Strategic Partners & Community
THE POWER OF A THOUSAND VOICES
Thank you for your interest in partnering up with our organization and our mission to stand up for, support and defend film colleagues at acute and severe risk around the world. Strategic and affiliate partnerships play a vital part in the impact and effectiveness of our mission — please read more here below.
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Introduction
In 2012, Syrian filmmaker Orwa Nyrabia was forcibly detained at Damascus International Airport by military intelligence for his role in drafting a public call demanding democracy for Syria and to obtain humanitarian aid for his fellow citizens in dire need.
His partner, filmmaker Diana El Jeiroudi, and fellow independent filmmakers rallied the international film industry through a campaign demanding his freedom. Thousands of directors, producers, actors, film festivals, and other professionals from all over the world united behind this call. Eventually, the pressure proved too much for the Syrian government — who released the filmmaker without pressing any charges. This campaign was an example of how the film community can stand in solidarity and use its impact for the benefit of a filmmaker at risk.
A few years later, Orwa Nyrabia would go on to become one of the founders of the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) in early 2020: a concerted effort to unify the voices and efforts of our film industry, so as to provide a lifeline for filmmakers from all over the world.
Mission & Core Activities
In today's world, the creativity of filmmakers is one of the most influential tools for societies to find their way and defend their rights. Especially in countries where freedom of expression is undermined and censorship prevails, filmmaking and independent storytelling take on an even more crucial, but dangerous, role.
With the rise and escalation of many different conflicts around the world, ICFR's original mission has remained unchanged: to support independent filmmakers at acute and severe risk around the world. We specify the word 'risk' as acute and severe because that is where the ICFR's means, resources and network come in most effectively: in advocating .
To this end, we rally the international film community and issue pressing and collective responses - often in the form of statements and campaigns. We press our network - film institutions, festivals, fellow filmmakers and actors - to share our calls and speak out on cases. With each added voice, the ICFR's initial ripple grows until it can no longer be ignored - neither by regular media outlets, nor by the parties responsible for putting filmmakers at risk in the first place. This can lead to an insurmountable amount of pressure - and, hopefully, for the filmmakers at severe risk to receive milder sentences, to have their house arrests and travel bans lifted, and, in the best but rarest cases, to return to safety altogether.
Activities include:
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Advocacy:
campaigning for filmmakers at risk by mobilizing the international film community or by seeking public support through ways of diplomacy; -
Emergency funding:
providing small grants of maximum 1.500 EUR for immediate emergency response actions to filmmakers in critical situations: legal fees, emergency relocation & visa costs, immediate medical needs, not filmmaking projects or other costs; -
Accessing the support system:
connecting filmmakers in peril to international support networks active in the fields of human rights, culture and legal assistance; -
Monitoring and observatory:
the ICFR has been tracking, monitoring and following up with filmmakers' individual cases and their larger contexts, and aims to develop into a continuous observatory for the situation of filmmakers at risk worldwide.
(c) La Biennale di Venezia, 2020
How Do We Work?
In the years since its foundation, the ICFR has been campaigning for several persecuted filmmakers in a.o. Iran, Turkey, China, Myanmar, Belarus, Afghanistan, Sudan, Palestine and the Philippines. We did this by releasing statements and petitioning campaigns, as well as organising events around their arrest, including press conferences, panel discussions and flash-mobs during the Venice International Film Festival, IDFA and IFFR.
Specific campaigns include the cases of Hajooj Kuka (Sudan), Moataz Abdelwahab (Egypt), Mina Keshavarz, Firouzeh Khosrovani, Jafar Panahi, Mohammed Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad (Iran), Ciğdem Mater and Erhan Örs (Turkey), Andrey Gnyot (Belarus), Chen Pinlin and Ikram Nurmehmet (China), Ma Aeint and Shin Daewe (Myanmar), Sayed Rahim Saidi (Afghanistan), and Abdallah Motan (Palestine). Although many have since been released on bail or otherwise, most still face a threat of re-arrest, travel bans and continued systematic sabotage of their work.
Currently, Ciğdem Mater, Shin Daewe, Ikram Nurmehmet, Chen Pinlin, Sayed Rahim Saidi and Abdallah Motan all remain incarcerated with undefendably long and/or prospectless sentences. Other filmmakers such as Maryam Moghadam, Behtash Sanaeeha, Zahra Shafiee Dehaghani and Andrey Gnyot continue to be persecuted and banned from traveling; and oppressive regimes continue to crack down on filmmakers across the world all too frequently.
As each case is unique, the response of the ICFR strongly depends on the specific needs of the filmmaker in distress and the context of the threat. Depending on the case, the ICFR can sometimes take the lead in campaigning for a persecuted filmmaker or can support the advocacy efforts led by others. In some cases, public campaigning can be most effective, in others a more silent diplomacy effort is required, or it can be a combination of these different efforts. We operate from a first position of doing no harm, and with the full consent of the filmmaker and their legal advisors at all times. We also work with a network of advisers from different parts of the world and with different expertise that can be called upon in individual cases.
METHODOLOGY:
- All incoming cases are put before the ICFR Team first;
- The Team contacts the filmmaker in question and/or their direct network to request further information on their situation, the risk they are facing, their immediate needs and what kind of support is requested;
- Based on the information received, the Team makes a first assessment of the situation and of the possible action that needs to be taken;
- If necessary, further research is done, such as requesting second opinions from the film network, local/regional partners or advice from partner organizations active in the area of human rights or affiliated areas of work;
- The Team puts this assessment before the Executive Board, who make sure to respond within 24 hours, as well as in specific cases the additional feedback from the Advisory Committee;
- Following the advice of the Board (and/or the Committee), the Team proposes an action (campaign, statement, petition, etc.) to be undertaken - always with consent of the filmmaker in question or their direct contacts - and puts this proposal before the Board for approval.
(c) Academia del Cine Català, 2025
Become a Strategic Partner of the ICFR
WHY SUPPORT THE ICFR?
ICFR is the only initiative within the global film community founded in the spirit of streamlining initiatives dedicated to protecting filmmakers at risk world-wide. It is thus a unique concept. When responding to incoming cases of filmmakers at risk, we would like to bring together, as much as possible, the film community as a unified voice for an impactful action. The action of the ICFR concerns the global film community. For this reason, we believe that your support is indispensable to fulfill its mission, and an opportunity to strengthen our common impact for the greater good of filmmakers at risk.
OUR EFFORTS
The ICFR has the power to advocate for the release and support of those individuals already imprisoned or actively persecuted. Our coalition only acts with informed consent of the filmmakers at risk or their representatives. Additionally, the ICFR will offer support to filmmakers in urgent need of assistance by connecting them with partner organisations and funds that can help to ensure their safety and to try and mitigate their risks.
In times of increasing global crises, the ICFR keeps adapting its efforts, expanding its partnerships and updating its knowledge to better meet the demands of a rapidly changing world. In the past, the ICFR has managed to assist with the coordination of the evacuation of 26 filmmakers from Afghanistan; as well as launched, coordinated and distributed an Emergency Fund for over 600 Ukrainian film workers in need of emergency support (with relocation fees, visas, medical needs, and so on) due to Russia's war on their land.
Those efforts — and in particular our team size, our response time, our available funding for at-risk filmmakers' most urgent needs, and the impact of our activities — are dependent on the financial and in-kind support of our strategic and affiliate partners across the world.
HOW TO BECOME A PARTNER?
Based on our core activities, there are several ways to support us, in the spirit of a solidarity commitment and depending on your preferences and the size of your organization:
- Through a yearly donation of minimum EUR 500 to join our network of partners, to support our activities in general;
- Through a yearly donation of minimum EUR 1,000 specifically destined to cover our technical costs such as ensuring secure channels of communication;
- Through a yearly donation of EUR 1,500 to fund our small grants emergency fund for emergency actions to filmmakers in critical situations;
- Yearly donations of > EUR 5,000 are most gratefully received and will require individual conversations to determine the specific make-up and shape of the partnership with our independently operating organization.
- Affiliate partnerships do not require a financial commitment up-front, and revolve around an exchange of knowledge and network, especially concerning the Global South and the countries involved in our campaigns. Public fundraisers among the affiliate partner's network/audience in support of the ICFR's mission and/or individual filmmakers at risk are strongly and gratefully encouraged.
WHAT DO WE OFFER?
- A responsive system to assess incoming cases of filmmakers at severe and acute risk and decide to take the relevant action in their best interest, by a dedicated team of professionals and, when necessary, additional consultants from the film community, affiliated organizations and/or the international human rights sector;
- Visibility on all our main communication channel (website);
- Visibility of your adherence to the ICFR's Network of Strategic Partners on your own communication channels;
- The possibility to endorse advocacy campaigns by becoming a co-signatory when applicable;
- The possibility to co-organize and/or co-host human rights-related film events with the ICFR, especially concerning the film workers the ICFR is campaigning for at any given moment.
(c) Anne Reitsma for IFFR, 2022