Volunteer

The work of our volunteers is very important to the festival. Every year committed volunteers help us to create an engaging and inspiring platform for documentaries and debates. Volunteering gives you a unique opportunity to see how a festival works from the inside, meet new people, and be part of an inspiring community!

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is uncertain exactly what the 2021 edition of the festival will look like. However, the festival will take place, which means that we will be recruiting volunteers. As always, we will make sure that volunteering at HUMAN IDFF is both fun, inspiring and safe.

HUMAN International Documentary Festival is Oslo’s largest documentary film festival presenting the newest Norwegian and International documentaries in combination with debates, talks, seminars and workshops, art exhibitions, theatre plays and more. The festival consists of two competition programs: One for best Norwegian documentary, the other for best international human rights documentary. The festival also presents a broader program spanning the best new documentaries regardless of genre.

As a volunteer you will work minimum 3 days (from 4-7 hours per day) before or during the festival period, and in return you will get:

• Free entrance to documentaries and other events during the festival.
• Festival merch
• Food and drink at longer shifts
• A certificate for your effort
• A fun and inspiring experience!

Continuous recruitment. Final application deadline: 1 February

Volunteer tasks

As a volunteer, you will be working with one of the six groups listed below. Due to a high volume of applications, we cannot guarantee a position or that you will be assigned to your first priority. Due to the uncertain circumstances this year, changes to the tasks may occur depending on the disease control regulations currently in place. If you have a friend you’d like to work with, let us know and we’ll try to put you on the same shift.

Would you like to take on more responsibility during the festival? Send an email to post@hrhw.no, and we will be in touch.

Promoting the festival:

This group promotes the festival by hanging posters around town and distributing programs at cafés, schools, libraries, culture houses and other places where we should have information out.  This work will primarily take place before the festival (starting January), but some work will also take place during the festival week. As a volunteer in this group, you work minimum three shifts during this period.  We are looking for those who are not afraid of walking around town even if it snows! Being sociable and extrovert is a plus, and is it an advantage to be well acquainted with Oslo. Are there any specific areas of town you would like to cover, or any specific time periods you are available? Let us know in the “comments” field in the application form. Please also let us know if you think we should promote the festival at your school or workplace. NB! Because the promo group starts its work already in January, we encourage you to apply early.

Media:

Do you have experience with video-production and would like to help us making the festival visible to a wider audience? Are you creative, like taking initiative and work independently? If so, then you are the person we need for our media group – a small team of volunteers who can cover the events during the festival and produce video content for our web- and social media pages. This work will primarily take place during the festival week, although some work may take place before the festival. Volunteers in this group will need to bring their own pc and video camera or smartphone with a good video function.

Writing (requires fluency in Norwegian):

Do you have experience with journalistic writing, and would like to write about the festival, our guests and human rights-related topics? We are looking for a small team of 1-2 self-driven persons to help us spread the word. NB: Norwegian fluency required. Application deadline for this group: 20 January. Please send a writing sample to our editor: kari@hrhw.no.

Flexi:

The flexi volunteers make up the largest group of volunteers, and work during the festival week. As a flexi volunteer, you will be the face of the festival for our audience, and also help the festival run smoothly. Your main tasks will be to give information to the audience and guests at our information stands and to help out during events and screenings during the festival. This may include decorating the venues, helping out during Q&A’s, making rush-lines, keeping the venues tidy, etc. In short, being present and helpful for audience, guests, festival staff and the employees at the venues. For this we are looking for people who are flexible, independent, who work well in a fast-paced situation, but also handle quiet moments, and who enjoy being in touch with people.

Proofreading (requires fluency in Norwegian):

Do you enjoy working with text, and are you good at spotting mistakes? Then you can help us with the proofreading of the festival magazine and websites, approximately one month prior to the festival! Volunteers of this group must be fluent both in written Norwegian and English.

Guest host:

Due to the limitations on travel imposed by the current Covid-19 situation, there will unfortunately not be a guest host group at this year’s festival.