Film on sex trafficking takes top prize at award ceremony
The awards — now in their third year — were announced during a gala screening at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin.
The Irish Examiner is a proud media partner to the competition.
Mabel Lozano’s film, Listen to Me, is based on the true story of sex trafficking victim Svetlana Demidovitch. Its minimalist style impressed a jury that included filmmakers Kirsten Sheridan, Rebecca Miller, Tomm Moore and Ken Wardrop, as well as actors Brenda Fricker, Stephen Rea and Victoria Smurfit.
Also on the jury were Senator David Norris; Gráinne Humphreys, director of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival; Professor Bill Schabas, director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUIG; James Morris, chair of the Irish Film Board; and John Kelleher, former director of the Irish Film Censor’s Office.
Lozana said: “One of the worst violations of human rights that I can think of is the trafficking of women and girls, the buying and selling of human beings as if they were bags or shoes. I hope that my film and films like it will help to highlight this serious human rights violation.”
ICCL director Marc Kelly, said: “Over its three years the ICCL Human Rights Film Awards shortlist has always had an international dimension, and we are delighted that this year a foreign film tackling an issue of real relevance here in Ireland has won the grand prize.”
Taking second prize on the night was Fran Cassidy, director of Freedom Driver, an intimate and provocative portrait of disability activist Dara Gallagher, which the filmmaker described as “a labour of love”.
Third prize went to Hilary Fennell for her film Hearing Silence, a moving study of Elizabeth Petcu, an accomplished flautist recently diagnosed with progressive hearing loss.
Fennell pointed out that the issue of deafness is often overlooked though it remains “something which affects an often vulnerable section of our society”.
Emily Logan, the Ombudsman for Children, also handed out a prize to St Mac Dara’s Community College, Dublin, winners of the “Human Rights in Under a Minute” competition.
The six films shortlisted for this year’s ICCL Human Rights Film Awards can be viewed at www.humanrightsfilmawards.org