As festival director Jordan Flaherty sees it, the New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival is a small event in a small city. “Like New Orleans overall, we continue to create and build, despite all the obstacles,” Flaherty says. With a programming schedule addressing a bevy of topics from the injustices committed in Darfur to the sociopolitical turbulence straining relations between Israel and Palestine, the festival keeps its eye on promoting the social good and draws critical connections about that good on international—and more importantly—local scales.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, inequalities in education, health care and criminal justice (pertinent issues in New Orleans) were the dominating theme of the festival, Flaherty says. “By presenting them together, we have been able to build a community of resistance.” With large numbers of viewers in attendance, last year’s festival highlighted the post-Katrina landscape in varying shades of concern and hope for reconstruction. While John Sullivan and Bryan Parras’ …after the wind, child, after the water’s gone… touched on the environmental aspects of the city’s anticipated revival, Walidah Imarisha’s Finding Common Ground in New Orleans studied citizens’ emotional experiences of the blatantly botched rescue effort. “We have created this festival to support our city,” Flaherty says, “and we have continued this festival, despite our city being devastated, because we believe in New Orleans, and we will continue to struggle for the future.”

For more information—or to submit a film—visit www.nolahumanrights.org

Los Angels Film Fest: Now Accepting Submissions for 2007 Festival:

http://www.lafilmfest.com/