The Huntsville Human Rights Film Festival will take place March 30 – April 3 on the campus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

The Festival is a collaboration of the UAH Humanities Center, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Office of Student Life, North Alabama School for Organizers, Southern Fried Film Festival, North Alabama Standing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), and other campus and community groups.

All events are free and open to the public.

Saturday, April 2

Film Screening: No Dumb Questions (24 minutes Run Time) 

LOCATION: MORTON HALL 147

TIME: 9:30 AM

No Dumb Questions is a lighthearted and poignant documentary that profiles three sisters, ages 6, 9, and 11, struggling to understand why and how their Uncle Bill is becoming a woman. These girls love their Uncle Bill, but will they feel the same way when he becomes their new Aunt Barbara? With just weeks until Bill's first visit as Barbara, the sisters navigate the complex territories of anatomy, sexuality, personality, gender, and fashion. Their reactions are funny, touching, and distinctly different. This film offers a fresh perspective on a complex situation from a family that insists there are no dumb questions.

Event Panel: Celluloid, Coffee & Conversation

LOCATION: MORTON HALL 146

TIME: 9:30 AM

UAH Film Professor Dr. Joseph Watson and Ray Santisteban, director of the First Rainbow Coalition, discuss filmmaking and activism and preview the historic documentary. 

Film Screening: The First Rainbow Coalition (1 Hour Run Time) 

LOCATION: MORTON HALL 146

TIME: 10:00 AM

An account of the groundbreaking 1960’s Chicago alliance between the Black Panthers, Young Lords, and Young Patriots. In 1969, the Chicago Black Panther Party, notably led by the charismatic Fred Hampton, began to form alliances across lines of race and ethnicity with other community-based movements in the city, including the Latino group the Young Lords Organization and the working-class young southern whites of the Young Patriots. Finding common ground, these disparate groups banded together in one of the most segregated cities in postwar America to collectively confront issues such as police brutality and substandard housing, calling themselves the Rainbow Coalition. The First Rainbow Coalition tells the movement’s little-known story through rare archival footage and interviews with former coalition members in the present day. While the coalition eventually collapsed under duress from constant harassment by local and federal law enforcement, including the murder of Fred Hampton, it had a long-term impact, breaking down barriers between communities, and creating a model for future activists and diverse politicians across America.

Event Panel: Dialogue with Hy Thurman, North Alabama School of Organizers, and friends of the Movement. 

LOCATION: MORTON HALL 146

TIME: 11:00 AM

A post-documentary discussion with members of the First and Second Rainbow Coalition, discussing new pathways in the movement for justice and equality. 

Film Screening: Always In Season (1 hour 29 minutes Run Time)

LOCATION: MORTON HALL 148

TIME: 10:00 AM

Always In Season explores the lingering impact of more than a century of lynching African Americans and connects this form of historic racial terrorism to racial violence today. The film centers on the case of Lennon Lacy, an African American teen who was found hanging from a swing set in Bladenboro, North Carolina, on August 29, 2014. Despite inconsistencies in the case, local officials 

quickly ruled Lennon’s death a suicide, but his mother, Claudia, believes Lennon was lynched. Claudia moves from paralyzing grief to leading the fight for justice for her son

As the film unfolds, Lennon’s case, and the suspicions surrounding it, intersect with stories of other communities seeking justice and reconciliation. A few hundred miles away in Monroe, Georgia, a diverse group of reenactors, including the adult daughter of a former Ku Klux Klan leader, annually dramatize a 1946 quadruple lynching to ensure the victims are never forgotten and encourage the community to come forward with information that might bring the perpetrators to justice.  As the terrorism of the past bleeds into the present, the film asks: what will it take for Americans to begin building a national movement for racial justice and reconciliation?

Film Screening: Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America

LOCATION: MORTON HALL 147

TIME: 10:00 AM

Growing up in rural North Carolina, Moises Serrano fell in love with a country that refused to recognize his full humanity - both as an undocumented immigrant and as a gay man. The documentary Forbidden follows Moises’ personal journey as an activist fighting for the American Dream.

LOCATION: MORTON HALL 147

TIME: 11:00 AM

Moises Serrano is an openly queer and undocumented activist and storyteller who has lived most of his life in Yadkin County, NC. Since coming out as undocumented in 2010 he has relentlessly pursued equality for his community through the sharing of his narrative. His mission is to de-criminalize and humanize the issue of migration while advocating for immediate relief to migrant communities. Moises quickly became one of the most requested speakers in the state of North Carolina. Described as a “consummate orator,” his advocacy has led him to lead a Tedx talk in Greensboro and to be named a notable Latino of the triad. For the past seven years, Moises has dedicated his life to building a local and national dialogue that he envisions will one day change the way we speak about undocumented immigrants in our country. Moises is a recent undergraduate student studying Public Policy at Sarah Lawrence College.

Film Screening: Oyate (1 hour 30 minutes Run Time) 

LOCATION: MORTON HALL 148

TIME: 12:00 PM

In 2016, the world turned its eyes to the people of Standing Rock as they formed a coalition of unprecedented magnitude to defend their land and water from the threat of the Dakota Access Pipeline.  An inflection point for human rights and environmental justice, the #NoDAPL struggle became a rallying cry for Indigenous people everywhere to take a stand against the myriad injustices committed against them for centuries.

Oyate elevates the voices of Indigenous activists, organizers, and politicians as they offer their perspective on that complicated history, contextualize the #NoDAPL movement, illuminate the interconnectivity between the issues facing Indian Country today, and look towards a more sovereign and sustainable future for their people. Featuring perspectives from Chase Iron Eyes, Phyllis Young, Secretary Deb Haaland, Tokata Iron Eyes, Stuart James, and more.

Event Panel: Oyate Talk Back Session 

LOCATION: MORTON HALL 148

TIME: 1:30 PM

After the screening of Oyate, join Brandon Jackson, Director/Producer, Emil Benjamin, Director/Producer, and Jennifer Martel, Producer for a post-film dialogue on activism, storytelling, and the growing Indigenous movement for social justice. Moderated by Dr. Cindy Tekobbe, The University of Alabama.

Film Screening: Ferguson Rises

LOCATION: MORTON HALL 146

TIME: 12:00 PM

Ferguson Rises is the inspiring story of the residents of Ferguson, Missouri, a small town that suffered a powerful loss and became the flashpoint for a modern-day civil rights movement.

Film Screening: Deep Run (75 minutes Run Time)

LOCATION: MORTON HALL 147

TIME: 12:30 PM

Deep Run is a powerful verité portrait of trans life in rural North Carolina. Exiled by her family and rejected by an ex-partner, 17-year-old Spazz has no one to lean on for support. But when Spazz falls in love again and summons up the courage to become Cole, a strong-willed trans-man, his candid humor and steadfast, all-inclusive Christian beliefs counter the bigotry he experiences daily.

This deeply personal documentary reveals rebirth and courage within America’s deeply conservative Bible Belt as Cole struggles to find a church that will affirm his identity and the couple's relationship. With a small group of supportive friends, relatives, and his girlfriend, Ashley, Cole's search for love and belonging leads him to a radical revision of what faith and church can be. An intimate study of young outsiders in an insular Christian community, Deep Run explores the intersection of modern identity and faith in the American South.

Film Screening: Geek Girls (83 minutes Run Time)

LOCATION: MORTON HALL 147

TIME: 2:00 PM

Nerdy women - the "hidden half" of fan culture - open up about their lives in the world of conventions, video games, and other rife-with-misogyny pop culture touchstones. While geek communities have recently risen to prominence, very little attention is paid to geek women. Filmmaker Gina Hara, struggling with her own geek identity, explores the issue with a cast of women who live geek life up to the hilt: A feminist geek blogger, a convention-trotting cosplayer, a professional gamer, a video-game designer, and a NASA engineer. Through their personal experiences in the rich cultural explosion of nerdom, GEEK GIRLS shows both the exhilaration of newfound community and the ennui of being ostracized. These women, striving in their respective professions and passions, face the cyberbullying, harassment, and sexism that permeates the culture and the industry at large.

Film Screening: Judas and the Black Messiah

LOCATION: CHARGER UNION THEATER

TIME: 2:00 PM

Fred Hampton, a young, charismatic activist, becomes Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party - putting him directly in the crosshairs of the government, the FBI, and the Chicago Police. But to destroy the revolution, the authorities are going to need a man on the inside.

Event Panel: Reflections with Nancy Hollander

LOCATION: CHARGER UNION THEATER

TIME: 6:30 PM

Internationally recognized criminal defense lawyer Nancy Hollander joins the Festival on Saturday, April 2, to discuss her four decades representing individuals and organizations accused of crimes, including those involving national security issues, in trial and on appeal. In her appeal, she was the lead appellate counsel for Chelsea Manning and won Ms. Manning’s release in 2017 when President Obama commuted her sentence from 35 years to seven years.  Ms. Hollander has also represented two prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and in 2016, she won the release of one of them – Mohamedou Ould Slahi – who had been incarcerated for 14 years without charge. His story is chronicled in his New York Times bestselling book, Guantanamo Diary, which Ms. Hollander helped facilitate and publish, and in a feature film entitled The Mauritanian. Hollander was portrayed by actress Jody Foster in the film, which will be screened Saturday, April 2, at 7:00 pm in Charger Union.

Film Screening: The Mauritanian (2 hours 9 minutes Run Time)

LOCATION: CHARGER UNION THEATER

TIME: 7:00 PM

Based on the New York Times best-selling memoir "Guantánamo Diary" by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Mauritanian is the inspiring true story of Slahi's fight for freedom after being detained and imprisoned for years without charge by the U.S. Government. Slahi finds representation in defense attorney Nancy Hollander (played by Jodie Foster) and her associate Teri Duncan who battle the U.S. government in a fight for justice that tests their commitment to the law and their client at every turn. Their controversial advocacy, along with evidence uncovered by a formidable military prosecutor, Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch), uncovers shocking truths and ultimately proves that the human spirit cannot be locked up. (From Rotten Tomatoes)