Human Rights Film Festival
The Human Rights Film Festival (HRFF) seeks to promote awareness and discussions of global human rights injustices through films from around the world. HRFF is held annually, in early Spring. Stay tuned for next year’s lineup!
Upcoming Events
There are no upcoming events at this time.
Learn Our History
USF’s HRFF was co-founded by Professor Susana Kaiser and Professor Pamela Blotner in 2003, in collaboration with Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. This collaboration transformed into the HRFF by 2006. From its inception, the festival has always sought to make the university a center for the promotion of human rights, as well as a platform to raise consciousness about abuses worldwide. Under Dr. Kaiser’s direction and energized by her vision, the festival grew into a landmark, annual event that brings the university into conversation with local San Francisco communities as well as with a transnational community of filmmakers, scholars, activists, and media-makers.
Meet Susana Kaiser
Dr. Susana Kaiser is Emeritus Professor of Media Studies at USF. She taught in the department until her retirement in 2020. Dr. Kaiser’s research and writing on human rights, social justice, media and memory has made critical interventions and has helped shape the field of memory studies. Her book Postmemories of Terror: A New Generation Copes with the Legacy of the "Dirty War" has been described as “a work of solid achievement and human solidarity.” Her research focuses on communication, cultural/political memory, and human rights. Dr. Kaiser has written about the communication strategies developed by the mothers and the children of the disappeared. At USF, Dr. Kaiser chaired the Media Studies Department, served as the director of Latin American Studies, and co-founded HRFF, which she ran and cultivated for 18 years.
