Cine Foundation International is London-based non-profit film company and human rights

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

"aiming to 'empower open consciousness through cinema'". The foundation was formed in December 2010 by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

filmmaker

Jesse Richards Jesse Beau Richards (born July 17, 1975) is a painter, filmmaker and photographer from New Haven, Connecticut and was affiliated with the international movement Stuckism. He has been described as "one of the most provocative names in American un ...

, founder of the

Remodernist film Remodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism and its manifesto, Remodernism. Key figures are Jesse Richards and Peter R ...

movement,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

n film critic Blue Un Sok Kim and

Tobias Morgan Tobias is the transliteration of the , which is a Graecisation of the Hebrew biblical name . With the biblical Book of Tobit being present in the Deuterocanonical books and Biblical apocrypha, Tobias is a popular male given name for both Christi ...

, formerly the developer o
"The Garage"
on

Mubi Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; the Auteurs before 2010) is a global streaming platform, production company and film distributor. MUBI produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available ...

. On 3 January 2011, CFI announced their launch of a campaign of protest films and public actions calling for the release of imprisoned

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

ian filmmaker

Jafar Panahi Jafar Panâhi (, ) (born 11 July 1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and editor. He is known internationally for his contributions to Iranian cinema and has received numerous awards at major film festivals, including the Palme d'Or ...

. "The campaign will include protest films that speak to human rights issues in Iran and throughout the world, six of which are commissioned feature-length, plus twenty shorts. Participating filmmakers may act anonymously or through pseudonyms since voicing their stories can be dangerous. The films, which will address themes of nation, identity, self, spiritual culture, censorship and imprisonment, will be aimed for public, web and various exhibition media". In January 2011, filmmakers

Béla Tarr Béla Tarr (born 21 July 1955) is a Hungarian filmmaker. Debuting with the film '' Family Nest'' (1979), Tarr began his directorial career with a brief period of what he refers to as "social cinema", aimed at telling everyday stories about ordi ...

and

Lav Diaz Lavrente Indico Diaz (born December 30, 1958) is a Filipino independent filmmaker and former film critic. He is frequently known as one of the key members of the slow cinema movement, and has made several of the longest narrative films on reco ...

joined the foundation's Board of Directors, and in February

Fred Kelemen Fred Kelemen (born in 6 January 1964 in West Berlin) is a Hungarian-German film and theater director, cinematographer and writer. The late Susan Sontag helped to promote Kelemen's work in the mid-1990s, comparing it to the likes of Alexander Sok ...

joined the Board of Directors. Also in January 2011, CFI deployed a video protest mechanism calle
WHITE MEADOWS
(named for the

Mohammad Rasoulof Mohammad Rasoulof (; born 16 November 1972) is an Iranian independent filmmaker who lives in exile in Europe. He is known for several award-winning films, including '' The Twilight'' (2002), '' Iron Island'' (2005), '' Goodbye'' (2011)'','' '' Ma ...

film of the same title) and developed by Ericson deJesus (of

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

and

frog design frog (styled as ''"frog, part of Capgemini Invent"'') is a global creative and design consultancy founded in 1969 by industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger in Mutlangen, Germany, where it was initially named “esslinger design”. Soon after the ...

) at the request of the foundation. The video mechanism "allow(s) anyone in the world to record a short video statement about Panahi and Rasoulof. There will be an ESCAPE button at top, allowing quick exit for those in countries where recording a statement would be dangerous. There will be an option to have the screen black, and soon, voice distortion. The video statements will be recorded as mp4s, giving them maximum transmedia capacity, which essentially makes them broadcastable from any device that can show video". Users can also use the mechanism to comment on how they would "like to see as an international response by the film industry", comment on the state of human rights in general, or to "report a human rights abuse to the world". Late in 2011, CFI launched #OccupyCinema, an ongoing collective project in collaboration with the global

Occupy movement The Occupy movement was an international populist Social movement, socio-political movement that expressed opposition to Social equality, social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of real democracy around the world. It aimed primar ...

. The project encompasses "public space projections onto buildings or other public surfaces—broadcasting films, video documents or live feeds, with the intention of decentralising traditional broadcast monopolies and information power structures where these interfere with freedom of speech or otherwise compel human beings to surrender to the agendas of ethically bankrupt regimes." On November 1, #OccupyCinema will launch public displays of films in New York City, Dallas, Kansas, London and Paris, with more to follow over the next week.

resigned as Chair in Autumn 2011, having been commissioned to make a Cine Foundation International feature film dedicated to the

ian film producer Katayoun Shahabi. Jesse Richards resigned in 2012, and Blue Un Sok Kim took the Chair.

References

{{Reflist International human rights organizations Organisations based in London Arts organisations based in the United Kingdom Film organisations in the United Kingdom