NEW YORK — At a time of year when summer blockbusters have a virtual stranglehold on the local cineplex, an annual film festival exploring issues of human rights, war, reconciliation and religion has come to be an enduring New York institution.

Sometimes described as the “cinematic conscience of the world,” the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival – a joint presentation of the New York-based human rights advocacy organization Human Rights Watch and the Film Society of Lincoln Center – showcases feature and documentary films that shed light on both human rights abuses and human rights activism.

The June festival featured 26 films and videos from 20 countries. The range is considerable: from films on the war in Iraq to a profile of a young Texas Baptist teenager who becomes an advocate for sex education.

That film, The Education of Shelby Knox, has been one of the festival’s sellouts and kicked off the 18th season of the PBS series “P.O.V.” on June 21.

The film centers around young Shelby Knox, a “home-grown” human rights activist and Southern Baptist teenager from Lubbock, Texas, who has taken a public vow of sexual abstinence before marriage.

But Shelby is also a feisty, determined activist who tries to persuade her local school board to support a sex education curriculum, arguing that her own views on sex before marriage may not work for others. Indeed, the film notes that Lubbock has among the highest rates of sexually transmitted disease and teen-age pregnancy in the country.

Along the way Knox’s advocacy comes to embrace the cause of gay rights, which causes some concern for her Republican parents. But by the end of the film, Knox’s mother marches with her daughter in a counterprotest against gay rights opponents.

“I think that God wants you to question, to do more than just blindly be a follower, because he can’t use blind followers,” Shelby said. “He can use people like me who realize there’s more in the world that can be done.”

What is perhaps most striking about The Education of Shelby Knox is its honest, humane and respectful point of view. No one in the film – from young gay teenagers to a local conservative pastor who disagrees with Shelby – is treated as a caricature.

Certainly most endearing are the love and respect displayed in Shelby’s family: her conservative Christian parents are, by turns, bemused, puzzled and occasionally taken aback by their daughter’s growing liberal activism. But they also provide Shelby with unconditional love and support.