Rebecca Sommer
Quick Facts
Biography
Rebecca Sommer is a German artist, journalist, photographer, documentary filmmaker, and a human rights, nature rights and climate justice activist.
She works with international NGO's in special consultative status to the United Nations (ECOSOC) in participatory status with the Council of Europe, and civil society observer status to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). She convened and co-founded in 2001 Earth Peoples in NYC, a global network working together to promote natural and human rights, with special focus on Indigenous Peoples, Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. 2004 she was commissioned by the United Nations to film and produce the awareness-raising video "Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Nr.1", which was first presented at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium at the United Nations Headquarters.
In 2007, prior to the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the UN General Assembly, she created a video lobby-tool"Discussions on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" to encourage discussions with a number of countries that expressed concern about some key issues, such as self-determination, access to lands, territories and resources and the lack of a clear definition of the term indigenous. UN agencies UNHCHR and UNHCHR as well states such as Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico and Germany supported her awareness-raising efforts and enabled during the year several film screenings of her work to encourage debates among states that were reluctant to adopt the Declaration. Since 2013 she is the president of the Arbeitsgruppe Flucht+Menschenrechte (AG F+M), a network supporting refugees in Europe.
Sommer earns her living as an artist in print and film, and has worked as the editor-at-large for British magazines such as Scene,The Face, and Spirit and American magazines such as Black Book and Madison, while living in Germany, India, Great Britain, Brazil, South Africa and the United States.
Filmography
- Himba dance' Cultural video for Earth Peoples
- Discussions on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Historic Record and Lobby-tool
- Eliminated Without Bleeding received the New York Festivals International Film & Video Award, Documentaries 2008, Official Selection: Lowell Film Festival.
- Hunted Like Animals received the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival 2008 SILVER REMI Award and naiff GRAND PRIX, 2009. Official Selection: Shen Zhou International Film Festival; Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival; The International Filmmakers Festival; Tri Continental Film Festival; Amnesty International Film Festival.
- Thary, a day in my Village in Vietnam Official Selection: Danville International Film Festival, KIDsFirst! Film Festival, 2008.
- The United Nations and Indigenous Peoples, Vol. 1 received the New York Festivals International Film & Video Award, 2007. Official Selection: Montreal Human Rights Film Festival; Oxford Brookes University Human Rights Film Festival; New Zealand Human Rights Film Festival Aotearoa; Musée des Confluences.
- "Himba Dance in Omuhonga, Kaokoland, Namibia (February 2012)". SommerFilms. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- "Lobby Video: Discussions on the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples". sommerfilms. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
- "Eliminated Without Bleeding". Khmer Krom Federation. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- "2008 Finalist Certificate". NewYorkFestivals. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
- "Lowell Film Festival". The City of Lowell. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
- "Hunted Like Animals". SommerFilms. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- "WorldFest". WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- "Loveni jako zvěř / Hunted Like Animals". Native and Indigenous Film Fest. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
- "Shen Zhou International Film Festival". epochtimes. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- "Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival". Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- "The International Filmmakers Festival" (PDF). The International Filmmaker Festival. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- "TRi Continental Film Festival". TRi Continental Film Festival. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
- "Amnesty International Film Festival". Movies That Matter. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
- "Thary, a day in my Village in Vietnam". SommerFilms. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
- "Danville International Children's Film Festival". Danville International Film Festival. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
- "KIDsFirst! Film Festival 2008". KIDsFirst! Film Festival. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
- "The United Nations and Indigenous Peoples, Vol. 1". UNPFII - United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
- "Film & Video Awards: 2007 Finalist Certificate". New York Festivals. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
- "FFDPM 2008". Montreal Human Rights Film Festival. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
- "Oxford Brookes University Human Rights Film Festival". Oxford Brookes University. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
- "Human Rights Film Festival Aotearoa New Zealand". Human Rights Film Fest. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
- "Paroles d'Autochtones: Evénement Paroles d'autochtones Terres, terroirs et territoires". Musée des Confluences. 20 May 2009. Retrieved 26 December 2011.