Reels for Rights: Media Arts for Building a U.S. Human Rights Movement
Reels for Rights, a collective effort housed at NESRI and led by media makers, organizers, and human rights groups, was launched this past weekend.
Reels for Rights brings the power of media arts to social justice and human rights in the United States. We believe that using a human rights lens to document the fight for economic and social justice at home can fuel a far stronger domestic human rights movement.
Reels for Rights held its first U.S. Human Rights Media Arts Screening on November 30th where over two hundred and fifty people gathered to hear members of the Media Mobilizing Project, One Love Movement, Philadelphia Student Union, Teachers Unite and the Vermont Workers' Center, along with Oscar nominated director Josh Fox, discuss how the featured videos fueled their efforts for social change and human rights. The screening also featured a video from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
Screening sponsors included:
- Amnesty International U.S.A.
- Breakthrough
- Evening Star Productions (Coal Country)
- Human Rights Project, Urban Justice Center
- International Wow Company (Gasland)
- Media Mobilizing Project
- NESRI
- Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary
- US Human Rights Fund
- US Human Rights Network
- Witness
Following on the heels of the screening, Reels for Rights organized a Media Arts Forum that brought over sixty grassroots leaders, movement media makers, documentary filmmakers, human rights activists, distributers, academics and faith leaders together for one day of strategic discussions about the role of media arts in building a U.S. human rights movement and a half day of planning the Reels for Rights initiative.
Reels for Rights envisions artists, organizers and community leaders from every sector working together to build an unquenchable demand for a country that is accountable to the human rights of all people within or on our borders. Please plan to join us next year in December 2013, for the Reels for Rights inaugural media arts festival! For updates on Reels for Rights, please like our Facebook page and follow our twitter hashtag, #ReelsForRights.