Teens Compete at Human Rights Film Festival

Youth for Human Rights was proud to participate in a human rights film competition and festival for local youth organized by the Film Theatre Academy of Rome.

The festival began with a screening of UNITED, an award-winning Youth for Human Rights International hip hop music video. The video tells the tale of an inner-city boy who is forced from his basketball court by a gang of bullies. With the help of friends from around the world, the boy stands up for his rights and resolves the situation peacefully.

First screened at the United Nations in New York, UNITED is now available in 15 languages and is one of the central elements of the Youth for Human Rights International educational initiative.

In advance of the competition, all students participating attended human rights workshops organized and conducted by the Rome chapter of Youth for Human Rights International and the Church of Scientology of Rome. They then produced and shot the films that were screened at the festival.

The evening’s activities ended with an awards presentation where all students and their teachers came to the stage to be acknowledged for their work. The winners accepted their awards for Best Direction, Best Screenplay, Best Lead Character and the Popular Jury Award.

All the young filmmakers were given the opportunity to compete again as the producers announced the festival will take place once again next year.

The Church of Scientology supports Youth for Human Rights. Scientologists on six continents engage in collaborative efforts with government agencies and nongovernmental organizations to bring about broad-scale awareness and implementation of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the world’s premier human rights document.