We are delighted to announce the 12th United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF), which was originally conceived to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was created with the help of members of the Stanford Film Society and United Nations Association Midpeninsula Chapter, a grassroots, community-based, nonprofit organization. The 12th UNAFF will be held from October 17-25, 2009 in Palo Alto, Stanford University, East Palo Alto and San Francisco. The theme for this year is “ENERGY AND THE WORLD.”

UNAFF celebrates the power of films and videos dealing with human rights, environmental themes, women’s issues, protection of refugees, homelessness, racism, children, disease control, universal education, war and peace. In the past eleven years, UNAFF has screened some exceptional documentaries, many of which went on to win prestigious awards, among them ten films that received Oscar nominations and five that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. These films often elicit a very personal and emotional response that encourages dialogue and action, by humanizing global and local problems. Last year UNAFF jurors reviewed over four hundred and forty submissions. Our final program consisted of forty-one films related to issues from Afghanistan, Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Congo, Croatia, Ecuador, Egypt, Kenya, France, Germany, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Liberia, Mexico, Namibia, Netherlands, North Korea, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, the UK, the US and Vietnam.

Encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive response from our audience and the media, we established in 2000 a Traveling Film Festival (TFF) which is typically organized with universities, UNA Chapters and community organizations across the US and internationally. So far the UNAFF TFF has taken place in San Francisco, Berkeley, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Davis, Saratoga, Sonoma, Sebastopol, San Diego, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington DC, New York, Burlington at University of Vermont, New Hampshire, Bellevue, Durham at Duke University, New Haven at Yale University, Waukesha at University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, Boston and Cambridge at Harvard University and internationally in Paris, Venice, Belgrade and Phnom Penh.

UNAFF gives four awards—the Stanford Video Award for Cinematography and the Stanford Video Award for Editing (sponsored by Stanford Video), as well as the UNAFF Grand Jury Award for the Best Short Documentary and Best Long Documentary. Our relentless efforts in promoting awareness of global issues have been rewarded at the annual UNA Convention in New York, where UNAFF received the prestigious Earl W. Eames Award for innovatively combining new technologies with traditional media. We are also proud that UNAFF has twice won WAVE Awards for the best trailer.

UNAFF is an independent project of the UNA-USA, a nonprofit organization. We welcome your support, financial or otherwise, in helping us put together a festival that promotes documentary filmmaking as a tool for social and political understanding and which facilitates community participation in effecting international change. By making a tax-deductible donation to UNAFF you will directly give a chance to tens of thousands of people to see these important documentaries that bring us together as a diverse community. Please send your gift (check payable to UNAFF) to: UNAFF, P.O. Box 19369, Stanford, CA 94309. All donations are tax deductible.

Warmest regards,
Jasmina Bojic
Founder and Executive Director, UNAFF/UNAFF Traveling Film Festival

ACCOMMODATIONS

If you are looking for accommodations during the festival, we urge you to consider The Cardinal Hotel and The Stanford Terrace Inn, the original premier Palo Alto hotels within walking distance from the Stanford campus. Additionally, we recommend Hotel Avante, the quintessential hotel located in heart of Silicon Valley - Mountain View - just a few minutes drive from Stanford. As UNAFF longtime sponsors, The Cardinal Hotel, Stanford Terrace Inn and Hotel Avante have been extremely kind to provide special rates for UNAFF participants and attendees, and we encourage you to visit their web site and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.

Click here to book at Cardinal Hotel

Click here to book at the Stanford Terrace Inn

Click here to book at Hotel Avante