Human Rights Film & Digital Media

The Human Rights Film+ Series presents new and classic works of documentary, feature, and journalistic film, as well as video games and other digital media, that address key human rights issues and themes. A cornerstone of the Human Rights Film & Digital Media Initiative, it is presented by the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, Dodd Impact Programs, and the School of Fine Art’s Department of Digital Media & Design.

The Human Rights Film+ Series was initiated in 2005 and has foregrounded critical human rights issues spanning local to global levels through the medium of film. The Series has featured experienced and emerging filmmakers in conversations about their films, engaging students, faculty, staff and community members through post-show discussions. The Series organizers have partnered with varied units on campus to address themes such as civil rights as human rights, economic and social rights, and art and activism. In 2020, we expanded the Series to “Film+” to include other forms of digital media, including games and animation.

There are no upcoming events available at this time. Please visit the UConn Events Calendar to see what else is happening at UConn.

Witness to War: A Forty Year Retrospective
April 1, 2025 | 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM | The Dodd Center for Human Rights
Join us for a conversation with human rights advocate and doctor Charlie Clements and filmmaker and director Deborah Shaffer following a screening of the Oscar award-winning documentary Witness to War (1985). Following the screening, Scott Wallace (Journalism) will moderate the conversation.

BORDERLAND | The Line Within - Human Rights Film+ Series
February 12, 2025 | 4:00 PM - 6:30 PM | The Dodd Center for Human Rights
Join the Human Rights Film+ Series for BORDERLAND | The Line Within, a documentary revealing the profitable, militarized system targeting immigrants. Discover how communities in its shadow are building a movement intent on securing human rights for all. Stay for a post-show discussion with filmmakers Paco de Onís and Pamela Yates.

‘A Double Life’ with Director & Producer Catherine Masud
April 1, 2024 | 4:00 - 6:00 PM | The Dodd Center for Human Rights
Join the Human Rights Film+ Series for a screening of A Double Life with director/producer Catherine Masud, the film’s protagonist Steve Bingham, and Columbia University lecturer/author Luca Falciola. Stay after for a catered reception in the Dodd Lounge.

‘Sama in the Forest’ with Coralynn V. Davis
March 25, 2024 | 3:30 - 5:00 PM | Homer Babbidge Library, Class of ’47 Room
Join the Human Rights Film+ Series for a screening of Sama in the Forest with film producer and academic Coralynn V. Davis. This community-based production delves into the subversive role women’s folktales can play in a patriarchal society. Set in the region of Mithila, in India, Sama in the Forest explores the power of stories to shape, challenge, and change our understanding of the world.

Unconquered: Goražde - Documenting Resistance in the Bosnian War
March 7, 2024 | 4:00 - 5:30 PM | The Dodd Center for Human Rights
Join us for the first U.S. screening of scenes from a documentary under development profiling how ordinary townspeople withstood a three-and-a-half-year siege during the Bosnian War. Watch the trailer here. This exclusive work-in-progress screening is followed by a conversation with author/filmmaker Fiona Lloyd-Davies and producer Nick Stuart about the significance of the siege of Goražde.

‘Testimony’ with Award-Winning Filmmaker & Photojournalist Ron Haviv
February 15, 2024 | 4:00 - 5:30 PM | The Dodd Center for Human Rights
Join us for a compelling presentation by award-winning filmmaker and photojournalist Ron Haviv, featuring excerpts from his own films and photography documenting conflict and human rights abuses. This event is supported by the Department of Digital Media & Design, the Department of Journalism, and the Human Rights Film & Digital Media Initiative at the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute. Ron Haviv is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, award-winning photojournalist, and co-founder of the photo agency VII, dedicated to documenting conflict and raising human rights issues around the globe. He is also the co-founder of the non-profit VII Foundation, which concentrates on documentary projects and provides free visual journalism education.

Keep My Words Forever - Human Rights Film+ Series
November 28, 2023 | 12:30 - 2:30 PM | The Dodd Center for Human Rights
With an innovative take on documentary filmmaking, Roma Liberov traces the life of famed 20th-century poet Osip Mandelstam from his rise to eventual political exile with an experimental mix of cinema, animation, puppetry, music, and literature. Keep My Words Forever takes a creative documentary approach to telling the story of one of Russia’s greatest poets, Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938). Combining fragments from Mandelstam’s memoirs and poetry with experimental artistic techniques of cinema, animation, puppetry, music, and literature, the film traces the majesty and tragedy of the poet’s life journey, from his rise as a leading European literary figure to his exile and death in the remote regions of Russia’s Far East.

20 Days in Mariupol - Human Rights Film+ Series
October 19, 2023 | 4:00 - 6:00 PM | The Dodd Center for Human Rights
20 Days in Mariupol is Mstyslav Chernov’s first feature film, after nearly a decade covering international conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine war, for the Associated Press. The film draws on Chernov’s daily news dispatches and personal footage of his own country at war. It offers a vivid, harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, as well as a window into what it’s like to report from a conflict zone, and the impact of such journalism around the globe. Following the screening, we encourage you to stay for a discussion and reception with Katja Kolcio, James Waller, Catherine Masud.

Northeast Human Rights Film Festival
May 19- 21, 2023 | Various Times | The Dodd Center for Human Rights
The Northeast Human Rights Film Festival (NEHRFF) is a three-day forum for screening and discussion of compelling films and digital media projects that address contemporary human rights issues. In addition to film screenings, filmmakers will have the opportunity to engage with other filmmakers, scholars, and practitioners for skills training, advocacy, and impact strategy development. Festival attendees will have the opportunity to engage in dialogue around critical issues related to human rights film.

Women, Life, Freedom: Iran’s Uprising & the Power of Digital Media
November 16, 2022 | 5:00 - 7:00 PM | The Dodd Center for Human Rights
This event was unfortunately cancelled. How is today’s movement in Iran different from earlier movements? Speaking from her background as an Iranian women’s rights activist, journalist, and documentary filmmaker, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh will explore how phone cameras, digital media, and social media are changing the nature of progressive movements in Iran, helping to build broader-based alliances where the young generation, particularly women, are in the lead.

Tacheles - The Heart of the Matter
March 28, 2022 | 3:30 - 4:45 PM | Virtual
Yaar is a young Israeli living in Berlin, refusing being a Jew. He accuses his father of suffering from the Holocaust, although he never experienced it firsthand. In order to face his own family history, he decides to communicate the Holocaust in a new way: in a computer game. Together with his two German friends, he creates a 1940s Germany in which Jews can defend themselves and Nazis can act humanely. His father is shocked. “Tacheles - The Heart of the Matter” shows how the trauma of the survivors affects the third generation. By blurring the truth and switching the roles of victims and perpetrators, can anyone cope with his own history?

American Insurrection
February 10, 2022 | 4:00 - 5:30 PM | Virtual
In the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, FRONTLINE, ProPublica, and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program team up in “American Insurrection” to examine how far-right extremist groups have evolved in the wake of the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally — and the threat they pose today.

Letters from Nuremberg
October 20, 2021 | 5:00 - 7:00 PM | Virtual
The student-created film “Letters from Nuremberg” will be screened, followed by a discussion with students, Senator Christopher Dodd, and representatives from University Archives and Special Collections around the theme “Nuremberg: Yesterday and Today.”

Latino Heritage Month Film: "Singing our Way to Freedom"
September 15, 2021 | 5:00 - 7:30 PM | Virtual
Singing Our Way to Freedom is a multilayered look at the life of Chicano musician, composer, and community activist Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez. Borrowing from musical traditions on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, Chunky uses music and humor as powerful weapons in fighting for social justice. Following a screening of the film, Sam Martinez will host a virtual Q&A with director Paul Espinosa.

"Working with Professor Masud and the rest of the class was one of the most fulfilling projects I've worked on to date. The breadth and variety of work that myself and the team completed, supplemented by hands-on learning opportunities, came together into an incredibly robust understanding of the issue, as well as a quality piece of media that will have an impact that lasts beyond my time as an undergraduate. This course has almost directly led to my interest in archival sciences, and further solidified my desire to continue working in the human rights sphere."

- Aiden Bruecker, DMD 3998 Visual Representations of Armenian Memory, Spring 2019

Armenian Memory Project

Under the guidance of filmmaker Catherine Masud, students enrolled in DMD 2200 Motion Graphics 1 (spring 2019) created an animated motion graphics video based on archival photographs from Dr. Armen T. Marsoobian's Dildilian Photography Collection depicting early 20th Century Armenian life in Turkey, prior to the genocide that erased the Armenian community. Students from DMD 3998/5998 Visual Representation of Armenian Memory (fall 2019) created a second video called The Dildilians: A Story of Photography and Survival. Watch a panel discussion with Catherine Masud, Dr. Armen T. Marsoobian, and some of the student producers on YouTube. Learn more about the project via the Norian Armenian Project.

2020 Election Social Media Research

John Murphy and the Social Media Analytics Command Center

As part of the Office of the Vice President for Research and the Office of the Provost’s funded project “The 21st-Century Poll - Making UConn the Leader in Gathering, Analyzing, and Disseminating Social Media Data and Sentiment Around the 2020 Election Cycle and Other Topics,” we conducted research on the culture wars, fake news, and Black Lives Matter. We also streamed an election night broadcast on YouTube with analysis of social media activity and predictions.

Social Media, Hate Speech, and Human Rights Defenders

Molly Land and Richard A. Wilson with support from the Social Media Analytics Command Center

Social media provides a platform for human rights defenders to share information and express opinions. At the same time, it is increasingly being used to target and harass human rights defenders, including journalists, environmental activists and lawyers. Read more about the project of Molly Land and Richard A. Wilson through the American Bar Association, SSRN, and Just Security.

Stephen Bingham stands outside San Quentin Prison in California in the present day. The film,

Latest Project from UConn Filmmaker a Personal One; Uncle’s Story Told in ‘A Double Life’

The film tells the story of attorney Stephen Bingham, a Connecticut native who became a fugitive after being accused of helping spark a 1971 prison uprising