#humanrightwatch

Was it the glass of wine I had before, the air conditioning gone mad, Remi’s music that caught my heart, your gazes stolen by the shots, their words everywhere ? During the Premiere of MEETING SNOWDEN on the Max Linder huge screen, I started to shiver.

In the audience, a blend of my worlds, family, friends for life, my many partners in crime. I saw the little girl, the student, the lover, the woman, the author, the citizen, the sister, the friend, the traitor, the mother. As the sun in Moscow was rising on the screen, I tried to collect my thoughts for the little speech I was supposed to deliver at the end of the film. Some words on their words. Alone by the back of the packed cinema, I could not get my arm to obey nor my hand to hold the pen. There was no way I could control anything anymore. The film was there, on screen. So I looked again this story unfold. As I had a thousand times without me intervening really.

The end credits ran too fast, taking away the name of all those that crafted this piece of work with me. The lights came back. And then I saw your many faces, shaken, as I was after the filming, and in your eyes, a little star, a light, a thank you. I got that I was the body the idea had chosen to materialize itself, to pass along. Capturing this conversation between these three bigger-than- life characters was an adventure I can not even start to describe. My part is done. But the trip is just beginning.

THE FILM WILL AIR ON ARTE ON JUNE 15

Larry Lessig and Birgitta Jonsdottir on stage,

greeted by a standing ovation,

before a debate with the audience (with Pascale Faugère - amazing translator)

Many thanks to Julie Perris and Paul Rozenberg (my producers), Alain le Diberder, Kay Mezeberg and Marco Nassivera (Arte), who commissionned the film. In the picture below, Benedicte Jeannerod - Human Right Watch, and Cecile Coudriou - Amnesty International, two partners for the premiere, Julie Perris and Marco Nassivera (hosts for the night).

Est-ce ce verre de vin avant le début de la première, la climatisation de la salle, la musique qui part et m’attrape les tripes, vos regards happés par l’image, leurs mots partout ? Pendant la première de MEETING SNOWDEN sur l’énorme écran du Max Linder, j’ai commencé à trembler.

The women tweeting for their freedom in Saudi Arabia

By Donie O'Sullivan

September 16, 2016

Editor's note: The names of the women featured in this report have been changed to protect their identities. "I'm a dead soul in a living body and I hope that doesn't happen to my little sister," Sara, a Saudi woman, tells CNN.

Sara is one of a growing number of Saudi women who are challenging the country's male guardianship system using social media. In Saudi Arabia, every woman has a male guardian -- often a father or husband, sometimes a brother or son -- who has the power to make a range of critical decisions on their behalf.After speaking to dozens of Saudi women, Human Rights Watch found in July that the system is "the most significant impediment to realizing women's rights in the country."Tweeting for change

The HRW report, which detailed how women must obtain permission from a male guardian to travel, marry, and sometimes to work or access health care, was followed by a social media campaign, #TogetherToEndMaleGuardianship.By September, the Arabic version of the hashtag had taken on a life of its own, with women across the country risking the wrath of their guardians, or even persecution. Some, dressed in abayas, post selfies holding signs with short messages like, "Slavery comes in many shapes and forms: Male guardianship is one." Others post pictures of the cover of their Saudi passport with statements like, "I'm a prisoner and my crime is that I'm a Saudi woman."