For her entire professional life, renowned ecologist Nalini Nadkarni pioneered climbing techniques to study "what grows back” after an ecological disturbance in the rainforest canopy. Now, after surviving a life-threatening fall from a tree, she must turn her research question onto herself in ord...

The life of legendary AIDS activist Ruth Brinker and her legacy of healing people through meals with love in San Francisco.

Director: Apo Bazidi
Producer: Burn A Light Productions

2022 | 23 min

USA

Languages: English

Subtitles: English, Spanish

In a Brazilian prison, the lives of five incarcerated mothers intertwine as they navigate the heart-wrenching reality of being separated from their babies. Currently, 63% of women in prison in the country are black and only 34% of them have completed primary school. The vast majority, 64%, are co...

Separated by years of immigration policy, a young girl dreams of meeting her grandmother for the first time. Thanks to the bi-national cooperation of governments on both sides of the US/Mexico border, her grandmother embarks on a once-in-a-lifetime journey to reunite with her undocumented loved o...

Set in the remote Alaskan Yukon Delta, Yukon Kings follows Yup'ik fisherman Ray Waska as he teaches his grandkids how to fish during the summer salmon run. With environmental and cultural forces threatening their subsistence way of life, Ray holds onto the hope that his grandsons will one day pas...

This short film tells the story of Mohammed Alsaleh, a young Syrian refugee granted asylum in Canada in 2014. After fleeing torture and imprisonment by the Assad regime, he is rebuilding his life. Mohammed counsels newly-arrived Syrian refugee families with the same Vancouver-based NGO that aided...

Anyone who has worked in a developing country in the last decade will have heard a similar story. Developers seize a valuable piece of land, throw the existing community out, and after protests ebb away, a new development arises: apartments, a mall, restaurants and stores for the newly wealthy. T...

Manal Yaish Zraiq wears many hats: businesswoman, manager, mentor, networker, and key force in one of the world’s most intriguing real estate developments. Manal is a key figure in the Rawabi project, the first planned city in Palestine and the largest private sector undertaking in Palestinian hi...

From black panthers to young philosophers, to Hasidic Jews, to journalists, to musicians, to CEOs, to the homeless, to kids with I-Pads, to ex- Wall Street members shouting ‘I don’t think it’s the people that are the problem, it’s the system and these bad incentives.” We were all the same and ins...

When doctors told Karen Aiach there was no cure for her daughter’s brain disease, she took matters into her own hands. With no scientific background, she created a gene therapy business that can fix the faulty genes in patients like her daughter. Now she’s racing against the clock to extend her d...

Since Monsanto began selling their patented "Roundup Ready" genetically modified (GM) seeds they have threatened to sue hundreds of farmers for patent infringement. Their heavy-handed investigations and ruthless prosecutions have been a relentless assault on the foundations of farming practices a...

Bicimaximo is a social enterprise with a heart of a non-profit organization. With a passion for bicycles, Baker Nicholaou – the director and co-founder of Bicicmaximo – traveled from the United States to Nicaragua to open up a business in hopes of providing better quality bikes while training loc...

Guna communities have long been recognized for protecting the forests along their coastline; despite significant threats from farming and industrial logging, they are proven protectors of their ancestral forests.

Today they face uncertainty over the sea that surrounds their island homes. Increas...

In the harsh environment of a Rhode Island men's prison, a group of fifty inmates are transforming their lives through the practice of meditation. Path of Freedom follows former inmate Fleet Maull as he visits prison to share his strategies for surviving on the inside. The film offers a rare glim...

A new model of conservation is emerging. It is one that values the role of local communities and reconciles protecting biodiversity with the use and management of resources. In the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Michoacán, communities play a vital role in conservation efforts and several ...

[Trigger Warning] The story of the Syrian revolution as told through the experiences of two young Syrians, a male rebel fighter and a female journalist, as they fight an oppressive regime for the freedom of their people.

Director & Producer: Matthew VanDyke

2013 | 14 min
USA | Syria
Language:...

The community of Lago do Mainá have lived with the forest and the river, nature for them is the most fundamental thing they have. However a military training base and increasing incursions by soldiers created tension between the community and the army. Through the use of social mapping the people...

Organic gardener and vegan chef Ietef Vita is an award winning international recording artist and activist who uses Hip-Hop culture to inspire young people to connect to the earth by teaching them how to grow food, and cultivate healthy eating habits. Through his lyrics and gardens, Ietef is plan...

Brazil’s African slave descendants, the Quilombola, have fought a long and hard struggle for recognition. After the abolition of the slave trade they were left abandoned and ostracised, devoid of rights and outside of Brazilian mainstream society. But things are slowly changing amongst rural comm...

In The Rise of a Superbug, Dr. Jayant Banavaliker, a leading TB doctor in Delhi, chronicles his daily struggle to save patients using today’s antiquated tools. The film also follows the harrowing story of Phumeza Tisile’s near-death experience with extensively drug-resistant TB, which takes place...

Detroit Hives follows Tim Paule and Nicole Lindsey, a young couple from East Detroit, who are working hard to bring diversity to the field of beekeeping and create opportunities for young Detroit natives to overcome adversity. It is estimated that Detroit has with well over 90,000 empty housing l...

Even a well-managed, recognised forest faces constant challenges but innovative drone GPS technology, cooperative campaigning, local government support and eco-tourism are helping the Setulang people thrive. They have shown that community rights, the environment and development go hand in hand.

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A SolarTurtle is a small or micro for-profit business operating close or inside a poor or rural community to provide the same services as a standard utility provider. Unlike standard utilities, SolarTurtles rely on renewable energy (RE) to generate the electricity sold to their customers. The Sol...

Citizen Next is part of “We the Voters: 20 Films for the People” which is a nonpartisan digital slate of 20 short films designed to inform, inspire and activate voters nationwide with fresh perspectives on the subjects of democracy, elections and governance in the lead up to the 2016 elections. W...