By Erinn Sullivan | Chief Communications & Impact Officer
Cinema Across Borders continues to demonstrate the extraordinary power of community-led documentary screenings to spark dialogue, strengthen local leadership, and inspire collective action across the globe.
SIMA's year-round international traveling screening series, Cinema Across Borders, brings award-winning social impact documentaries directly into communities throughout the Global South, where local organizers, educators, artists, and grassroots leaders use film as a catalyst for conversation, coalition-building, and civic engagement.
This quarter marked two exciting milestones for the program. We celebrated the completion of our most impactful edition to date in April, while simultaneously launching a new global cohort of Cinema Across Borders Fellows, continuing to expand a growing international network of community leaders using documentary film to create meaningful local change.
Our Cinema Across Borders Impact Report highlights the remarkable reach of the first edition (2024-25):
From Argentina to Zimbabwe, local fellows and partner organizations transformed community centers, universities, libraries, cultural spaces, and public gathering places into vibrant forums for dialogue around today's most pressing social challenges.
Across this edition, screenings explored issues including gender-based violence, reproductive justice, climate resilience, environmental justice, Indigenous rights, refugee experiences, LGBTQIA+ inclusion, civic participation, disability rights, conservation, peacebuilding, post-colonial identity, children's rights, advocacy, and community leadership. Each event was uniquely adapted to local contexts, demonstrating how documentary storytelling can transcend borders while remaining deeply rooted in community realities.
As one Cinema Across Borders partner reflected:
"The films served as conversation starters, encouraging participants to reflect on their own realities, question assumptions, and explore new ideas... The approach proved to be low-cost and accessible, yet highly impactful in stimulating critical awareness and community-led dialogue."
We officially launched the 2026–2027 edition of Cinema Across Borders, welcoming a new cohort of fellows and partner organizations committed to bringing transformative documentary experiences into their own communities over the coming year.
This new quarter also marked the beginning of screenings led by this incoming cohort, offering an early glimpse into the energy and impact they are already generating across regions.
In South Africa, Africa Voices Dialogue hosted a three-day program in Stellenbosch featuring Black Mambas: The Reality of Hope, Loot: A Story of Crime and Redemption, Grounded, and Made in Ethiopia, bringing together participants for conversations around conservation, justice, and economic development.
In Guatemala, Fundación Ixcanul facilitated screenings of NIÑXS in both Guatemala City and Quetzaltenango, creating spaces for dialogue around children's rights, identity, and community resilience.
Across Nigeria, our partners Tell That Story and Park Radio launched an ambitious regional screening series. Audiences in Benin City engaged with Exodus, The Barber of Little Rock, and Loot: A Story of Crime and Redemption, while simultaneous screenings of Mothers of Chibok took place in Abuja, Lagos, and Kaduna—opening conversations around education, women's leadership, conflict, and resilience.
In Serbia, Galerija Stara Kapetanija presented Samuel and the Light, continuing its longstanding partnership with Cinema Across Borders through community-centered documentary programming.
None of this would be possible without the remarkable dedication of our Cinema Across Borders Fellows and partners, whose creativity, leadership, and commitment continue to demonstrate that meaningful social change begins with communities coming together to listen, reflect, and imagine new possibilities.
Thank you for helping us ensure that powerful stories continue to cross borders, strengthen communities, and inspire action around the world.
With gratitude and warmth,
The Cinema Across Borders Team
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By VIRGINIA PITTARO | DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS
By Virginia Pittaro | Director of Global Partnerships
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