Justice and Human Rights United States Project #26174

Ignite Lasting Change with Community Film Events

by SIMA Studios

Project Report | Jun 1, 2021
May 2021 SIMA Studios Updates

By Erinn Sullivan | CMO

Thank you once again for your continued support of SIMA! We’re excited to share our most recent updates from each of our programs with you.

SIMA Awards:

Congratulations to the SIMA 2021 Winners!The art of storytelling is alive and reimagined in this year’s winners. Chosen from 40 finalists spanning 20 countries, the SIMA 2021 winners represent the future of filmmaking as we know it: honest, raw, diverse, creative, and deeply personal stories that transform our world.

From an unprecedented exploration into the machine-learning algorithms perpetuating society’s existing racial, class, and gender biases in Best Director, Best Sound Design, and Transparency Jury Prize winner, CODED BIAS by Shalini Kantayya; to following a group of activists risking their lives to confront Russian leader Ramzan Kadyrov and his government-directed campaign to detain, torture and execute LGBTQ Chechens in Best Feature Documentary, Winner WELCOME TO CHECHNYA by David France, this year’s SIMA 2021 winners unapologetically invite viewers to examine the state of our contemporary world and their unique place—and potential—to change it.

Winners are eligible for entry into SIMA’s global impact distribution programs, community screening series, SIMA X, and online education platform, SIMA Classroom, which reaches over 74,000 students around the globe.

SIMA Classroom:

This month we are celebrating the impact storytellers of the future with the launch of the annual global SIMA Student Award in partnership with Inspire Citizens. More than 100 students from 5 continents have submitted their creative projects inspired by SIMA social impact films in only one week!

We are also delighted to welcome Doha Debates to the SIMA Family! Together we developed a brand new playlist + lesson plan featuring original films that amplify diverse perspectives and practical solutions that can work across differences and develop active listening skills for better conversations.

Our monthly Student Film Club has been hosted by outstanding partners, such as MENTEE who has hosted a virtual screening and panel discussion with young professionals, changemakers and filmmakers about the power of art to create social change.

Last but not least, we are proud to announce SIMA Classroom was selected as a finalist of the EdTech Cool Tool Awards 2021!

SIMAx & SIMA RAMA Virtual Cinema

Local leaders around the globe keep screening SIMA impact films on our newly launched Virtual Cinema platform SIMA RAMA to activate their communities around issues that matter. Organizations and change-makers use the virtual cinema for special events and as part of their programmatic activities. For instance, The 49 Percent, host a monthly Feminist Film Club with a powerful and unique line-up. These past months a global audience has enjoyed the films End of the Line: The Women of Standing Rock, Represent and The Dilemma of Desire.

SIMA Staff Pick

Through our Staff Pick we make one award-winning SIMA film available for free online each month. In March we virtually screened Last Day of Freedom, a portrait of a man at the nexus of the most pressing social issues of our day: entrenched racism, veteran’s rights, mental health care and criminal justice. In April we virtually screened Out of Plastic, a documentary film that sets out to explore the obscure depths of plastics in the Mediterranean. Finally, in May we offer a global screening of 73 Questions, an interview with Steve Jones about being on the streets of San Francisco. Collectively over 2,500 audience members across the globe tuned into these virtual screenings.

SIMA's Fiscal Sponsorship:

Supporting projects at the intersection of creativity and social impact we have added 6 new projects to our growing Fiscal Sponsorship Community: 2 Narratives Films - Collectibles and Third Date-, 3 Feature Documentaries - Film Power, Heritage Protectors and Hound Bitch- and 1 educational project - Facing Tomorrow - using film to create awareness and action around food security.

Thank you so much for giving us wings and for enabling us to maximize the impact of our programs.

With warmth and gratitude from all of us at SIMA.

Links:

SIMA Studios

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Jan 28, 2021
February 2021 SIMA Updates

By Erinn Sullivan | CMO

Thank you once again for your continued support of SIMA! We’re excited to share our most recent updates from each of our programs with you.

SIMA Awards:

Congratulations to the SIMA 2021 Finalists! 40 stories from 20 countries have advanced as finalists in the 9th Annual Social Impact Media Awards. From hospital walls to voting booths; from the streets to the senate; from Chechnya to Sierra Leone; this year’s SIMA Finalists give us incredible—one-of-a-kind—x-ray vision into the state of our contemporary world. Winners will be announced February 10, 2021.

SIMA Classroom:

SIMA Classroom is a global, ever-current and expansive streaming platform presenting the gold standard of social-issue cinematic storytelling In times where we are walking from the New Normal to a New Future, we have developed new projects with old friends and new partners to scale our impact.

Invited by George Washington University, we hosted a virtual workshop for arabic educators at the Institute of Middle East Studies, to advance impact media literacy and the significance of documentary film in 21st century global education.

We proudly joined Planet Classroom, a network platform organized by CMRubinWorld bringing together musicians, dancers, video games creators, filmmakers, learning innovators and emerging technologists from all over the world to entertain, educate and engage youth.

Thanks to Qatar Foundation International's continued support, SIMA Student Film Club ended 2020 with an extraordinary line-up on Sustainability followed by a virtual exchange with the Arabic Honor Society students and filmmaker Aaron Kisner and business entrepreneur Manal Yaish Zraiq.

SIMAx & SIMA RAMA Virtual Cinema

Local leaders around the globe keep screening SIMA impact films on our newly launched Virtual Cinema platform SIMA RAMA to activate their communities around issues that matter. Our most recent virtual screening partners included Human Rights Watch LA, Another Way, The 49%, and QS Word Merit. By attending single screenings + discussion panel events or entire film festivals with community engagement opportunities our virtual audiences rallied in support of , racial justice, the empowerment of girls and women and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, reaching over 2,500 viewers per month.

SIMA Staff Pick

Through our Staff Pick we make one award-winning SIMA film available for free online each month. In October we virtually screened Juanita, a glimpse into the everyday life of a Mayan traditional doctor, midwife, nurse and activist. In September we virtually screened Tell Spring Not To Come This Year where audiences witnessed the war in Afghanistan through the eyes of Afghans who live it. Finally, we close 2020 screening Out Of The Darkness, a story of two doctors restoring sight to the needlessly blind. In January 2021, we offer a global screening of Rio Eu Amo Eu Cuido Migration, a local story about making a beloved city a better place to live. Collectively over 4,000 audience members across the globe tuned into these virtual events.

SIMA's Fiscal Sponsorship:

Supporting projects at the intersection of creativity and social impact we have added 3 new projects to our growing Fiscal Sponsorship Community: Redefining What's Possible - a three part film series that supports filmmakers belonging to marginalized communities; Mentorship Matters - a one-year intensive mentoring program for emerging TV writers of color- and Walker Entertainer Academy - a short film production and marketing company aimed at ethnic, under served artists. Overall SIMA fiscal sponsorship projects have raised over $522,000 to bring these projects to life.

Thank you so much for giving us wings and for enabling us to maximize the impact of our programs.

With warmth and gratitude from all of us at SIMA.

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Oct 1, 2020
October 2020 SIMA Updates

By Erinn Sullivan | CMO

Thank you once again for your continued support of SIMA! We’re excited to share our most recent updates from each of our programs with you.

SIMA Awards:

Our 9th Annual Awards is officially open for submissions! We are calling for original, wise, brave, eye-opening, and creative stories that capture the massive paradigm shifts taking place across the world. Films, production companies, and funders who raise important questions about the state of our past, present and future, and inspire viewers to reflect on the meaning and potential of social activism and transformation are invited to submit their work.

Selected productions with potential to inspire change will be invited into SIMA’s sought after year-round distribution programs that bring stories to audiences, communities and classrooms around the globe, democratizing access to social issue filmmaking with an emphasis on what happens after the credits roll: i.e. impact through community engagement, coalition building and education.

SIMA Classroom:

SIMA Classroom is a global, ever-current and expansive streaming platform presenting the gold standard of social-issue cinematic storytelling.

In these unprecedented times, some things have become evident: there are urgent issues we need to tackle without delay and we need to collaborate and unite to find long term solutions. In order to contribute to this common endeavor, we have launched the RACIAL JUSTICE PLAYLIST, with a carefully curated selection of films confronting viewers with our history and our present reality of racial injustice, and the UNPLASTIFY PLAYLIST and lesson plan to invite students to connect emotionally with the topic of plastic pollution and get inspired to take action.

Also, in partnership with Qatar Foundation International we co-created the ARAB WORLD VISION playlist and challenge highlighting the importance of cross-cultural understanding, respect, and tolerance to overcome global challenges as a community. Additionally, the ARABIC HONOR SOCIETY has joined the Student Film Club enabling hundreds of students to watch monthly film picks on pressing global issues and to attend a virtual exchange with experts and changemakers.

SIMAx & SIMA RAMA Virtual Cinema

Local leaders around the globe keep screening SIMA impact films on our newly launched Virtual Cinema platform SIMA RAMA to activate their communities around issues that matter. Our virtual screening partners included the U.S Embassy in Singapore, U.N. Woman Los Angeles, Human Rights Watch LA, Downbeat Entertainment, PeaceBoat U.S and UNDP. By attending single screenings + discussion panel events or entire film festivals with community engagement opportunities our virtual audiences rallied in support of the climate, racial justice, and the empowerment of children on the autism spectrum, reaching over 2500 viewers per month.

Together with Cinépolis Foundation, U.N Mexico and SDSN Youth we inaugurated the 2020 edition of the Mira Film Fest, an online impact film festival + online webinars series aimed to bring the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to life. Over 2,850 people across Mexico were inspired and actively engaged in the festival.

SIMA Staff Pick

Through our Staff Pick we make one award-winning SIMA film available for free online each month. In July we virtually screened Pay2Playwhere we shined a spotlight on the injustices of the U.S election process using Monopoly as a metaphor. In August we virtually screened Goodwill Dumping where audiences witnessed the journey that discarded pieces of clothing make and what kind of impact this has on local industries. Finally, in September we offer a global screening of Desert Migration—a beautiful exploration of the struggle of HIV positive men trying to rebuild the lives they thought they’d never be able to live. Collectively over 3,000 audience members across the globe tuned into these virtual events.

SIMA's Fiscal Sponsorship:

Supporting projects at the intersection of creativity and social impact we have added nine new projects to our Fiscal Sponsorship Program; including 3 projects focused on sustainable development, one equity disaster relief fund, one media platform and mentorship program meant to address the disproportionate impacts the war on drugs and criminalization of cannabis has had on low-income and communities of color, a documentary following four children as they experience Holocaust education in the public school system in rural Germany amidst the resurgence of the far-right and xenophobia, as well as a documentary about the NRA, Russia and the 2016 U.S electiones, and finally two feature length documentaries following very different yet similar stories of people going through the border crossing experience. So far these projects have raised over $112,500 through SIMA.

Thank you so much for giving us wings and for enabling us to maximize the impact of our programs.

With warmth and gratitude from all of us at SIMA.

Links:

SIMA Studios

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