In International Aid Hurts Palestinian Civil Society grassroots civil society activists discuss their experiences with international aid. Frustration and anger are evident as Palestinians explain how their work is undermined by policies and procedures imposed by international donors and NGOs. Thi...

How do you rebuild home from nothing but memories? We are thrust us into the intimate conversations between Maria and her grandchild, Marucha: two Indigenous refugees living in displacement. To Maria, the Venezuelan delta is her home. To Marucha, refugee camps are all she knows. Through the rhyth...

Dadaab, the world’s second largest refugee camp, faces a new influx of refugees. Fardowsa, a stateless journalist born and raised in the camp, becomes a voice for the voiceless through the camp’s radio station, amplifying stories of climate, migration, and hope.

Director and Producer: Environmen...

Ukrainian children are confronted with their past as they explore their new home in Germany: a former Wehrmacht military barracks.

Directors and Producers: Mila Zhluktenko and Daniel Asadi Faezi

2023 | 18 min

Ukraine | Germany

Languages: Ukrainian, German

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
...

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...

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...

Along the southern desert border in Arizona, it is estimated that only one out of every five missing migrants are ever found. Águilas is the story of one group of searchers, the Aguilas del Desierto. Once a month these volunteers—construction workers, gardeners, domestic laborers by trade—set out...

This video shows the experiences of local Ugandan and refugee teachers in a refugee camp in Uganda through professionally filmed footage and user-generated content where the teachers film their daily experiences themselves, allowing the viewer to share their daily experiences up close. Dedicated ...

“Home: Aamir” is the first of a series of Surround Vision 360 degree films exploring the meaning of home through the stories of refugees in the Calais “Jungle”. This first film, a collaboration between the National Theatre, Surround Vision and Room One, follows a 22-year-old man escaping the thre...

Mohammed and his family awoke one morning to the sound of gunfire in their village in Myanmar. The father of three describes how his son Ismail went from having a relatively normal life playing soccer with his friends, to trekking through rain-drenched forests to escape Myanmar, and falling sick ...

This short film tells the story of Mohammed Alsaleh, a young Syrian refugee granted asylum in Canada in 2014. After fleeing torture and imprisonment by the Assad regime, he is rebuilding his life. Mohammed counsels newly-arrived Syrian refugee families with the same Vancouver-based NGO that aided...

Powerful intimate stories of young refugees who risked their lives crossing the Aegean Sea to Europe, only to get trapped on the Greek Island of Lesvos with no future and closed borders. It was supposed to be only their "transit" stop, but it turned out where they ended.

Director: Mariam El Mara...

Over 200,000 migrant laborers, mostly from Africa, work in Italy’s fields. After being exploited for years, the global pandemic made these farmworkers “essential” overnight — but without labor rights or even access to basic sanitation, they are living and working in conditions that have been desc...

“I’ve been here about two years, and it feels like twenty have passed.” Among a group of children surviving on the streets of Athens is Sayid, a twelve-year old boy, who works all day selling sunflower seeds in the city’s suburban parks. He wants to leave for Northern Europe to go to school and t...

ROUTES is a journey of refugees recounts a small daily reality on their arrival in Europe. A topical issue which has become a humanitarian crisis. Through recorded interviews in the autumn of 2015, between the Isle of Lesbos (Greece) and the Macedonian border with Serbia, is still one of the most...

Refugees is a 360 documentary about the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Thousands have left their homes in search for a better future, and in their search they encounter dangerous obstacles. We went to Lesbos, Greece, where migrants take the leap from Turkey, putting their lives at risk, and capture...

Step into Geramy’s world, a scrappy, budding inventor, who is trying to find a better way to commute to school. Based in the Philippines, this story highlights the students that swim between the small islands in order to travel to the nearest elementary or high schools in their remote areas.

Dir...

Beirut's Shatila camp was built in 1949 for 3,000 Palestinian refugees, but now hosts up to 40,000 people, including many Syrians displaced by war. Appalling conditions and bleak prospects for the future leave families longing for their lost homes. Three generations of a Palestinian family descri...

La Casita Rosa is a short documentary based on the humanitarian efforts of Las Patronas, a group of Mexican women determined to help feed the countless immigrants riding on top of cargo trains heading to the U.S.

Director: Elvin Herrera
Producers: Elvin Herrera
12 min | Mexico
Languages: Spanish...

Into the Sea follows the family of Suleiman Hajazzi as they are relocated from a refugee camp in Greece to more permanent housing. Suleiman, his son and wife recount their journey escaping violence in Afghanistan and their hopes and dreams for their future.

Director: Daphne Matziaraki
2020 | 15 ...

In the midst of Trump's immigration ban, a teenage refugee Ahmed and his sister Ruba find a home at a Cleveland school for immigrants. Will they be able to reach their dreams?

Director: Apo Bazidi
2020 | 21 min | USA
Language: English

FILMMAKER Q&A:
https://simaacademy.com/filmmaker-qa/how-far-...

A roadside motel in Newark New Jersey harbors refugees during their first night in America. “Hotel U.S.A.” captures a group of newcomers during their first moments in the country, exploring the sense of loss and hope that pervades the refugee experience.

Director: Andrea Meller
Producers: Andrea...

Hany is a 20-year-old Syrian refugee from Homs who lives with his family in a small-tented settlement in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. Back in Syria, Hany was at university studying to be a communications engineer, but he was unable to complete his studies. In Lebanon, he doesn’t have the fees to st...

The film portrays the lives of two gay men and one transgender woman who left their home countries because of discrimination and persecution. Now in South Africa they applied for refugee status on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Despite the fact that in South Africa both national law...