Films

Films

Watch award-winning films curated from 140 countries around the globe. SIMA Academy offers you unprecedented access on any device to authentic global perspectives and visually engaging current affairs media. Plus a constantly refreshed selection of international productions from independent distributors.

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Films
  • Free Motherhood - The impact of incarceration on early childhood

    In a Brazilian prison, the lives of five incarcerated mothers intertwine as they navigate the heart-wrenching reality of being separated from their babies. Currently, 63% of women in prison in the country are black and only 34% of them have completed primary school. The vast majority, 64%, are co...

Extras

  • Earthrise

    Earthrise tells the story of the first image captured of the Earth from space in 1968. Told solely by the Apollo 8 astronauts, the film recounts their experiences and memories and explores the beauty, awe, and grandeur of the Earth against the blackness of space. This iconic image had a powerful ...

  • They Carry Us With Them: Richard Silliboy

    This film profiles Richard Silliboy, a tribal elder and vice chief of the Aroostook Band of Mi’kmaqs, and a black ash basketmaker. As he weaves a potato basket at his home in Littleton, Maine, Richard contemplates the arrival of the emerald ash borer and the tenuous future of this ancient art.

    D...

  • Horizons

    This film is a tribute to the life and work of Barry Lopez, a celebrated author who detailed moral and natural landscapes in our imagination for decades. Through archival footage and an interview conducted shortly before his death, Barry shares what drove him toward new horizons so that he might ...

  • Paperboy Love Prince Runs for Mayor

    Paperboy Love Prince is a far cry from your typical New York City mayoral candidate. They can often be found in Washington Square Park standing on top of a bedazzled school bus rapping about social issues. When they announced their run for mayor, many laughed them off as a joke candidate.

    Howeve...

  • Abundance: The Farmlink Story

    During the largest food crisis in a century, a group of college students step up to help those facing hunger. Their small local effort inspires hope nationally and motivates 600+ students to drop everything to feed millions of families.

    Within months, the project scales larger than anyone could ...

  • Recording Kawaiisu

    Following a century of loss, the Kawaiisu people of Central California have held on to their language, one of the few aspects of their culture that remain intact. Now, with only two fluent speakers remaining, Julie Girado Turner has spent the last 16 years documenting the language that lives with...

  • The Church Forests of Ethiopia

    Over the past century, nearly all of Ethiopia’s native forests have been cleared for farming and grazing. Now it is up to the Orthodox Churches—who for centuries have safeguarded pockets of primary forest that grow around them—to preserve Ethiopia’s quickly shrinking biodiversity and teach people...

  • Last Chance for Justice *Viewer Discretion Advised*

    [Trigger Warning] Human rights activist Azimjan Askarov was imprisoned in Kyrgyzstan in 2010 for a crime he says he did not commit. Ever since then, his wife Hadicha has campaigned tirelessly for his release. Now she sees one last chance for justice, in an appeal hearing at the country's supreme ...

  • The Dream of Karabakh

    In The Dream of Karabakh, refugee and mother-of-five Shushan is living in Armenia after losing her home in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region during a war with Azerbaijan. She is grieving a double loss: her husband died in a car accident six months prior to the conflict.

    Shushan reminisces abo...

  • The Soul of a Teacher (Jiwa Pendidik)

    How does a veteran teacher help prepare the first batch of pandemic online-learning students to sit for the SPM exams (Malaysian Certificate of Education) in the under resourced Perimbun Secondary School? Teacher Rusmiyana and other veteran teachers find strength to learn and teach virtually, and...

  • Vida: Love, Hope and Justice in Exile

    In August 2021, a trial began in Stockholm, accusing an Iranian national, Hamid Nouri of murder and war crimes. Nouri was an Assistant Prosecutor at Gohardasht Prison in 1988 in Iran, a year when thousands of prisoners were killed for their political beliefs.

    Among those killed was Vida Rostamal...

  • Utapata Mwingine (You Will Get Another One) *Viewer Discretion Advised*

    [Trigger Warning] Utapata Mwingine (You Will Get Another One) is a documentary about the impact of stigma and silence surrounding Pregnancy and Infant Child Loss (PAIL) in Kenya. The film follows the founder of Empower Mama, Vivian Gaiko, a young Kenyan woman who lost her two-week old daughter af...

  • Big Dreams: A Tale of Resilience

    This story follows the life of Jerry, an innovative young Nigerian son of a farmers who strives to achieve his dream of building a fast car. A dream his parents saw as a waste of time, to achieve his dream He started to fabricate farm machines for his father and farmers in his community as he con...

  • Mas Prep (Moko Jumbies)

    Mas Prep (Moko Jumbies) is a captivating and immersive journey into the vibrant and under-appreciated world of traditional mas makers in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean. This docu-series offers viewers a rare opportunity to witness the intricate process of creating breathtaking mas co...

  • Pizza, Democracy and The Little Prince

    Profound discoveries and new friendships take place during a conversation between Syrian children seeking refuge in Istanbul, and international students, volunteering in Turkey over their summer holidays.

    Directors: Alessandro Leonardi and Elena Horn
    2018 | 9 min
    Turkey
    Subtitles: English

    Filmm...

  • Queer Possibilities: A Conversation on Intergenerational Solidarity

    Queer Possibilities is a short film capturing a discussion between Sammie Ablaza Wills & Vince Crisostomo, two trans and queer Asian and Pacific Islander activists of different generations. In this mini-documentary, Sammie and Vince connect over the power of intergenerational solidarity, mistake-...

  • World and Me

    The boy who takes the water with difficulty, gives the water back to nature.

    Director & Producer: Eldor Kudratillayev

    2021 | 2 min

    Uzbekistan

    Languages: None

    Subtitles: None

  • Return of The Rhino

    An epic feat of community transformation—that’s how the local community brought the iconic Greater One-horned Rhino back to Manas National Park. The rhino, a pivotal species in the region, was lost to poaching and habitat destruction following Assam’s tumultuous Bodoland movement in the 1980s and...

  • War and Priest

    In the last two years over 25,000 young men in Georgia have become priests. But they haven’t found God; they’ve found a loophole to avoid mandatory military service. ‘War and Priest’ follows the Church of Biblical Freedom, formed by ground-breaking political party, Girchi. Armed with it’s own 7 c...

  • A Plastic Ocean

    A Plastic Ocean begins when journalist Craig Leeson, searching for the elusive blue whale, discovers plastic waste in what should be pristine ocean. In this adventure documentary, Craig teams up with free diver Tanya Streeter and an international team of scientists and researchers. They travel to...

  • Abuelos

    Separated by years of immigration policy, a young girl dreams of meeting her grandmother for the first time. Thanks to the bi-national cooperation of governments on both sides of the US/Mexico border, her grandmother embarks on a once-in-a-lifetime journey to reunite with her undocumented loved o...

  • Minerita

    Life and survival is incredibly difficult in the bleak Cerro Rico mining district in Potosi, Bolivia. This is true for the men risking their lives going down into the mine shafts looking for silver ore, but especially so for the women, who are viewed by the men as fair game.

    This powerful and br...

  • Free To Care

    A single mother with a passion for nursing, Lisa Creason wanted the freedom to pursue her dreams. When an unjust law prohibited her from doing so, she took the fight into her own hands and ended up opening doorways for thousands like her.

    Director: Chris Temple
    Producers: Jenna Kelly & Jo Jensen...

  • Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices From A Plantation Prison

    The story of Liza Jessie Peterson's shutdown performance of her play The Peculiar Patriot at Angola, America’s largest prison-plantation. The documentary examines what led to the shutdown, the material that confronted a system and the impact of her visit after it was erased by prison authorities....