 |
| György Soros |
"While it is important to watch these films, we cannot stand idle in the face of humiliation inflicted on our fellow humans either," Soros said. "I open this festival hoping that the films screened here will help us learn about and understand the real stories and prompt us, as active citizens, to stand up against the violation of human rights."
Soros warned that the cognitive function of politics and mass communications was gradually being replaced with manipulation. This is why documentary films have such a significance, because they do not have a political aim, rather they are committed to showing reality, he said.
The Soros Documentary Film Foundation was established in 1996. With the support of Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival, the foundation has supported the work of more than 450 documentary filmmakers in 54 countries.
More than 60 films - 45 never before screened in public in Hungary - from 25 countries are on the festival programme, said festival director Oksana Sarkisova. The screenings will take place at the Toldi and Cirko-gejzír art cinemas.
The festival opened with a screening of Mercedes Stalenhoef's When Carmen Meets Borat. In the film, Stalenhoef visited the Romanian village where the Hollywood parody Borat was shot, showing how villagers' lives were turned around by the experience.
The festival, organised by the Verzió Film Foundation and the Open Society Archives, runs from November 3 until 8. The chief patrons of the festival are the Hungarian director Miklós Jancsó and the Hungarian Helsinki Commission.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Photo: deluxe.hu
