From April 3-7, 2024, Colorado State University’s ACT Human Rights Film Festival returns to Fort Collins to bring diverse and original stories from around the world that remind us what it is to be human. ACT’s ninth annual festival will present 23 esteemed documentaries on the CSU campus and at The Lyric (1209 N. College Ave.).
Of note is a one-hour reel of Ken Burns’ award-winning documentary series, “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” which will be screened on Sunday, April 7, at 3 p.m. at The Lyric. The film was honored with an Emmy Award and a du Pont – Columbia Award, among others.
“The U.S. and the Holocaust” explores America’s response to one of the largest humanitarian crises in history. Combining the first-person accounts of Holocaust witnesses and survivors and interviews with leading historians and writers, “The U.S. and the Holocaust” dispels competing myths that Americans either were ignorant of the unspeakable persecution that Jews and other targeted minorities faced in Europe or that they looked on with callous indifference.
“Our film grapples with questions that remain essential to our society today,” says Ken Burns, co-director of the documentary series. “Is America truly, as it claims to be, a land of immigrants? Why did we fail to rescue a people at the time of their greatest need? How do the continued struggles over how we define our past shape our future as a country?”
Noting that “history cannot be looked at in isolation,” Burns and co-director Lynn Novick will both join ACT Human Rights Film Festival to explore these urgent questions in a virtual Q&A moderated by local journalist and executive director of the Colorado News Collaborative Laura Frank immediately following the screening.
Ken Burns’ films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including 17 Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations. Lynn Novick, one of the most respected documentary filmmakers and storytellers in America, has received Emmy, Peabody and duPont – Columbia Awards for her work.
Tickets and festival passes are available now at ACT’s online box office. This event is sponsored by Rocky Mountain Public Media, parent of Rocky Mountain PBS.
