Unlike even a few years ago, nowadays no one needs to be convinced that human rights do not only apply to faraway countries, but they determine our lives here and now. WATCH DOCS helps to understand the world around us. The creators and protagonists of the festival films are people with whom we want to stand against the restrictions of free speech, climate crisis denial, discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community and women's rights violations. Together with them, we express our solidarity with the victims of Russian aggression in Ukraine as well as the Belarusians fighting against the regime. We create space for brave people on both sides of the lens and prove that individual effort matters. We also focus on complex relations between animals and humans, to which we have devoted a separate section of the programme.