The ninth annual ACT Human Rights Film Festival returns to Fort Collins to bring diverse and original stories from around the world that remind us what it is to be human.
From April 3 through 7, ACT will present 22 esteemed documentaries on campus and at The Lyric. Award-winning filmmakers and film participants will join to share their insights and connect with audiences.
“For our ninth festival, ACT is thrilled to bring life-changing films, the award-winning filmmakers behind them and inspiring activists to Fort Collins,” festival producer Greg Dickinson said. “Attendees will have the opportunity to meet and speak with changemakers from afar and within our own community throughout the festival.”
Kickoff party and Spanish-English opening night
On Tuesday, March 19, ACT kicks off its 2024 festival with a party at Odell Brewing in Fort Collins. The celebration is free and open to all. From 7 to 9 p.m., partygoers will enjoy trailers for official festival selection films; ticket giveaways; trivia and Odell’s ninth annual signature festival beer, ACT Screening Session Ale. Please RSVP for ACT’s kickoff party here.
On Wednesday, April 3, the festival officially opens with a celebratory reception starting at 5 p.m. in the Lory Student Center Theatre lobby. The reception will feature heavy appetizers and more of Odell’s limited ACT Screening Session Ale. The Colorado premiere of If I Could Stay / Si Pudiera Quedarme and the short film How We Get Free will begin at 6:15 p.m. in the Lory Student Center Theatre. Both films investigate contemporary political issues in Colorado relevant to CSU’s Thematic Year of Democracy, and will be presented bilingually in Spanish and English with live interpreters present.
How We Get Free follows activist Elisabeth Epps, the founder and leader of the Colorado Freedom Fund, as she works to help incarcerated people across the state who can’t afford their bail before trial. On the heels of the U.S.’s 2020 racial reckoning, Epps confronts a new challenge: calls from her community to run for political office. Live interpreters will be present to translate the film from English to Spanish.
If I Could Stay is a story of courage and allyship. When undocumented mothers Jeanette Vizguerra and Ingrid Encalada Latorre face deportation and separation from their young children, they and their Colorado communities rally support to keep them safe despite the risks. This screening includes Spanish and English subtitles.
Following the films, audiences can glean deeper insights from If I Could Stay co-directors Florencia Krochik and Theo Rigby, as well as aforementioned film participants Vizguerra and Latorre, for an in-person English-Spanish Q&A.
CSU’s Student Leadership Involvement and Community Engagement office (SLiCE) is sponsoring two free tickets for CSU students to attend ACT. Students must book with their Rams email and CSUID number, and use the discount code SLiCE24. These free student tickets are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Student IDs will be checked at the festival.
Acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns to appear at ACT
The festival continues Thursday, April 4 through Sunday, April 7 at The Lyric (1209 N. College Ave.) for the remaining 20 films. Of note is a one-hour reel of Ken Burns’s award-winning documentary series, The U.S. and the Holocaust. The film was honored with an Emmy Award and a du Pont – Columbia Award (among others) and will screen on Sunday, April 7 at 3 p.m.
The U.S. and the Holocaust explores America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises in history. Combining the first-person accounts of Holocaust witnesses and survivors and interviews with leading historians and writers, The U.S.and the Holocaust dispels competing myths that Americans either were ignorant of the unspeakable persecution that Jews and other targeted minorities faced in Europe or that they looked on with callous indifference. Festivalgoers will find this film complementary to ACT’s opening night screening of If I Could Stay’s depiction of contemporary American immigration policy and its impacts.
“Our film grapples with questions that remain essential to our society today,” said Ken Burns, co-director of The U.S. and the Holocaust. “Is America truly, as it claims to be, a land of immigrants? Why did we fail to rescue a people at the time of their greatest need? How do the continued struggles over how we define our past shape our future as a country?”
Noting that “history cannot be looked at in isolation,” the acclaimed filmmaker and co-director Lynn Novick will both join ACT Human Rights Film Festival to explore these urgent questions in a virtual Q&A moderated by Laura Frank immediately following the screening. This event is sponsored by Rocky Mountain Public Media, parent of Rocky Mountain PBS.
Join friends at the festival to make a difference in our community
Another film of note, Mediha, which screens at The Lyric on Thursday, April 4 at 6:30 p.m., turns its lens on the recent Yazidi genocide in Syria and Iraq perpetrated by ISIS terrorists. After surviving kidnapping and enslavement at the hands of ISIS, teenager Mediha turns her camera on herself to process her trauma while rescuers search for her missing family members. Mediha confronts her past through personal video-diaries, reclaiming her voice and stepping bravely towards the future. Hasan Oswald, the film’s director, will be present for an in-person Q&A immediately following the screening.
New this year, ACT is offering two free trainings for community organizing and activism led by Fort Collins Community Action Network (FCCAN). Attendees will learn direct skills toward building democracy and creating empowered social movements, and receive two free tickets to see any film at the festival. The trainings are open to all and will take place at The Lyric on Friday, April 5 and Sunday, April 7. Final times will be announced on ACT’s online festival hub here.
Also new this year is ACT’s Film Is Better with Friends initiative. Thanks to ACT supporter Marcia Simmons, when you buy a ticket to an ACT film using the discount code “FRIENDS,” you’ll receive a free ticket to bring a friend with you.
“Film is better with friends. We laugh harder, empathize more, and have fantastic discussions when we watch movies all together,” said Beth Seymour, ACT’s managing director. “The power of storytelling through film is amplified when we have people to share with and talk to about what we saw and experienced. And it’s worth it.”
“ACT brings together culturally transformative, powerful films from around the globe, and allows virtual travel to the world of the Other, whose human rights (and often lives) are at stake,” said Julia Khrebtan- Hörhager, ACT’s artistic director. “In-person attendance is essential: by enabling conversations with sensational filmmakers, producers and film subjects, ACT serves as a phenomenal way of promoting democracy and building communities with a global mindset.”
The complete festival lineup and schedule, as well as festival passes and individual film tickets, can be found on ACT’s festival hub here. Tickets may also be purchased day of show, pending availability.
Passes offer the most flexibility, priority seating and special perks to best experience the festival. In addition to all regular screenings, passholders receive entrance to opening and closing night films and receptions, and film ticket vouchers to bring a friend to films.
ACT is produced by the Department of Communication Studies at Colorado State University with generous support from CSU partners including the College of Liberal Arts; Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts program; CSU Thematic Year; Lilla B. Morgan Memorial Fund Endowment; Office of Inclusive Excellence; Women and Philanthropy; Commitment to Campus; Libraries and School of Music, Theatre and Dance. Support also comes from CSU’s Departments of Philosophy; Anthropology and Geography; Ethnic Studies; English; History; Political Science; Sociology; Art and Art History and Languages, Literatures and Cultures.
Off-campus partners include the City of Fort Collins Fort Fund and Equity and Inclusion Office; Colorado Creative Industries; The Lyric; Eye Center of Northern Colorado; Bohemian Foundation; the Colorado Office of Film, TV and Media; OtterCares; Odell Brewing; KUNC 91.5 FM; The Colorado Sound 105.5 FM; OtterCares; Rocky Mountain Public Media and The Armstrong Hotel. Individual sponsors include Jo Anne Busch, Wendy Poppen, Marcia Simmons, The Spokespeople Fund, Maria Fernandez Gimenez and Devin Odell. Learn more at www.actfilmfest.colostate.edu.
CSU employees can take advantage of the Commitment to Campus discount to receive 20% off a festival pass or 20% off any individual tickets. Log into the c2c site for the discount code.
CSU students can redeem the SLiCE-sponsored discount code SLiCE24 to receive two free tickets using their Rams email address and CSUID numbers. Student IDs will be checked at the festival.
