Now in its 26th edition, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival will take place in New York City from June 11 to 21, with 16 films from around the world that celebrate the power of individuals and communities to create change. The festival, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center, is organized around three themes: Art Versus Oppression, Changemakers and Justice and Peace. Special programs include a discussion on the ethics of image-making in documenting human rights abuses, a master class on international crisis reporting and digital storytelling, and a multimedia project on women activists of the Arab Spring.

The festival kicks off on June 11 with a fundraising Benefit Night for Human Rights Watch, which includes a screening of Matthew Heineman’s Cartel Land, which exposes two vigilante movements that have arisen from Mexico’s drug war. Opening Night on June 12 features Marc Silver’s 3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets, about the 2012 shooting of a black teenager, Jordan Davis, at a Florida gas station and the trial of his killer, Michael Dunn. On the festival’s Closing Night, Stanley Nelson’s The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution will screen; the renowned documentarian’s history of the Black Panther Party contains rare archival footage, from the party’s beginnings to its ultimate dissolution. The directors of these and other films will be on hand for post-screening discussions.

No Land’s Song

Other films to be shown include Ayat Najafi’s No Land’s Song (Art Versus Oppression), which follows composer Sara Najafi (the director’s sister) as she struggles to organize a public concert in Tehran featuring solo female vocalists. This wouldn’t be a big deal if the prospective audience were all women or the performers only sang backup. However, according to a religious scholar Sara consults, a woman’s solo voice might change a man’s “natural mood,” which is unacceptable. (Interestingly, three women singing together would be less problematic as their voices “neutralize” each other.) Complicating things further, Sara has invited several French musicians and vocalists specializing in Persian music to take part in the concert.

Sara makes a series of visits to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance’s Music Department, where we hear a succession of authorities discouraging her plans (these scenes are audio only as video was not allowed). She is in frequent contact with the French musicians through Skype and travels to Paris, where they discuss details such as how much movement the percussionist should display while performing. She also talks to men in the street in Tehran who reminisce about bars, cabarets and theaters that thrived in the once cosmopolitan city, and their memories of seeing popular performers such as the diva Delkash in the 1950s. Najafi includes videos of both Delkash and pioneering 1920s vocalist Qamar-ol-Molouk Vaziri, reminders of Iran’s rich history of beloved female singers, prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Unsurprisingly, the best part of the film is the actual music, both popular Persian songs of various eras and Sara’s beautiful compositions, as performed by her contemporary group of Iranian and French musicians. The vocalists – fellow composer Sayeh Sodeyfi, the incredible Parvin Namazi (who moves a musician to tears at one point), and young Tunisian Emel Mathlouthi (whose impromptu singing during demonstrations against President Ben Ali’s regime went viral on YouTube) are all fantastic musicians with distinctive voices and styles.

Various roadblocks, including Iran’s 2013 presidential election and the ministry’s refusal to grant the French work visas, impede Sara’s plans but she gamely persists. The concert that ultimately takes place is a triumph, both musically and — more importantly — culturally. The festival is presenting Ayat Najafi with its 2015 Nestor Almendros Award for courage in filmmaking.

Life Is Sacred

Andreas Dalsgaard’s Life Is Sacred, an entry in the Changemakers category, is a fascinating look at how nonconformist presidential candidate Antanas Mockus altered Colombia’s approach to its longstanding war with the FARC (guerilla movement) and other violence-related issues. Narrated by Katherine Miranda, a youth leader in the country’s Green Party, the film is a portrait of the former philosopher and college dean who gained enormous support for his “zero aggression” approach to the country’s cycle of drugs, violence and corruption. As the mayor of Bogotá, his anti-establishment methods included sending police to college, dissolving the notoriously corrupt traffic police and replacing them with mimes (!), and administering an “anti-violence vaccine.”

While perhaps idealistic in the extreme, Mockus represented a refreshing change from the ineffective strong-arm tactics of his predecessors. Part one of the film (“Hope”) shows the lead-up to Colombia’s 2010 presidential election, as the soft-spoken Mockus inspires Colombians of various backgrounds while his opposition, current president Juan Manuel Santos, uses questionable methods to gain an advantage. Part two (“Peace”) of the film portrays the election’s aftermath, as Mockus’ supporters become frustrated with his refusal to challenge its outcome and another leader takes up leadership of the Green Party. We meet Mockus’s influential sculptor mother, who adds an interesting dimension to the portrait of this unusual man, and learn of a personal setback involving health, which has a major effect on his future plans.

The film is not only a great portrait of a unique individual and leader, but a compelling glimpse into Colombian society and political culture, a plus for those (most of us) who are mainly aware of other countries’ cultural and political issues through headlines that are all too black and white.

For more info: ff.hrw.org/new-york

—Marina Zogbi