Oxford Brookes University will be raising awareness of human rights this month as a popular and thought-provoking festival returns to the city for its 13th year.
The Oxford Human Rights Festival (Wednesday 18 - Saturday 21 February) will see a four day programme of films, talks and workshops, along with a special exhibition on display in the Glass Tank at the university’s Headington Campus.
The films, talks and workshops will tackle three themes refugees, women’s rights and politics and revolution.
Highlights will include the hard hitting documentary on domestic abuse Private Violence, short films Gardens of St. George and Bristol Bike Project about refugees in Bristol, and the blockbuster The Fifth Estate starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Wikileaks founder Julian Assage.
The festival is organised by Oxford Brookes students on the Development and Emergency Practice (DEP) and Applied Architectural Design master’s degree courses. It is open to the public to attend free of charge.
Nicoletta Idili, a current student involved in organising the festival said: "To be helping organise the Oxford Human Rights Festival is a special formative experience; working in a team to create different events so people don’t forget that even nowadays human rights are still continuously violated all over the world. The events promise to bring lively debate and raise controversial and hard hitting issues, both in developing countries and closer to home.”
Already on display in the Glass Tank is the exhibition, The Insurgent Artist, a retrospective of the work of George McBean, illustrator, animator and former head of the UNICEF Graphics Section. It features fascinating sketchbooks, illustrations, products, photographs and animation from George’s amazing 36-year career with the organisation both at their headquarters in New York and in the field in Africa, Nepal and the Caribbean.
The festival will take place at the new John Henry Brookes Building and the new Abercrombie Building. More information about the festival and the full programme of events can be found on the festival’s website www.oxfordhumanrightsfestival.org.
To book onto a reception and private view of the Glass Tank exhibition on 18 February, including a Q&A session with George McBean, please contact Gallery Manager and Exhibitions Curator Joanna Walker, joannawalker@brookes.ac.uk.