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It's important because Human Rights Watch is so crucial.
I mean, especially this time now where a lot of newspapers and media outlets
don't have in their budget the ability to send journalists to these
regions. Human Rights Watch is very often the only source of
information of what's going on.
It's crucial in this time that we have observers,
that we have people who actually are able to see and assess whether or not
human rights are being transgressed or to give us a sense of what's actually
going on. I mean we are aware that with cell phone technology
and everyone being able to take images we see these sometimes horrifying
pictures of what's going on, but to really understand on the ground
you need to have objective reporters there.
And Human Rights Watch has been doing an extraordinary job.
This festival is really a way of celebrating the work
of Human Rights Watch and making people aware of the power
of the organization.
I think film is a way to reach people and then also these days I mean
What is film? I mean we can see out of the movie tonight I think you know
a lot of it is stuff that's coming off people's cell phones.
Images are a very important way of reaching people.
But, if those images are interpreted by artists and creative minds who
are able to give their own perspective, that's invaluable!
And so in a way it's a very interesting marriage here
because we're having the objective reporting of Human Rights Watch
members who are on the ground, but then we're seeing an artist's view
very often of those same experiences and that's very enriching I think.
The world is a very complex place.
We're very lucky to be living here in Toronto and that it's very important
to be involved. It's really important to understand how important
Human Rights Watch is as a frontline way of understanding the truth
and reacting to it. We have to keep our eyes open and we have to be able
to feel empathy and understand. It's too easy to be in our shell.
I think that this is a miraculous organization and it's only become
more and more important as I said as we've seen these media sort of
the ability of media outlets to actually send reporters diminish.
This festival is really a way of celebrating, honouring, and
extending the vision of Human Rights Watch.