WATCH DOCS Belarus is an international documentary film festival on human rights founded by the Zvyano association in 2015.
The mission of the festival is to create a platform for the discussion of current problems by people with different positions and views; a space for communication and collaboration between various social groups, activists, journalists, intellectuals and directors.
The purpose of the festival is education in the field of protection of freedoms and human rights, improvement of the level of civil activity and popularization of documentary films about human rights.
From the very beginning, the festival built its work relying on volunteers and regular crowdfunding campaigns. The festival was held every year in December in Minsk, as well as in other cities of Belarus (Hrodna, Vitebsk, Mazyr, Stoubtsy, Gomel, Molodechno, Brest) without specific dates. The entrance to the festival and its events is free.
Over the years, WATCH DOCS Belarus has become the largest human rights event gathering up to 3,000 spectators. Among the guests of the festival were representatives of the Memorial, Human Rights Watch, the European Commission, representatives of the UN, members of the Estonian and German parliaments, directors from the Netherlands, Poland, Ireland, Great Britain, Ukraine and Russia. One of the guests of honor of the festival was Adam Michnik.
In 2018 the Festival established the public Anti-Award “WATCH DOCS marked” for public institutions.
In 2019, the Festival created the Award for Belarusian directors; the money for this award was collected from the sale of tickets for the movies in the Belarusian film program and through crowdfunding. The winners of the festival in different years were the films “Good girls don’t get beaten” by Galina Adamovich, “Strip and war” and “When flowers are not silent” by Andrei Kutsila, “Mein Deutschland” by Alexander Svishchenkov, “Song Titled 328” by Alexandra Dynko, “Belarus 2020” by Maksim Shved, Andrei Kutsila and Ekaterina Markavets, “Courage” by Aliaksei Paluyan, “Structure” by Alisa Iodo, “My Motherland” by Ksenia Golubovich.
Also in 2019 WATCH DOCS Belarus became a partner of the online platform VOKA. This way, some films of the festival became available online for free throughout the year.
In November 2020 we collaborated with the Belfast Film Festival. The Irish audience had an opportunity to learn more about Belarus during the screenings of “Belarus 2020” by Maksim Shved, Andrei Kutsila and Ekaterina Markavets, “Strip and war” by Andrei Kutsila and “Breath of Swamps” by Ihar Chyshchenia.
In January 2021, the Festival was accepted as part of the international Human Rights Film Network.
Because of the forced emigration of thousands of Belarusians and the difficult political situation in Belarus, the festival was held online in 2021, and for the first time films were available for viewing on the territory of Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland.
It was the eighth and last public WATCH DOCS Belarus which was held under the slogan Human Rights Extremist. In that year, journalists of independent media, human rights defenders, ‘observers’ in courts, active citizens were labeled extremists, and the public association “Zvyano”, the founder of the Festival, was liquidated for “propaganda of extremism”.
You can learn more about the festival here.
