By Virginia Pittaro | Director of Global Partnerships
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.
Finalists and Winners are eligible for entry into SIMA’s global impact distribution programs, SIMAx/SIMARAMA and SIMA Classroom, that bring stories to audiences, communities and classrooms around the globe, democratizing access to social issue filmmaking.
SIMA Classroom:
In partnership with Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding under the auspices of UNESCO, we launched the first two collaborative courses: The SDG Challengedesigned to train educators in using the power of film to advance Global Citizenship Education and the course Film as a Tool for Advocacyfor young leaders who want to gain practical skills and hands-on experience on how to use authentic visual storytelling to advance their own advocacy work in their communities.
In June, the Student Film Club together featured the winner of The First Annual SIMA Student Award introducing Iffany Zou and her Food Waste podcast along with the SIMA film that inspired her work: A Thousand Suns. The annual global SIMA Student Award celebrates the impact storytellers of the future awarding students who have utilized SIMA’s social impact films as a springboard for their own creative impact projects.
In August, the Student Film Club was presented by GlobalLighthouse Studios featuring Stories from the Field and Green Gold followed by a virtual exchange around Food Waste. The first story explores the challenges and innovations for grassroots development programs and under-resourced farmers in Bangladesh, while the second one witnesses the desperate water shortage faced by local communities in Chile due to our global appetite for avocados.
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 Ahead of the Curve, Peace is a Woman Issue, and A Girl From Mogadishu. UNESCO-APCEIU is hosting monthly screening + post screenings discussion panels and workshops to commemorate international days such as World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development ( Film: Undivided ), World Refugee Day ( Film: LifeBoat) Day of Indigenous People ( Films: Cheran: A Burning Hope and Beyond the Pipeline) and Youth Day ( Films: How Far is Home and What about our future). Collectively over 2,000 audience members across the globe tuned into these virtual screenings.
SIMA Staff Pick
Through our Staff Pick we make one award-winning SIMA film available for free online each month. In June we virtually screened One Leg In, One Leg Out, a portrait of a woman wondering whether ambition, tenacity and a life long dream are enough to overcome a challenging situation. In July we virtually screened The Gender Line, a documentary film about a trasgender rockstar reflecting on his personal and professional life, having lived on both sides of the gender line. Finally, in August we offer a global screening of Cast in India, a glimpse into the working lives of the men behind iconic and ubiquitous manhole covers in New York City. Collectively over 1,000 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 2 new projects to our growing Fiscal Sponsorship Community: Untitled: An Abolitionist Game - a Digital Game and a Card Game rooted in the principles of abolitionism and transformative justice- Dividing Line a narrative film presenting the real-time journey of a young doctor, Lily, who breaks down under the psychological pressure of an accident case.
Also, KUSUNDA, a SIMA Fiscal Sponsorship Project won the Grand Jury Storyscapes Award at the Tribeca Film Festival this year. Congratulations!
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:
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