UNAFF (United Nations Association Film Festival)
UNAFF (United Nations Association Film Festival) is an international documentary film festival held in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, San Francisco and at Stanford University each year around the United Nations Day (October 24). Its area of interest covers human rights and international issues in their broadest sense, particularly as listed in the UDHR[1] and other UN documents. Each year the festival emphasizes a particular topic, ranging from education, racism, economy, globalization and health, women and gender issues, the environment, sustainability, refugees and war and peace.
It is founded in 1998 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by Jasmina Bojic, connecting her experience as a film critic, her work at Stanford University and the UNA (United Nations Association), the festival has become one of the oldest solely documentary film festivals in the US.
Since then UNAFF has grown and earned the respect of audiences and filmmakers alike for its fearless independence and integrity, providing early outlets for films, many of which later went on to win major awards and accolades (among them 7 Academy Award winners and 30 Academy nominated documentaries). UNAFF prides itself in creating a community forum and organizes panel discussions with prominent experts elucidating the presented challenging topics during the festival, and also numerous year-round programs, designed to extend the impact of the presented films after the main festival days are over.
UNAFF Programs
Through UNAFF and Kids and UNAFF in Schools programs UNAFF devotes its attention to the young, but also to the wiser among us with the UNAFF for Seniors series, while the UNAFF Café program maintains a steady supply of interesting films and informal discussions at various venues and occasions in the community. The UNAFF with Veterans initiative brings documentaries to veterans and their families, the UNAFF Women’s Salon is a forum where women can gather informally for active discussions in a supportive and engaging environment, while the rich UNAFF Archive offers a plethora of research material for students of film, politics and international relations.
The popular UNAFF Traveling Film Festival broadens the reach of the selected films by cooperating with UNA chapters, universities, other film festivals and community organizations across the US and abroad and has taken place in Bellevue, Berkeley, Boston, Burlington, Cambridge, Chapel Hill, Chicago, Davis, Denver, Durham, Fryeburg, Honolulu, Houston, La Crosse, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Monterey, New Haven, New York, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Santa Cruz, Saratoga, Sebastopol, Sonoma, Washington D.C., Waukesha, and internationally in Abu Dhabi, Belgrade, Kranjska Gora, Paris, Phnom Penh and Venice.
At Stanford University in addition to several days of UNAFF festival screenings, the documentaries are deployed in the educational process throughout the year through the Camera as Witness program, which leverages documentary film as an educational tool.
Jury and Awards
UNAFF is a juried film festival, whose entries are viewed and selected by a dedicated group of jurors coming from various walks of life, age groups, profiles and backgrounds – from film experts and academics, to community members, students and interested professionals – who review and discuss the submitted films and decide which ones will be screened in October.
UNAFF gives six awards: UNAFF Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary, UNAFF Grand Jury Award for Best Short Documentary, UNAFF Youth Vision Award, UNAFF Award for Cinematography, UNAFF Award for Editing and UNAFF Visionary Award.
UNAFF is extremely proud of the list of its Honorary Committee members, whose high-profile international reputations lend it an additional dimension of prestige. They include businessmen like Ted Turner and William Draper III, Hollywood producer Gale Anne Hurd, documentary filmmakers like Academy Award winner Barbara Trent, Academy Award nominee Erika Szanto, as well as famous actors and music stars known for their human rights involvement Alec Baldwin, Peter Coyote, Lolita Davidovich, Danny Glover, Daryl Hannah, Susan Sarandon, John Savage, Zucchero.
In 2014 the ICFT (International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication of UNESCO) presented the UNESCO Fellini Medal to Jasmina Bojic, Founder and Executive Director of UNAFF, in recognition of her exceptional contribution in promoting the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through the art of documentary film.
While UNAFF supports the goals of the UN and is proud to be an independent project of the UNA-USA, it is independent both financially and in governance.