cycle that is closing??
You talk about a cycle and I am very worried that you talk about a cycle because…
Because you anticipate what is going to… (laughter)
Of course! (laughter) When you talk to me about a cycle it is because it is already assumed by everyone that there is going to be a change...
Bueno, I actually didn't mean it to you in that sense.. I was telling you this for the four years of government that are ending and that end up being a political cycle and, above all, because there was a change with respect to the previous government that opened a stage in which something was expected to happen (everyone expected their own things). I ask you in general regarding the festival, regarding the issue of human rights, etc.
I believe that currently there are issues that concern Spanish men and women that are not real.. That is to say, we have created some fictitious speeches. The concern of a citizen must be that their social services are guaranteed., that we are guaranteed a decent life, that we are guaranteed a decent wage, that we are guaranteed an education, an access to culture. And that is what a party should be concerned about.. Currently we are concerned about empty speeches such as the issue of Catalonia, We are concerned about issues such as gender, I say that I am concerned about gender because I believe that it is not a debatable issue.. That is to say, we have created fictitious speeches that, actually, society does not care, but that the media have made sure that they are the main. I hope that in the next political cycle those parties that believe in freedoms continue to govern., in Human Rights. And those parties that do not believe in these principles or those parties that respected them and are now leading another drift, So don't let them come to power.
And in the case of festivals like yours that depend on public collaboration?? You have anticipated something, but I wanted to ask you, specifically, What would you change for the future?.
It has been many years since we asked for greater funding because we think that it should be the public administration that should lead these festivals independently.. I always say that the festival model is San Sebastián. San Sebastián is the role model of public management with an independent team. All governments of all colors have passed with the San Sebastián model and the team is the same, There is no political interference and it has an impeccable line in class A, which is the Human Rights festival directed by José Miguel Beltrán that will be in this edition in Valencia. I believe that Human Rights festivals should be managed as we are doing now in Valencia, with ten entities, but there should be a greater commitment to the public. Currently, I would dare to say that the largest funding that comes to the festival is neither public nor private., It is the volunteer work carried out by this festival.. That is to say, we are a festival with an international presence, with spectacular public attention and activities throughout the year, and has a budget of 35.000 euros. I mean, You just have to do the math and compare it with other festivals and the impact they have.. I believe that a festival that not only thinks about the promotion of the city should be a priority., but what I think about is the promotion of the rights of citizens.
