Uri Fruchtmann - human rights film-maker
Uri Fruchtmann – human rights filmmaker
Uri Fruchtmann is a filmmaker and director. He started Videre est Credere, a charity that supports activists who make videos as evidence of human rights violations. He tells Jo Lateu about what the project wants to do, and the successes it has had. And he explains why it is more important now to let people know the truth.
© Assaf Pintchk
Videre est Credere (seeing is believing) started in 2008. Why did you start it?
I am a filmmaker and I am passionate about political and social change. I was always interested in using video cameras to show and stop injustice. I made my first videos more than 20 years ago, when video cameras became cheaper and easy to use. Six years ago I met Oren Yakobovich, who started a video project in the occupied territories of Palestine, at the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. We had similar ideas and together we started Videre.
We now have 24-hour news, social media and the internet. Do we need your organization to help people show videos?
Yes. Videre does not only help show video information. We work with communities in remote areas where there is little technology and internet. We give cameras to local activists; we train and support them to film what they see and show it to the world. This helps with many problems they have. We then make sure that the video is shown to the right people at the right time –media, lawyers, politicians or decision-makers – to make sure it has a big effect and makes a real change.
Can you tell us about some success stories?
We cannot say which countries we work in because of security. But I can say that we are often the first source of visual information in the areas where we work. We have given more than 450 stories to media outlets: BBC, local radio channels. We have given information to many people who have power to change: local NGOs and US National Security Council. We have filmed evidence of many types of abuse: violence, forcing people to leave their land and houses, and threats. There are many results of our work: politicians prosecuted for hate speech and making people violent; MPs forced to leave their jobs; better treatment of people with HIV; people stopping female genital mutilation.
Your work helps Wikileaks to tell everyone about things that powerful people don’t want them to know. Have you and the people who make videos had problems with governments like Wikileaks?
We work in places that already have problems with freedom and security. We help the people who work with us with security and we train them. Security is very important in how we work and we try very hard to make sure that people who work with us are not at risk, before, during and after filming. We use secret cameras when we need to. I don’t think governments have looked at what I’m doing, but I don’t know for sure...
You’ve been working in the film industry since 1985. Why did you start making films?
Because I like to be able to tell complicated stories in a visual way. I was also excited to think that I could make many people think and feel with film and TV.
Which of your many films are you most proud of, and why?
Dar o dur (The Price of Bread) - our first real Palestinian film. It’s a documentary directed by Rashid Mashraui, a great Palestinian director, in Gaza, his home town.
London has more CCTV cameras than most other cities. How do you feel about people watching you at the same time as you watch others?
Like any other technology, CCTV can be good and bad – it depends how people use it. In London, if you break a traffic rule, the CCTV cameras will probably film it and you will have to pay or go to court. We want Videre to do the same for justice, everywhere in the world.
At Videre, we are filming the people who have the power. We are building film communities, trying to get more liberty, get more power for minorities and help people listen to them. But, as we all know, if the wrong people do the same thing, this could be bad and not help freedom.
What do you want to do with Videre est Credere? Do you have plans for other projects?
We want a world where people can see everything that happens against human rights. Videre has big ambitions for the future and many new projects, but, because of security, we can’t discuss them, sorry...
See more about Videre est Credere: videreonline.org
NOW READ THE ORIGINAL: http://newint.org/columns/finally/2014/05/01/uri-fruchtmann-interview/ (This article has been simplified so the words, text structure and quotes may have been changed).
