Nora Beňáková Festival Director Jeden Svet Slovakia

How does it feel to be president of the One World Festival? It depends when you ask me the question. Half a year before the festival it’s great that I can watch hundreds of documentary films at home as I am responsible also for dramaturgy. One month before and during the festival, it’s particularly a great deal of stress and responsibility. After the festival, if everything was good and visitors are happy, it’s a good feeling that an event of this kind exists thanks to me and my closest colleagues – Katka Ďurovková and Martin Horák. And in recent months thanks to Eva Sládková and Paula Tomanovičová who help us with promotion.

How do you rate previous years and what are you expecting from this year’s edition? The One World Festival was born in Slovakia in 2000. We started with 39 documentaries in four temporary theatres. Currently, we are offering 70 documentaries from abroad as well as a selection of Slovak productions, which we try to expand each year. We are screening at five places. Over the years we have extended the programming by adding other genres, and as well as film, organizing discussions not only with foreign directors but also with Slovak personalities, starting with screenings for schools, competitions, increasing our presence on the internet and on social networks. Over the years, we have been adding new themes and film sections – only a few years ago we added themes reflecting globalization as well as our history to the classical sections such as “You have the right to see”, films about violations of human rights, and the ecological section.

The current edition has an interesting programme. Which sections/films drew your attention particularly? Definitely the new section ”New media are changing the world”, where we managed to get films about the WikiLeaks cause, censorship on the internet in democratic countries, and mostly films about Arab revolutions, which the phenomenon of social networks significantly helped. Moreover, the section “Our r/evolution” is also very interesting; it contains several humorous or rather ironic probes reflecting the progress of a society in our space, whether it is the Romanian film Kapitalism – Our Improved Formula or The Other Chelsea.

Which film changed your life? I have been devoted to the One World Festival for over 10 years and after watching hundreds of documentaries, your perception is going to change. Scenes in films don’t shock me anymore or don’t surprise me as they would a viewer who sees a documentary about a serious theme for the first time. However I remember from the past one film which really struck me and changed my perception of the world as you are asking, and it was Shake hands with the Devil, about the Canadian Commander in Chief of UN troops who helplessly watched mass genocide in Rwanda (since he did not possess any rights to intervene). It’s impossible to witness injustice and do nothing in our century.

What are your plans for the future? After the festival, mainly to relax and watch several “normal” films in cinemas which I will have missed. Our three-member team in the association People in Peril is to participate not only in the next edition of the festival, but also in a new project to support free access to information in Belarus and in an educational project for schools on the reflection of our history during the period of communism.

By Martin Kudláč