Photograph by Estrella Jover
The Valencia International Film and Human Rights Festival, Humans Fest, organized by the Foundation for Justice since 2009, will feature the journalist Pilar Almenar as the new director for its 16th edition, which will take place throughout next year.
Almenar was already part of the festival team since 2022, when she took on the role of awareness coordinator, which she has held for the last three editions. Now, she has accepted the leadership of the Humans Fest, taking over from Majo Siscar and with the trust of the Foundation for Justice.
“Taking on the management of Humans Fest is an exciting responsibility and challenge for me. I face it accompanied by professional women with whom I have been working for three years and with whom I love to build ideas and share objectives. I feel very grateful to be able to continue the path I have paved and for the fact that Fundación por la Justicia trusts my project,” says Pilar Almenar.
However, Almenar will lead the Humans Fest with the same team he has worked with until now: the journalists Cristina Vivo, as production coordinator, and Laura Bellver, as communications coordinator. All of them maintain their commitment to claiming cinema as a tool for awareness, denunciation and debate.
Continuing with her words: “Every day we witness violations of human rights; not only in the global south, but also in our own cities and towns. Cinema is a fundamental tool to generate empathy and to bring us to uncomfortable positions that allow us to ask ourselves necessary questions. From Humans Fest we will continue to observe what is happening in the world and generate spaces for encounter, diversity and listening to open up reflections.”
For her part, Majo Siscar is leaving the management position to devote herself to more personal projects. She says she feels proud of the work of the last three years and is happy to see the team continue. “In these three editions we have grown the festival enormously, both in quality and diversity of productions exhibited and training activities, as well as in national and international presence. Humans Fest is now a benchmark in its genre in Spain and is in a mature stage. Pilar Almenar being the new director ensures that it maintains this position and that it is even more articulated with Valencian entities in these times when we need solidarity so much,” concludes Siscar.
ABOUT THE CEREMONY PILLAR
Graduated in Environmental Sciences from the University of Valencia, she completed a Master's in Journalism from the Autonomous University of Madrid and El País. Since then, she has worked for numerous media outlets, both in radio and in digital and print press and television. Currently, she is a journalist freelance and manager of sociocultural projects. For example, since 2018 she has directed Impresas, a magazine written and edited by female inmates in Picassent prison (Valencia).
Humans Fest is part of the international Human Rights Film Network, along with 52 other film and human rights festivals from around the world. Its 15th edition, the last to be held, was thanks to the collaboration of the Second Vice-Presidency and the Regional Ministry of Social Services, Equality and Housing; the Valencia Provincial Council; the Valencia City Council; the Valencian Institute of Culture; Caixa Popular and Teika. For its part, the Valencian regional radio and television channel, À Punt, is the official channel of the festival.