Considering human rights films, representation, and ethics: Whose face?

Abstract

Human Rights Film Festivals have been growing in number across the globe since the late 1980s and have become embroiled in recent cultural shifts towards visual culture without a commensurate exploration of the philosophical and cultural effects of such use. By attending to debates present in the media, visual, and film disciplines in relation to representation, politics, and ethics, this paper garners the work of various scholars, including Gayatri Spivak, bell hooks, and Emmanuel Lévinas, to begin the much-needed exploration and analysis of the use of films for human rights purposes. © 2012 by The Johns Hopkins University Press.