Ignite Lasting Change with Community Film Events

Thank you for your continued support of SIMA! We’re excited to share our most recent updates with you.
 
SIMA AWARDS UPDATES:
 
They say time flies when you’re having fun, at SIMA, time flies when you’re having fun AND up to your elbows with amazing content from all over the globe. Since announcing our award-winners in February, 35 films have joined the SIMA Collection, and 39 short films have joined our educational film program SIMA Classroom.
 
“These courageous filmmakers and activists re-imagine socio-political filmmaking. They set new standards for transparency, integrity, and creativity, while transforming their cameras, their narratives, and by extension their audiences, into vehicles for social justice. We're proud to champion such an extraordinary range of global talent and stories.” - Daniela Kon, SIMA Founder and Executive Director
 
But that’s not all...
In addition to all of the amazing content we get to watch and share, we decided it would be a great idea to introduce our audience to the content creators working behind the scenes. In March we launched our first official blog series “Impact Cinema,” where we post a new filmmaker interview each week. From exploring Emmy-winning films like TASHI AND THE MONK to community impact videos like NATURE NEEDS YOU, the SIMA blog brings us up close and personal with the filmmakers helping to shape the future of media and impact storytelling as we know it. Read more + follow us on Medium here.
 
SIMA CLASSROOM UPDATES:
 
The past three months have kept us busy adding new films to our streaming platform, expanding our resource library and creating targeted playlists aligned with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
 
Eight new films have been added to our collection thanks to a new partnership with ‘If Not Us Then Who’, a production company and advocacy group that works exclusively with indigenous communities to combat climate change through powerful storytelling. These films communicate firsthand the unique personal stories of an inconspicuous yet vital people, as they battle to protect their lives, their cultures and our forests. We’re honored to have partnered with such a wonderful team and excited to expand our library to encompass more stories from the front lines of environmental education.
 
Among expanding our library to include these timely stories, we have also optimized our film grid and added a new curation feature that allows educators to bookmark films and resource links so they can access them later with ‘My Classroom’. This addition will help educators sort through our extensive library at ease, giving them both freedom and flexibility when it comes to plugging SIMA films into their pre-existing or newly developed curriculum.
 
Lastly, we have been retargeting our grid sorting mechanisms, adding new keywords, locations and themes to align with each of the 17 SDGs. These new mechanisms allow educators to perfectly align their curriculum with the SDGs through storytelling and give educators who are new to Human Rights/ SDG Education a starting point to begin teaching the SDGs in their classrooms. We are so excited about this addition and we know our educators are, too!
 
In the weeks ahead, we will busy growing support to onboard the 61 schools currently awaiting sponsored access for SIMA Classroom.
 
SIMA RAMA & TRAVELING SERIES UPDATES:
 
This spring has brought us more community screenings AND a brand new impact film program called SIMA RAMA where film and activism collide. SIMA RAMA is a monthly online film club for bold, beautiful and award-winning impact cinema that connects members directly with creators, experts, live forums, and collective actions. One week. One Film. One Global Audience. Every month.
 
“It's like a Netflix for social impact films, but with fruitful discussion after! This is awesome.” - Elishia Flood, SIMA RAMA Member
 
SIMA RAMA launched with a special screening of ELEMENTAL, telling the story of three individuals united by their deep connection with nature and driven to confront some of the most pressing ecological challenges of our time. During the week of the screening we hosted a live panel with Director Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, Joshua Sheridan Fouts, Executive Director of Bioneers and Katharina Rall, Researcher at Human Rights Watch.
 
“How can we listen to indigenous wisdom which has tens of thousands of years of knowledge that are practically applied to surviving and thriving on this planet?” - Joshua Sheridan Fouts [during our live discussion]
 
In tandem with our SIMA RAMA premiere, we joined forces with the annual Two Dollar Challenge for the third year in a row and brought five short impact films to students in 21 campuses across the United States.
 
“Abandon the cultural conditioning of the ‘Do-Gooder Industrial Complex’ with each and every SIMA Film.” – Shawn Humphrey, Professor, Innovator & Founder of the Two Dollar Challenge.
 
April also brought us our very first Virtual Reality screening with Human Rights Watch here in Los Angeles. Over 100 audience members experienced SIMA 2017 Best Sound Experience VR Film, ACROSS THE LINE– a powerful depiction of the toxic environment that many health care providers, health center staff, and patients must walk through to provide or access health care on a typical day.
 
"It’s been wonderful having our audience experience Virtual Reality with SIMA. VR provides a unique and powerful way to expose people to some of today’s most pressing human rights issues. We can’t wait to host the SIMA/VR team again!" Perrine Vaillant, Associate Director, Human Rights Watch Los Angeles
 
During the first week of May we celebrated World Press Freedom day in SIMA RAMA with a special screening of FRAME BY FRAME–an overwhelmingly inspiring documentary that follows four photojournalists building a free press in a country left to stand on its own. To help maximize the film’s impact, during the week prior to the screening we ran a social media campaign that gave out 259 free annual memberships to SIMA RAMA to experience FRAME BY FRAME, in honor of the estimated 259 journalists imprisoned around the globe. While the film was streaming, as part of our Take Action kit, members signed petitions demanding the release of journalists currently jailed, including participating in a letter-writing campaign to Demand Press Freedom Turkey. Our panel comprised one of the first female journalists in Afghanistan, Mariam Alimi, and Foreign Policy Correspondent Amie Ferris-Rotman.
 
Following this week-long event, on May 21 we joined forces once again with Skirball Cultural Center for their very first Social Good Salon. During the event we screened SIMA 2017 Finalist WOMEN IN SINK– an unexpected choral portrait of a little hair salon owned by a Christian Arab in Haifa, Israel that provides temporary freedom, where Arab and Jewish women share their differences and a community of views on politics, history and love.
 
“Where there is love there is life.” - Mahatma Gandhi
 
As always, thank you for your invaluable contributions to helping us scale social impact through visual storytelling on a global scale
 
With warmth and gratitude from all of us at SIMA.