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...

What About Our Future? chronicles the Sustainabiliteens, a group of young environmental activists who organized the largest strike in Vancouver’s history. The film takes a unique look into the movement while the youth organize protests, pressure politicians and educate younger teens about environ...

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...

Shot over the span of two months in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest, ‘Songs of the Vine’ is a virtual reality documentary focusing on the healing modalities, cosmovision and culture of the Shipibo, an indigenous group best known for their mastery of ayahuasca and sacred plant medicine. By immersin...

Director: Sadhana Subramaniam
Producers: Anna Murphy, Harri Grace (Grain Media)
25 min | UK, India
Languages: Hindi
Subtitles: English

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 ...

After a decade as a sex worker, Iman attempts to pursue her dream of becoming a social worker to help her fellow transgender community members. As she explores the option of going back to college, One Leg In, One Leg Out questions whether tenacity, ambition and a life long dream are enough to ove...

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

Creative Activism, Impact Videos Category, SIMA 2019

WATCH NOW: htt...

One in six children today are living in war zones, in this film we meet three of them. The Future of Iraq is a poetic documentary about the future generation of Iraq facing their future while trying to cope with their war experiences.

Director: Thee Yezen Al-Obaide, Mats Muri
Producer: Ingvil Gi...

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: Simon Panay
Producer: Simon Panay
2016 | 24 mins| Benin

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The Mauritania Railway is a 704-kilometer line linking the iron-mining center of Zouerat with the port of Nouadhibou. Atop a hopper car, we journey through vast Saharan landscapes with the people who rely on the train for their survival.

Director: Macgregor
Producer: Macgregor
2017 | Spain
Langu...

It's a true story about two girls struggling hard for their love. Soth Yun (57) and Sem Eang (58) love each other since the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, where two million Cambodians died. The lesbian couple lives in a village like husband and wife. Now they fight for their right to marry...

Dir...

A documentary short about a family divided by the US/Mexico border. Abril is living undocumented in the United States with her 2 year-old son Julian. Julian’s father was stopped by police for a minor traffic incident and was deported back to Mexico. In order to see each other, Uriel, Abril and Ju...

Foday Gallah is training to become an anesthetist. While in school, he supervised six ambulances in Montserrado County, Liberia. Though difficult, the work bore few health risks. In June 2014, when the Ebola outbreak reached Montserrado, this changed. With too few ambulances, Ebola Treatment Unit...

The Haystack documentary, is a real life investigation into 21st century surveillance in the UK and the Investigatory Powers (IP) Bill currently before Parliament.

In light of Snowden’s revelations in 2013, both privacy groups and our government agree that the laws surrounding surveillance need...

In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, failed reconstruction has pushed social unrest to the breaking point. Protests erupt in the streets, and armed UN soldiers stalk the angry crowds. But a group of young Haitians, driven by their passion for a new Haiti, is sparking social change. To d...

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...

Shot among the Samburu semi-nomadic tribe of Kenya, “When The Time Comes” portraits its relation to the ancestral and controversial practice that is female circumcision (Female Genital Cutting) and highlights the inter-generational debate that is taking place in their communities, allowing girls ...

Have you ever wondered what happens to your electronics at the end of their life? Almost 50 million tons of e-waste (electronic waste) are generated worldwide every year. A large volume of second-hand and condemned electronic goods arrive in developing countries from the “developed” world, with a...

BIG DAMAGE reveals the human face of logging in Papua New Guin- ea. It is a tale of exploitation and broken promises, where local people are treated as second-rate citizens in their own country by Malaysian logging companies and corrupt politicians. Customary landowners are forced into signing do...

With one of the lowest levels of birth registration in Africa, Tanzania’s failing infrastructure and logistical challenges have left decades of backlog in birth registrations. A Tanzanian governmental agency, RITA, joined forces with some strong partners and decided to tackle the issue of birth r...

From a small country with a revolutionary history, comes a compelling TV drama with a big vision. This documentary follows an inspiring Nicaraguan women’s rights group, Puntos de Encuentro, as it works to end sexual violence at home, in beds, and in the street through a powerful blend of mainstre...

Baseball In The Time of Cholera is a powerful insight into the tragedy and scandal of Haiti’s Cholera epidemic through the eyes of a young baseball player.

Directors & Producers: David Darg & Bryn Mooser
2012 | 28 min
Haiti | Canada

WATCH NOW: https://www.simaacademy.tv/videos/baseball-in-the...

Women and girls are often put down, silently, subtly. Bound by invisible chains in their homes, on the streets, in schools and public spaces. Always maintaining a low profile, always crushing their dreams. Is it possible for them to fight back? And what happens when they find the courage to do so...

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, there's an island whose inhabitants subsistence depends on the sea. There has been an alarming decline of endemic species in their waters because of overfishing by international factory ships, as well as damaging plastic these same ships discard on their shores...