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Thank you for your continued support of SIMA! We’re excited to share our most recent updates from each of our programs with you.
SIMA AWARDS UPDATES:
Chosen from 227 submissions spanning 97 countries, on February 7th SIMA announced 13 winners and 8 jury prize recipients in the Documentary Feature, Documentary Short, VR (Virtual Reality) and Creative Impact categories for our 7th Annual Awards. With overarching themes of resilience and transformation, the winning films allow us to bare witness to the immeasurable courage and ripple effects of individuals tackling today’s most pressing global challenges.
On Her Shoulders, SIMA 2019 winner for Best Feature Documentary and Best Director, tells the story of twenty-three-year-old Nadia Murad, a survivor of Isis slavery who is now a beacon of hope and global ambassador of the Yazidi community. In Letter From Masanjia, this year’s winner for Best Editing, we’re taken deep into the realities of China's labour camps through the eyes of a political prisoner determined to expose the unthinkable human rights violations he endured.
Winners in the Virtual Reality (VR) Category include Best Director recipient The Hidden, a piece that critically exposes Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) pursuit of undocumented immigrants in the US. Best VR Experience Winner, Home After War, immerses us into the house and heart of the tragic, real-life story of an Iraqi family that returned to Fallujah after being displaced to find their home and neighbourhood booby trapped by improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
This years Jury Prize winners provide us with unparalleled access to worlds traditionally concealed from public eyes. TransMilitary, Winner of the SIMA 2019 Ethos Jury Prize, follows four individuals who put their careers and livelihoods on the line by coming out as transgender in their courageous battle to achieve equal rights to serve. The Price of Free, Winner of the SIMA 2019 Lens To Action Jury Prize, follows Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi on secret raids and quests for missing children in the hopes of ending the cycle of child labour and poverty bringing us face to face with how we as consumers perpetuate the cycle driven by international supply chain demand.
SIMA CLASSROOM UPDATES:
Designed as a fast track to global citizenship education, the online streaming platform takes students on a journey from empathy and critical thinking to action. Over 1,825 educators, 42,570 students and 170 institutions globally are already using the platform.
Selected from the finalists and winners of the annual Social Impact Media Awards, SIMA Classroom is a global, ever-current and expansive streaming service presenting the gold standard of social-issue cinematic storytelling. It provides access to a carefully curated collection of over 165 award-winning short documentaries and Virtual Reality films with learning resources and participatory skill building lessons. The 2019 SIMA AWARDS allowed us to incorporate gems such as The Future of Iraq, Dignity with Flowers and Lives on Hold in Lebanon to bring global issues such as human rights, refugees, and social entrepreneurship to life in the classroom.
In order to keep sharing our purpose and invite millions to join the movement of using impact cinema as a tool for education and social change, we participated in the The Humane Summit and the 2019 Ashoka U Exchange Conference.
The Humane Summit Virtual Speakers Series brought together education professionals from around the world to learn, share, and connect about humane education. We had the opportunity to introduce SIMA Classroom to more than 600 educators that learned how to use social impact film to inspire young leaders.
This month SIMA will host a Virtual Reality Lounge at the 2019 Ashoka U Exchange Beyond Boundaries and Borderswhich gathers 700 social innovators in higher education. We will present the idea of using the power of visual storytelling to take students’ engagement to the next level and invite attendees to experience Virtual Reality Social Impact Storytelling by taking a 10 minute walk inside Beirut’s Shatila camp, the Palestinian refugee camp built in 1949 that today, 70 years later, has evolved into an urban slum.
TRAVELING SERIES UPDATES:
In January, SIMA partner Meta House hosted its annual documentary festival, SIMA CAMBODIA, screening twelve SIMA Collection titles including Aliki Saragas’s STRIKE A ROCK, Leah Warshawski and Todd Soliday’s BIG SONIA, Craig Leeson’s A PLASTIC OCEAN, and Adam Sobel’s THE WORKERS CUP.
SIMA RAMA UPDATES:
SIMA RAMA is our monthly online film club for impact cinema. Each month we bring together a documentary, live podcast, bonus features and unique ways to take collective action.
This December we featured Saeed Taji Farouky & Michael McEvoy’s intimate and humanist film TELL SPRING NOT TO COME THIS YEAR, which follows a unit of the Afghan National Army (ANA) over the course of their first year of fighting in the Helmand province without NATO support. Our impact talk panel guests included both co-directors as well as moderator and Global Education Consultant Jennifer Geist, and MENA and South Asia Director for the Center for Civilians in Conflict, Sahr Muhammedally, who discuss the largely unheard and misrepresented perspective of this band of fighting men on the front line.
In January we began our RAMA Rewind program, allowing members to view films from the archive they may have missed during their streaming month. We began the year with FRAME BY FRAME by Alexandria Bombach & Mo Scarpelli, an account of four Afghan photojournalists face the realities of building a free press in a country left to stand on its own after decades of war and an oppressive Taliban regime. The Impact Talk, a compelling discussion about the pursuit of truth features Amie Ferris-Rotman Journalist and Russia Correspondent for Foreign Policy, and Mariam Alimi, one of Afghanistan's first female photojournalists
For the month of February, we’re streaming Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee & Gayatri Roshan’s ELEMENTAL, 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. The Impact Talk features director Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, Executive Director of Bioneers, Joshua Sheridan Fouts, and Katharina Rall, Researcher at Human Rights Watch, who explore the idea of the actual and philosophical rights of nature and the environment.
As always, thank you for your invaluable contributions to helping us scale social impact through visual storytelling worldwide.
With warmth and gratitude from the SIMA Team.
SHORT VERSION
Thank you for your continued support of SIMA! We’re excited to share our most recent updates from each of our programs with you.
SIMA AWARDS UPDATES:
We are excitedly underway with the SIMA 2019 Awards Cycle, celebrating our 7th year curating the most relevant global impact documentaries from across the globe. This year we received submissions from over 60 countries, with films spotlighting over 90 regions worldwide. The SIMA 2019 Pre-selection Committee has been diligently viewing submissions, helping us to narrow down the best from each respective category. We look forward to identifying our Finalists, which we will announce on January 10, 2019. The Finalists of our 2019 Awards Cycle are sure to be innovative works of film that illuminate the most pressing global challenges from the unique perspectives of those on the front lines to inspire empathy, critical thinking, and action.
SIMA CLASSROOM UPDATES:
Sima Classroom, our online global education + film platform currently reaches 1,800 educators and 42,000 high-school and college students in 30 countries. It combines a carefully curated collection of over 140 award-winning short documentaries and Virtual Reality films with learning resources and participatory skill building lessons.
We recently launched a free and accredited Impact Media Literacy Course for educators in partnership with Participate in response to learning that teachers lacked the confidence to employ media resources in their lessons. The 10 hour online course guides educators from curation and analysis through in-classroom screening and campaign development with students, allowing them to discover and unleash the power of storytelling to educate and inspire through a professional development tool.
In order to respond to educators and students interest for innovative thematic curated playlists and participatory lesson plans, we have just incorporated to the platform a new lesson plan specifically designed to bring SDGs to life through a screening campaign in and beyond classroom walls. Co-created with leading experts and paired with our existing SDGs Playlist, The SDGs Advocate: 2030 CHALLENGE is a cutting edge, action-based guide to empower students with inspiration and community organizing tools to learn, advocate, and mobilize around a global issue they care about.
Together with the International Film Club (a project of iEarn) we are inviting educators everywhere to take part in the collaborative Virtual Exchange experience where we offer access to two of our award-winning documentaries from the SIMA Classroom collection. The 2018/19 program begins this November with the invitation to watch KAYAYO, THE LIVING SHOPPING BASKET, a documentary about young girls in Ghana, who are forced by their families or who go willingly to work in the city to help increase the household's earnings.
Thanks to your support we continue providing sponsored access to SIMA Classroom. Since October more than 250 girls from Gathirimu Girls T. High School in Kenya have the opportunity to access quality global citizenship education.
TRAVELING SERIES UPDATES:
In July SIMA teamed up with World Merit, a world renowned social enterprise that catalyzes action against social issues, for the SIMA + World Merit Challenge to empower local leaders to bring the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to their own communities through the power of social impact cinema. With over 15 events in 11 countries, the World Merit Challenge brought communities together to view some of SIMA’s most inspiring films, discuss ideas and solutions, and learn how to become effective advocates and community organizers for causes most relevant to them.
We announced the winner of the SIMA + World Merit Challenge in August, awarding Chaste Inegbedion for organizing a screening of Mari Bakke Riise’s KAYOYA, THE LIVING SHOPPING BASKETS at the Kirikiri women’s prison in Apapa, Lagos State, Nigeria. Inedgbedion’s screening reached an audience of over 350 people and placed an emphasis on the Sustainable Development Goal of POVERTY. Inedgbedion partnered with various organizations for the event, including Padman Africa, which he notes “represents the foundation for low income girls to break free from their cycle of period poverty.” The event also included a panel discussion with speakers including Tola Oni (Mandela Washington Fellow Alumnus), Bayode Treasures Olawunmi (Guinness World Record Title Holder for ”The Longest Reading Marathon (Read Aloud)”), Ronke Oguntoyinbo (Director, Leadership Empowerment and Resource Network, LEARN), and Nelson Olaonipekun (Founder Citizen's Gavel). The screening aimed to raise awareness regarding the complex issue of women’s poverty, while encouraging viewers to take action through advocating for disadvantaged women.
The SIMA + World Merit Challenge allowed individuals across the globe to gain exposure to relevant social issues and insight into world events. Below is a collection of quotes from various participants, expressing the impact of the SIMA Screenings they hosted in their communities.
“It helped to increase awareness on impacts of nuclear energy, available renewable energy technologies,and how they can be accessed as well as the limitations to access. The discussion provided an open platform for participants to share with the guest speaker, event host, and other participants.” - Isaac Sserwanga, Organizer for #SIMAKampala
“Audiovisual experiences connect a person with a subject better than anything else can. I think it's easy to relate and see yourself in some situations, it's easier to understand, to feel close to the lesson the film is trying to teach.” - Brena Lacerda, Organizer for #SIMABarraMansa
“In a word which is dominated by visual media and social media acts as a communication channel, film is an excellent tool for changing hearts and minds and creating awareness.” - Event Organizers for #SIMAKarachi
Some other notable screenings of SIMA Collection films include the October screening of SIMA 2017 360 + VR Finalist REFUGEES by the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) Future of Film Fair. The Eduardo Hernandez & Yori van Gerven directed film offers an immersive glimpse into the reality of the ongoing refugee crisis, following the lives of Turkish migrants in Lesbos, Greece.
Also in October was the The Adventure Trade Travel Association (ATTA) screening of A PLASTIC OCEAN in Italy. The film directed by Craig Leeson follows the journey of a team of researchers and scientists as they travel the globe exposing alarming truths about plastic pollution. ATTA also hosted a screening in November of VOICES FROM THE SEA in Brazil. Directed by Álvaro Farías, the film centers on how the Rapa Nui people organize to combat overfishing and pollution on Easter Island. The screening encouraged viewers to consider the far-reaching effects of pollution, while gaining knowledge about the ways global communities adapt to respond to environmental challenges.
SIMA RAMA UPDATES:
SIMA RAMA is our monthly online film club for impact cinema. Each month we bring together a documentary, live podcast, bonus features and unique ways to take collective action.
This September we followed the aftermath of a police massacre in a poverty stricken mining community in South Africa in Aliki Saragas’s STRIKE A ROCK. The film documents the journey of two grandmothers as they rise out of their homes and lead their community in a historic fight against seemingly insurmountable odds for justice and dignity. An intimate story where the personal becomes political, following fighting on-the-ground to the corridors of power, the film presents the grandmothers’ struggle to take on Goliath enemies and make their voices heard. Our panel included filmmaker Aliki Saragas, Palesa Madi of CALS, and former U.S. Congresswoman Donna Edwards, discussing the film’s themes of women’s rights, labor rights, and industry in the context of the film.
In October, we delved into the USA’s Satanic Panic witch-hunt era of the 80s and 90s in Deborah Esquenazi’s SOUTHWEST OF SALEM. After being wrongfully convicted of gang-raping two little girls, four Latina lesbians fight against mythology, homophobia, and prosecutorial fervor in their struggle for exoneration in this critically acclaimed ‘True Crime’ tale. Our panel featured filmmaker Deborah Esquenazi, director of the HRW Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program Graeme Reid, as well as Michael Ware and Anna Vasquez of the Innocence Project.
This month, we are streaming Christoffer Guldbrandsen’s STEALING AFRICA, an investigation into the Glencore Mining Corporation’s impact on poverty in Zambia. Despite possessing the third largest copper reserves in the world, 60% of the Zambian population lives on less than $1 a day. Ruschlikon, a wealthy village in Switzerland, receives more tax than it can use thanks to resident Ivan Glasenberg, CEO of Glencore, whose copper mines in Zambia are generating huge profits. Our panel guests include Keely Badger, Executive Director of the Neda Nobari Foundation, Dr. Fola Adeleke, Head of Research of the Mandela Institute, Dr. Brett Carter, Assistant Professor in the School of International Relations at USC, and Mukasiri Sibanda, Accountant at the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA).
As always, thank you for your invaluable contributions to helping us scale social impact through visual storytelling worldwide.
With warmth and gratitude from the SIMA Team.
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