Activist Lens

Four women fighting for abortion rights in Poland, a country with strict anti-abortion laws. One of them, Justyna Wydrzyríska, is criminally charged with ‘intent to aid an abortion’. While Justyna’s case attracts international attention, it also brings back her own past trauma and reveals deeply rooted motives for her ...

Furious about the pollution caused by open-pit coal mines in her home town, Natalia Zubkova takes her phone and starts filming. A local phenomenon at first, her fearless reporting soon reaches an ever-growing audience. But when the harassment begins, and her children are threatened, Natalia faces an impossible choice. ...

Nepalese Devi Khadka realises her story as a wartime rape survivor – like the stories of thousands of women like her – is being erased from history. She decides she won’t let that happen. In her thoughtful, quietly determined way, Devi takes her demand for accountability to the highest political level.   Between 1996 a...

South African housing rights group Reclaim the City is making a big noise for affordable housing in extremely segregated Cape Town. Led by charismatic Nkosikhona ‘Face’ Swartbooi, they take their non-violent fight to politicians, developers, and ultimately to court. A passionate portrayal of a true grassroots movement....

On the Indonesian island of Sumba, slavery is a living practice. Making a documentary about the subject, activist Jeremy Kewuan begins to follow the lives of three enslaved children kept by their 'master' Lucky. When one of the children disappears, Jeremy's quest to eradicate human trafficking becomes very personal. In...

Brave journalists in action in Mexico, where they are attacked, forced into exile and even murdered for trying to report the truth. In a country where drug cartels and the government are an almost equal threat, it takes a lot of courage to keep going. Inspiring documentary about true present-day heroes.   Since 2000, m...

A movement led by young Sudanese activists, artists and street poets resists military rule with hope and creativity. Followed over a period of four years after the removal of dictator Omar al-Bashir, their belief in a better future is unshakable, despite the country descending into repression and civil war. ‘If you giv...

The clans from the Wet’suwet’en territory in Canada are struggling to control their ancestral land, while the government and fossil fuel companies plan to build a pipeline across it. Two brave female Indigenous leaders spearhead the resistance, but the standoff gradually becomes more and more tense and violent. The Wet...