Movies: Activist

The story of Myo Myint, a political prisoner, who made the transformation from being a soldier in Burma's junta to a pro-democracy activist....

The story of Dame Whina Cooper, the beloved Māori matriarch who worked tirelessly to improve the rights of her people, especially women. Flawed yet resilient, Whina tells the story of a woman formed by tradition, compelled by innovation, and guided b...

A group of highly motivated activists work for years with the goal of exposing the true face of the Nordic fur industry. They sneak into hundreds of fur farms. When their images are publicized it causes media feasts and public outrage, year after yea...

In 1969, Sawada is filled with idealism that permeated that era and starts working as a gonzo journalist for a weekly magazine. Two years later, Sawada interviews activist Umeyama with senior reporter Nakahira. Umeyama boasts that his group will stea...

Rita Semel, interfaith pioneer and Jewish activist, is a recipient of the San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Awards "for her life-long successes in creating healthy, just, and inclusive communities in the Bay Area and worldwide. She builds...

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Letter from Tokyo is a documentary film that looks at art, culture and politics in Tokyo, Japan. Shot over three months during the summer of 2018, and with a particular focus on grass roots arts initiatives, the use of public space, and queer politic...

Indonesian activist Soe Hok Gie experiences a political awakening during the tumultuous regimes of Soeharto and Soekarno....

The San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Awards presents Bishop Yvette A. Flunder, founder and director of Ark of Refuge, with the Robert C. Kirkwood Award for courageously addressing the issues of HIV/AIDS prevention, response, and care wit...

Since her debut at the age of 18, musician, civil rights campaigner and activist Joan Baez has been on stage for over 60 years. For the now 82-year-old, the personal has always been political, and her friendship with Martin Luther King and her pacifi...

Revolutionary at 21. Lawmaker at 23. Most Wanted at 26. With intimate access to the leaders of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution, Who is Afraid of Nathan Law? chronicles one of the world’s most famous dissidents in his fight for democracy against a sup...

Three young people—Haris, a gay painter; Vishnu, a rural kabaddi player and their friend Sia, an activist who refuses to conform to dominant norms of femininity—struggle to find space and happiness in a conservative Indian city....

The San Francisco Foundation 2013 Community Leadership Awards presents Nancy Hom with the Helen Crocker Russell Award, made to an under-recognized, mature artist who has made a significant and ongoing contribution in the Bay Area. Nancy Hom, has used...

The Road to Home (2015), tells the story of Benny Wenda, the Nobel Peace Prize nominated West Papuan independence leader, in his ongoing struggle to free his people from Indonesian colonial rule. Since his dramatic escape from an Indonesian prison in...

The film tells the story of 25-year-old Urmila Chaudary from Nepal. At the age of six she was sold by her family and was forced to work as a slave under appalling conditions for 12 years. Her dream is to end child slavery in Nepal. To this end she fi...

A documentary account by award-winning filmmaker John Ferry of the events that led up to the 1969 Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island as told by principal organizer, Adam Fortunate Eagle. The story unfolds through Fortunate Eagle's remembra...

The San Francisco Foundation 2013 Community Leadership Awards presents Reverend Michael McBride with the John R. May Award, made for initiatives in response to a significant contemporary problem. Reverend Michael McBride has tirelessly sought to addr...

The movie explores Judy Heumann’s efforts to plan the 504 Sit In in San Francisco, an important protest that led to standardizing rights for the disabled....

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A growing group of Dutch people in their twenties see the earth becoming less livable. They join the climate group Extinction Rebellion and campaign to fight the climate crisis. There is little they shy away from in their struggle: nightly campaigns,...