For me, one of the most important added values of the One World Festival is the opportunity for direct interaction between the audience and the people featured in the films. The moment when, after watching a documentary, the person portrayed in it materialises right in front of the audience is often magical. This year, we have several distinctive films in the programme where viewers can look forward to this unique experience.

A visually and thematically striking film about transhumanism and identity, Cyborg Generation, will be accompanied by the personal presence of its protagonist, Kai Landre, who identifies as the world’s first cyborg musician.

Being a rabbi, queer, and actively advocating for Palestine is a rare combination, embodied by the protagonist of the documentary Sabbath Queen, Amichai Lau-Lavie. A humorous and hyperbolic road movie about Afghanistan at the turn of the millennium, Riverboom, has three protagonists—one of whom, photographer Paolo Woods, will join us in Prague for a discussion.

We were not able to bring all the inspiring protagonists to the festival in person, but that does not mean the audience will be completely deprived of their presence. For example, the protagonist of the gripping courtroom drama about women’s right to abortion, activist Amanda Zurawski, will join online. Zurawski v Texas will be followed not only by a discussion with her but also by a panel debate on the current political situation and women’s rights in the USA.

Another activist, Nathan Law—whose name is the very title of the film—will also join an online discussion after the screening. Who’s Afraid of Nathan Law? tells the story of three key figures in Hong Kong’s so-called Umbrella Revolution. Only Nathan managed to escape the expanding power of the Chinese regime. He now lives in London, and the One World audience will have a unique opportunity to ask him a few probing questions after the screening.