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PUBLIC SCREENING AND TALK:  Academia goes cinema: Indigenous storytelling about the environment and human rights

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20:00 - DOCUMENTARY SCREENING 

These twin documentaries from Nepal and Colombia weave Indigenous visions of rivers, law, and justice beyond the human.

An interactive dialogue will follow with the Indigenous judge from Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace - protagonist of the Colombian film -, members of the Indigenous creative team from Nepal,  and the project's principal investigator moderated by filmmaker and climate activist Nic Balthazar.

The free public screening will feature the two films: 

Marsyangdi Wile Ri’iba: May You Live as Long as the River,

This film explores the tension between explores the tension between ancestral wisdom, the agency the agency of invisible guardians of the land, and the relentless force of ‘progress’ in Nepal’s hydropower economy. It draws on research about the construction of the 220kv Marsyangdi Corridor transmission line by the government and financed by a loan of the European Investment Bank (EIB), located in Lamjung and Manang district of Northern Nepal.  The film follows one of the Indigenous communities whose sacred site must be moved to make way for an electricity substation. Downstream, a women’s group resist the transmission lines from being brought through their community forest.

Through rituals, the community consults the female guardians of the land, who say no to the destruction. But the contractors push ahead, and now the community worries about how the living land will respond.

Aty Seikuinduwa: A Judge Between Worlds

Filmed in Colombia, Aty Seikuinduwa: Judge Between Worlds, shot in Colombia, chronicles the spiritual and legal journey of Indigenous Judge Belkis Izquierdo, whose ground-breaking legal decisions recognize Territory as a victim of armed conflict within the framework of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the Colombian Peace Tribunal. 

This intimate portrayal of Aty Seikuinduwa, Belkis’ spiritual name, shows how she has found a way to represent the living land, the multiple life systems, and Indigenous spiritual practices in court. What happens when a voice for invisible guardians is represented in the halls of power, and legal rulings incorporate Indigenous knowledge? How do these two worlds coexist?

20:50 - Q & A WITH THE CREATIVE TEAM

Mariona Guiu (Creative Lead, RIVERS Project)

Manjit Lama (Indigenous Visual Storyteller and Cinematographer, Nepal),

Ransubba Gurung (Indigenous Co-producer and Research Assistant, Nepal).

21:15 - PANEL DISCUSSION

MODERATOR:  Nic Balthazar (filmmaker and climate activist)

Lieselotte Viaene (Executive Producer twin documentary and Principal Investigator ERC RIVERS project, Human Rights Centre, Ghent University)

Belkis Izquierdo Torres  (Indigenous Judge, Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Colombia and main protagonist Colombian Film)

Mamo Menjabin (spiritual leader Arhuaco Indigenous peoples, Colombia)

The two short documentaries were  co-created within the ERC project RIVERS: Human Rights Beyond the Human?

Organised by  ERC  Project RIVERS, Human Rights Research Network, Human Rights Centre,  Green Office, Conflict Research Group, Global Minds,  and UGent Doctoral Schools

In collaboration with Hello Symbiocene!