[Trigger Warning] FORCED sets out to capture the complexity and prolific occurrence of child labour and exploitation in Bangladesh. This film takes you into the streets of Dhaka, where children form part of the visual landscape: an integrated part of the work force, they work because society acce...

Viewer Discretion Advised

This is a documentary about paying for sex. Three men share three radically different experiences while three women lip sync to their words. This frank exploration of gender inequality uses subverted perspectives to ask: what can these stories tell us about our society,...

[Trigger Warning] The story of the Syrian revolution as told through the experiences of two young Syrians, a male rebel fighter and a female journalist, as they fight an oppressive regime for the freedom of their people.

Director & Producer: Matthew VanDyke

2013 | 14 min
USA | Syria
Language:...

[Trigger Warning] The extraordinary journey of a family overcoming a century of silence to expose the truth. Produced with the Equal Justice initiative, this is a film about the importance of commemorating, remembering and disrupting history. As Bryan Stevenson states, we won’t be able to move fo...

[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 ...

For her entire professional life, renowned ecologist Nalini Nadkarni pioneered climbing techniques to study "what grows back” after an ecological disturbance in the rainforest canopy. Now, after surviving a life-threatening fall from a tree, she must turn her research question onto herself in ord...

In the heart of Los Angeles, two members of an innovative Street Medicine team devote their livelihood to helping their unhoused patients receive care, hope, and connection.

Director(s): Reed Martin
2023 | 22 minutes
United States |
Language(s): English
Subtitles: English

FILMMAKER Q&A:
https:...

[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...

[Trigger Warning] Fighter, mother and a survivor of child sexual abuse, Nusrat is determined to ensure no other child experiences the physical or emotional trauma of such horrendous acts. Together with husband, she founded Cactus Foundation to teach children in schools in India, how to recognise ...

Periods can be hard, and being able to access the right products can be even harder. When financial situations get tough, menstruators often have to “put a sock in it”.

Many struggle with period poverty and it affects them in a way where it is detrimental to both their physical and mental health...

[Trigger Warning] In March 2016 Kausalya and her husband Shankar were brutally attacked on a crowded street in southern India. Shankar, who came from a lower Dalit caste, died of his injuries. Kausalya survives and accuses her parents of orchestrating an honour killing. She fights for justice thr...

Directors: Annie Lukowski & BJ Schwartz
Producer: Charles R. Uy
15 min | USA

“The Hidden” is a political thriller that literally drops you in the middle of a high stakes game of cat and mouse without telling you who is hunting whom. In a manner only possible in VR, “The Hidden” will have you exp...

In the city of Qom, the most restricted city in Iran, there are many restrictions on human rights such as mandatory hijab to assure sexual safety; Hossein (M, 30) grew up in this environment and experienced multiple sexual assaults by men, despite these measures. Due to stereotypes around masculi...

[Trigger Warning] Perma gold mine, Benin. Some dream to find something, others realized there was nothing to be found. Some dig relentlessly hoping to become rich, others died in the process. And a few of them say that here, nobody dies.

Director & Producer: Simon Panay
2016 | 24 Min
Benin
Langu...

[Trigger Warning] A roadside bomb in Iraq left Jerral Hancock paralyzed and without his left arm. But rather than letting his injuries define him, Jerral is fighting back. He’s working with a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins to test the most advanced prosthetic arm in the world that could h...

[Trigger Warning] In 'Black Girl Poem,' black women take a surrealist approach in confronting the power dynamic of sexual harassment and catcalling within the African American community. The three women towering above the city act as a chorus, symbolizing a heightened representation of resistance...

[Trigger Warning] In March 2016 Kausalya and her husband Shankar were brutally attacked on a crowded street in southern India. Shankar, who came from a lower Dalit caste, died of his injuries. Kausalya survives and accuses her parents of orchestrating an honour killing. She fights for justice thr...

Testimony is an interactive documentary for virtual reality that shares the stories of five survivors of sexual assault and their journey to healing. Beyond just a film, Testimony is an advocacy platform to allow the public to bear witness to those who have been silenced. The Brock Turner case, B...

[Trigger Warning] Tea Consent is a humorous video about a serious topic. It addresses the issue of sexual assault and consent using the metaphor of offering people tea. Using androgynous figures, it takes the viewer through various scenarios to reinforce the idea of affirmative consent and challe...

[Trigger Warning] Nefertiti’s Daughters is a story of women, art, and revolution. Told by prominent Egyptian artists, this documentary witnesses the critical role revolutionary street art played during the Egyptian uprisings. Focused on the role of women artists in the struggle for social and pol...

Many early mornings, Bella and her brothers take a small boat from the harbor at the Sama-Bajau community in the Philippines to catch fish. The Indigenous sea nomads in maritime Southeast Asia are deeply connected to the ocean and are known as the best skin divers in the world.

The men take thei...

Stripped of her rights, a woman's life changes when she ventures with her husband to remedy an impossible situation.

Directors: Will Hawkes, Melissa Center
Producers: Will Hawkes, Melissa Center
11 min | USA
Languages: English

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

Garment worker Veasna bets big on her husband’s barber shop, providing her family’s land title as collateral to obtain a microfinance loan and finance his business. Soon after opening, the business goes bust and her husband runs off with his mistress, leaving her alone to face credit officers. Ph...

HIJA CALLADA (THE SILENT DAUGHTER) introduces us to three different women from three different generations and families, who all discuss their trauma and stories involving the generational trauma within their families.

This film was created during the Girls’ Voices Now program that empowers girl...