On Tuesday, March 10, Odell Brewing Company opened their doors for ACT Human Rights Film Festival’s 11th annual kickoff party. The festival is put on by Colorado State University’s department of communication studies and is one of three human rights-specific film festivals in the United States. The festival is hosted annually in Fort Collins.

“It’s a tremendous honor and privilege to have the opportunity to spend an entire long weekend uplifting films about human rights and human rights issues from around the world,” ACT Human Rights Film Festival Managing Director Beth Seymour said. “It’s so exciting to watch the community comes together over art, human rights and education.”

The festival will feature films that explore a range of human rights issues, dedicating programming to both modern and historical subjects.

Seymour said ACT uses film to encourage advocacy, action and awareness toward human rights issues by bringing together films from around the world created by people of all backgrounds.

“Film is a tremendously powerful and potent storytelling method and really helps you step into somebody else’s shoes so you can see the stories that touch lives on a really in a really powerful level,” Seymour said.

Odell Brewing Co. hosted this year’s kickoff event, offering their brewery for the festivities of the night. Odell has been a partner to ACT since the early days of the festival and will serve as the event’s signature beer.

“Odell is very involved in a lot of different things, but (ACT) means a lot to us,” Co-owner and Taproom Associate Jeff Smith said. “Not only are they great throughout Fort Collins, but to have them as somebody who is involved with us means a lot.”

The event was a resounding success, filling the brewery with people eager to support ACT.

During the event, further details about the festival were announced and attendees had the chance to view sneak-peaks of some of the films.

The announcement of each film was accompanied by a trailer and related trivia, including prizes for those who participated. The lineup of films this year contains a total of 28 films from 13 countries and 5 continents.

“So I think every genre of film: narrative, experimental, episodic documentary, etc. have tremendous impact in terms of telling human rights stories,” Seymour said. “There are really powerful narrative films in our festival this year.”

The annual festival is supported by multiple local sponsors, including the College of Liberal Arts, the City of Fort Collins, Colorado Creative Industries and the Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts program at CSU.

As in years past, ACT is also supported by a team of volunteers — many of whom are CSU students interested in film.

“We love students getting involved,” Seymour said. “For this year, students can sign up to volunteer through our volunteer email list, you can find it our website.”

The film festival provides students with the opportunity to gain hands-on professional experience while also opening the door for many networking opportunities.

“(Volunteering) can open up a lot of doors for you as a student,” ACT Volunteer Coordinator Sophia Cutinello said. “You never know who you’re gonna meet, who you’re gonna run into, what film you’re gonna end up passionate about. So there’s a lot of opportunity waiting for you to when you’re volunteering.”

The ACT Human Rights Film Festival be held April 9–April 12 in Fort Collins. This year’s opening night showing and reception will be hosted on CSU’s main campus Thursday, April 9.

Opening day events include a filmmakers panel discussing documentary filmmaking and the changing landscape of film exhibition. The film “Comparsa,” co-directed by Vickie Curtis and Doug Anderson, will be shown, followed by a Q&A session with the co-directors, producer Anna Hadingham and the film’s lead Lesli Noemi Canela Perez.

The rest of the films featured in this year’s line-up will be shown at The Lyric over the following few days.

“I think for me (ACT is) a beautiful opportunity to showcase different lived experiences through film, and it gives a chance to the people of Fort Collins to see different lived experiences from all over the world,” said Jesus Castro Gonzalez, the festival’s accessibility and outreach coordinator.

This year’s ACT Human Right Film Festival is an opportunity for students and Fort Collins community members alike to get involved with global human rights issues and engage with new films.

The festival offers full festival access passes as well as three and six ticket packages. Individual tickets for single films can also be purchased. The full list of ticket options is available online. Further schedule and event details can be found on the festival’s website. CSU’s Student Leadership, Involvement & Community Engagement office will provide two free individual tickets for students who purchase their tickets using their CSU email, ID number and the discount code SLiCE26.

Reach Mason Ford at entertainment@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.