Published on 05-11-2025, Last modified on 05-11-2025
Public screening and discussion: Academia goes cinema: Indigenous storytelling about the environment and human rights
Join us for the public screening of two short documentaries co-created within the ERC project RIVERS: Human Rights Beyond the Human?
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, is set in rural Nepal. The film explores the tension between ancestral wisdom, the agency of invisible guardians of the land, and the relentless force of ‘progress’ in Nepal’s hydropower economy.
Aty Seikuinduwa: A 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.
PROGRAMME
20:00 – DOCUMENTARY SCREENING
20:50 – Q & A WITH THE CREATIVE TEAM
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Mariona Guiu (Creative Lead, RIVERS Project),
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Manjit Lama (Indigenous Visual Storyteller and Cinematographer, Nepal),
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Ransubba Gurung (Indigenous Co-producer and Research Assistant, Nepal).
21:15 – PANEL DISCUSSION
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MODERATOR: Nic Balthazar (filmmaker and climate activist)
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Lieselotte Viaene (Executive Producer twin documentary and Principal Investigator ERC RIVERS project, Human Rights Centre, Ghent University)
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Belkis Izquierdo Torres (Indigenous Judge, Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Colombia and main protagonist Colombian Film)
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Mamo Menjabin (spiritual leader Arhuaco Indigenous peoples, Colombia)
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!
