Image: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Yee Nan Theik, film maker of Survival in Prison which won Aung San Suu Kyi Award at the awarding ceremony on 19 June 2013 Photo by Kyi Kyi Pyone © British Council.
In June 2013, Human Dignity Film Institute hosted the first ever Human Rights, Human Dignity International Film Festival. This ground-breaking event will always be a milestone for professional and amateur documentary film makers in Myanmar. As the main Yangon sponsor, British Council was very pleased with its success.
It is the first and only international human rights film festival in Myanmar and it plays a crucial role in raising the general public’s awareness of human rights issues and creates a common ground between professionals from local and international film industries and local community members to discuss and debate on human rights.
The festival brought together the human rights and film communities both domestically and overseas. It was dedicated to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who also led the award ceremony (which fell on her birthday, 19th June).
Annually around 250 screenings of 100 documentaries by local, regional and international filmmakers took place in the festival in Yangon, followed by six months of screenings in 13 states and regions around the country.
Over the last three years, the British Council has remained committed to supporting the festival and British Council will be one of the main sponsors of the travelling film screenings in the fourth edition of the festival which is taking place throughout the year of 2016.