Impact Filmmaking for Social Justice: Visions of Hope<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
Impact Days 2025 kicks off on 16th January with our annual public webinar on Impact Filmmaking for Social Justice. This year we explore the power and the challenges of promoting hopeful human rights narratives in documentaries and impact campaigns. <\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Lift-Like-a-Girl-Still-1-1280x720.jpg\")
Lift Like A Girl<\/em> from Mayye Zayed<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n \u201cHope is a discipline. We should not have a passive relation to hope, but we should be generating and creating\u00a0hope\u00a0–\u00a0that\u2019s the work of activists. We have to believe that a different world is possible.\u201d
\r\n–\tAngela Davis, Writer, philosophy teacher & human rights activist, FIFDH 2024<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nUplifting stories of success can inspire both hope and action. But in the process of crafting these stories, filmmakers, civil society organisations and journalists alike must ask themselves tough questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nHow best to balance hopeful narratives \u2013 stories of courage and resilience, of individuals and communities rising above adversity – with the realities of systemic poverty, persecution and oppression? How to keep conveying optimism whilst truthfully portraying protagonists\u2019 defeats? And how to avoid an oversimplification of complex issues in pursuit of a hopeful narrative?
We\u2019ll be exploring these with filmmakers and human rights communicators through the case study and panel discussion below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\nWebinar \u2013 Thursday 16th January 2025, 14:00-16:00 CET<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\nRegister here to watch and to send us your questions live<\/p>\n\n\n
\n \n \n Webinar registration<\/span>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n PROGRAMME<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nCase study with Q&A<\/strong>: Lift Like a Girl<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nLift Like a Girl<\/em> <\/a>tells the story of Zebiba, an Egyptian teenage girl dreaming to become a world champion weightlifter. With the guidance of her relentless coach, she emerges from a scrappy training camp in the streets of Alexandria to compete at international level. The film\u2019s impact campaign was in part conceived at Impact Days 2020 and has since reached a global audience through festivals, streaming platforms, mobile cinemas and on-the-ground initiatives. Director, Producer & Impact Producer Mayye Zayed talks us through the film\u2019s international campaign and answers your questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSpeake<\/strong>r:
Mayye Zayed (she\/her) \u2013 Director, Producer & Impact Producer, Lift Like a Girl<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\nModeration<\/strong>:
Ana Casta\u00f1osa (she\/her) \u2013 Head of Impact Days<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nPanel discussion: communicating hope in human rights<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nSpeakers<\/strong>:
Thomas Coombes (he\/him) \u2013 Founder, Hope-based Comms<\/em>
Adrian Kawaley-Lathan (he\/him) \u2013 Executive Director, Resilient Foundation
Juan Mejia (he\/him) \u2013 Director, Igualada<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nModeration<\/strong>:
Sophie Mulphin (she\/her) \u2013 Impact Days NGO Programme Manager<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n participants<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n \n Mayye
Zayed<\/div>\n \n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Mayye-Zayed-7-1-604x604.png\")
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n Director, Producer & Impact Producer, Lift Like a Girl\u00a0<\/div>\n Egyptian filmmaker Mayye Zayed, based in Berlin, has been working as a director, producer, impact producer, editor and cinematographer since 2010. Her documentary\u00a0Lift Like A Girl<\/em>\u00a0won Dok Leipzig’s Golden Dove Award and was the first Egyptian documentary released globally on Netflix. Her films have screened at top festivals including Berlinale, AFI Fest, Doc NYC, Toronto, Sao Paulo and Cairo.<\/p>\nA Fulbright scholar, she studied cinema at Wellesley College and Innovations in Documentary at MIT. She\u2019s an alumna of Berlinale Talents, Good Pitch, MFI, Global Media Makers, Documentary Campus Masterschool and American Film Showcase. She also served on film grant and award juries for Getty Images, IDA Awards, Aflamuna, and Hot Docs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n Thomas
Coombes<\/div>\n \n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/thomas_coombes_720.png\")
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n Founder, Hope-based Comms<\/div>\n Thomas Coombes is a freelance communications trainer and the founder of hope-based communication, a five-shift approach anyone can use to focus their work on the change they want to see.<\/p>\n
Thomas is on a mission to translate insights from brain science into a smart strategy for social change. He has worked in political communications for international organizations like Amnesty International, Transparency International and the European Commission.<\/p>\n
He writes about strategies for social change on\u00a0Substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and is preparing a\u00a0new membership platform<\/a> for changemakers for launch in mid-2025. He is specialised in human rights and post-colonial history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n Adrian
Kawaley-Lathan<\/div>\n \n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Adrian-Kawaley-Lathan-Profile_NB-604x604.png\")
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n Executive Director, Resilient Foundation<\/div>\n Adrian combines his expertise in peacebuilding, social impact storytelling and multimedia communications to transform apathy into action.<\/p>\n
He designs and directs programmes, productions and campaigns that enhance social engagement, build capacity and empower sustainable change towards positive peace and social harmony.<\/p>\n
Adrian is the Executive Director of the Resilient Foundation, a non-profit\u00a0that facilitates the funding and production of visionary storytelling that drives collective action towards a resilient world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n Juan
Mejia<\/div>\n \n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Juan-Mejia-604x604.png\")
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n Director, Igualada<\/div>\n Juan Mejia Botero is an award-winning film director with over 25 years of experience in feature documentaries.<\/p>\n
His work has focused primarily on human rights abuses and struggles for social justice around the world.<\/p>\n
He has worked extensively in Latin America, The United States and the Caribbean where he has directed and produced a number of films and documentary series on forced displacement, ethnic autonomy, race and racism, immigration, policing, state violence, and the competition for natural resources.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Uplifting stories of success can inspire both hope and action. But in the process of crafting these stories, filmmakers, civil society organisations and journalists alike must ask themselves tough questions: How best to balance hopeful narratives \u2013 stories of courage and resilience, of individuals and communities rising above adversity – with the realities of systemic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":30059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,26],"class_list":["post-30010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifdh","category-pro"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30010"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30637,"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30010\/revisions\/30637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Lift Like A Girl<\/em> from Mayye Zayed<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n Uplifting stories of success can inspire both hope and action. But in the process of crafting these stories, filmmakers, civil society organisations and journalists alike must ask themselves tough questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n How best to balance hopeful narratives \u2013 stories of courage and resilience, of individuals and communities rising above adversity – with the realities of systemic poverty, persecution and oppression? How to keep conveying optimism whilst truthfully portraying protagonists\u2019 defeats? And how to avoid an oversimplification of complex issues in pursuit of a hopeful narrative? Register here to watch and to send us your questions live<\/p>\n\n\n Lift Like a Girl<\/em> <\/a>tells the story of Zebiba, an Egyptian teenage girl dreaming to become a world champion weightlifter. With the guidance of her relentless coach, she emerges from a scrappy training camp in the streets of Alexandria to compete at international level. The film\u2019s impact campaign was in part conceived at Impact Days 2020 and has since reached a global audience through festivals, streaming platforms, mobile cinemas and on-the-ground initiatives. Director, Producer & Impact Producer Mayye Zayed talks us through the film\u2019s international campaign and answers your questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speake<\/strong>r: Moderation<\/strong>: Speakers<\/strong>: Moderation<\/strong>: Egyptian filmmaker Mayye Zayed, based in Berlin, has been working as a director, producer, impact producer, editor and cinematographer since 2010. Her documentary\u00a0Lift Like A Girl<\/em>\u00a0won Dok Leipzig’s Golden Dove Award and was the first Egyptian documentary released globally on Netflix. Her films have screened at top festivals including Berlinale, AFI Fest, Doc NYC, Toronto, Sao Paulo and Cairo.<\/p>\n A Fulbright scholar, she studied cinema at Wellesley College and Innovations in Documentary at MIT. She\u2019s an alumna of Berlinale Talents, Good Pitch, MFI, Global Media Makers, Documentary Campus Masterschool and American Film Showcase. She also served on film grant and award juries for Getty Images, IDA Awards, Aflamuna, and Hot Docs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n Thomas Coombes is a freelance communications trainer and the founder of hope-based communication, a five-shift approach anyone can use to focus their work on the change they want to see.<\/p>\n Thomas is on a mission to translate insights from brain science into a smart strategy for social change. He has worked in political communications for international organizations like Amnesty International, Transparency International and the European Commission.<\/p>\n He writes about strategies for social change on\u00a0Substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and is preparing a\u00a0new membership platform<\/a> for changemakers for launch in mid-2025. He is specialised in human rights and post-colonial history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n Adrian combines his expertise in peacebuilding, social impact storytelling and multimedia communications to transform apathy into action.<\/p>\n He designs and directs programmes, productions and campaigns that enhance social engagement, build capacity and empower sustainable change towards positive peace and social harmony.<\/p>\n Adrian is the Executive Director of the Resilient Foundation, a non-profit\u00a0that facilitates the funding and production of visionary storytelling that drives collective action towards a resilient world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n Juan Mejia Botero is an award-winning film director with over 25 years of experience in feature documentaries.<\/p>\n His work has focused primarily on human rights abuses and struggles for social justice around the world.<\/p>\n He has worked extensively in Latin America, The United States and the Caribbean where he has directed and produced a number of films and documentary series on forced displacement, ethnic autonomy, race and racism, immigration, policing, state violence, and the competition for natural resources.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Uplifting stories of success can inspire both hope and action. But in the process of crafting these stories, filmmakers, civil society organisations and journalists alike must ask themselves tough questions: How best to balance hopeful narratives \u2013 stories of courage and resilience, of individuals and communities rising above adversity – with the realities of systemic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":30059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,26],"class_list":["post-30010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifdh","category-pro"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30010"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30637,"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30010\/revisions\/30637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifdh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\r\n–\tAngela Davis, Writer, philosophy teacher & human rights activist, FIFDH 2024<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
We\u2019ll be exploring these with filmmakers and human rights communicators through the case study and panel discussion below.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWebinar \u2013 Thursday 16th January 2025, 14:00-16:00 CET<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
PROGRAMME<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Case study with Q&A<\/strong>: Lift Like a Girl<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Mayye Zayed (she\/her) \u2013 Director, Producer & Impact Producer, Lift Like a Girl<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ana Casta\u00f1osa (she\/her) \u2013 Head of Impact Days<\/p>\n\n\n\nPanel discussion: communicating hope in human rights<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Thomas Coombes (he\/him) \u2013 Founder, Hope-based Comms<\/em>
Adrian Kawaley-Lathan (he\/him) \u2013 Executive Director, Resilient Foundation
Juan Mejia (he\/him) \u2013 Director, Igualada<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sophie Mulphin (she\/her) \u2013 Impact Days NGO Programme Manager<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\nparticipants<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
Zayed<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
Coombes<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
Kawaley-Lathan<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
Mejia<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n