These are unprecedented times and they call for courage and action. And it seems that the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights possesses a heavy dose of both.

The festival will take place this year from March 5th to the 14th and will feature films, talks, art events and in-depth conversations with distinguished guests on everything from racism to migration, with a heavy dose of pandemic response and the consequences of our global lockdowns thrown in.

The FIFDH, as it’s known in short, will present forum debates between journalists, diplomats, philanthropists, victims and artists — and of course the general public — who are all invited to take part in the ongoing, ten day discussions. There will also be an international film festival running concurrently, with titles such as Gianfranco Rosi’s ‘Notturno’ and Ai Wei Wei’s ‘Coronation’ — the latter filmed secretly during the first days of the pandemic in Wuhan, the Chinese Covid-19 epicenter.

While the in-person part of the festival will take place throughout Geneva, the film festival will also stream for those further away and later this year even travel, pandemic permitting, around the world and touch down on countries such as Belarus and Sri Lanka among many more.

The introduction to the 2021 program of FIFDH also discloses that “the 19th edition of the FIFDH is dedicated to Soltan Achilova, a photojournalist and independent reporter based in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. As a journalist and activist in one of the world’s most restrictive countries, she is one of the rare Turkmen reporters to work openly with foreign-based independent media — Radio Azatlyk, Chronicles of Turkmenistan, Free Europe — thus exposing herself to repression by a government that tolerates no dissident voices.” See what I mean, courage, in healthy doses at FIFDH this year!

Like most events around the world this extraordinary year, the FIFDH will be present online for those of us who are unable to travel to Switzerland. As Isabelle Gattiker, General Director of the Programs explains “anchored in the present, we are embracing the world with both hands as it stands a year after the beginning of the pandemic. If circumstances prevent us from meeting in person, we will engage in other ways of being together; we will imagine digital, sound or written channels to make the activists’ voices resonate and carry high the colors of politically engaged cinema.”

Among the speakers and panelists, a who’s who of fabulous insight and contemporary wisdom, including civil rights activist Angela Davis. As a personal aside, the festival had me at “hello” when I read her name in the list of attendees).

Highlights of the event include a Masterclass with Swiss filmmaker and essayist Milo Rau on March 4th, ‘We Are Watching’ an ongoing installation by artivist Dan Acher that bears witness to the climate emergency around the world, opening on March 6th — imagine, you can even add your own face here! Also a giant graffiti being created live in Geneva by Senegalese graffiti artist Zeinixx together with two Geneva artists, Amikal and Nadia Seika on March 8th at a yet to be announced location — followed by a conversation with Dieynaba Sidibé AKA Zeinixx, Senegal’s first woman graffiti artist, at 6 p.m. on the same day.

On the 10th of March, Angela Davis will be introduced by Sami Kanaan, Mayor of Geneva and Barbara Hendricks, singer and UNHCR Ambassador for life and the patron of the evening, for a look at more than half a century of civil rights struggles seen by Ms. Davis. The program describes her as “an icon of feminist struggles and anti-racism, Angela Davis has consistently denounced structural racism and campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty, reform of the US prison system and minority rights,” and they couldn’t be more right!

For the full program of events happening this year at the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, including all films and forums, please check out the FIFDH website.