Global Citizen Education Goes to the big and little screens

This autumn, Bridge 47’s Estonian national officers in AKÜ organised a month-long media programme entitled The Month of Human Rights to bring human rights themed films to both to national television and cinema as part of our ongoing partnership with the national broadcasting company ERR and its channels, ETV2.

Some of the audience at one of the cinema screenings of the festival

Information about Global Citizenship Education (GCE) was disseminated via seven films (five of them were documentaries and two were feature films), special introduction clips for the TV, as well as thematic performers and catering at the cinemas.

For the television programme, four introduction clips for each documentary were produced featuring a wide range of specialists. The Estonian Police forces spoke about migration and refugee centres in Island of Hungry Ghosts, a mine-disposal expert from the Estonian Volunteer Rescue spoke about demining work in war zones in The Deminer, a human rights specialist outlined children's rights issues in Girl in Return and an experienced journalist discussed the roles of journalists in conflict zones and media in global education in Under the Wire.

The goal of screening these video pieces was to raise awareness among the general public of human rights issues and culture classes in crises such as during war.

Agne Kuimet from AKÜ welcoming people to the opening cinema screening

For the cinema events, AKÜ cooperated with two local art cinemas to host three movie nights including a grand opening night.  The first documentary For Sama centred around the war in Syria as seen by a local woman, in line with this, our catering was provided by a café operated by Syrian female refugees. Speakers included a humanitarian aid specialist explaining the situation in the Near East and the consequences that conflicts lasting for more than a generation is having for all of us in different parts of the world.

Feature films as part of the cinema screenings were –shared the common traits of both being Lebanese, both being nominated for best foreign-language film Oscar and both being centred around a courtroom battle. The Insult explores the complex tensions left over from the Lebanese civil war and Capernaum, tells the story of the unfathomable struggles faced by children living on the streets.

The festival was a great success with the documentaries reaching tens of thousands of people all around Estonia.

Photo credit: ERR