Spiking & Molka: Not only does Burning Sun: Exposing The Secret K-pop Chat Groups expose some famous K-pop stars who drugged, raped and humiliated women and shared videos of their horrendous actions in their secret chat groups, the doc reveals the tenacity of a female journalist who paid a high personal price for investigations.
Documentary Dir: X
Club Spiking: Reporter Daisy Maskell meets victims of spiking whose lives have been shattered and none of whom have seen their attacker brought to justice. In a ground-breaking experiment, Daisy finds out for herself how it feels to be spiked.
Documentary Dir: Rosemary Baker
#MeToo - The phrase "Me Too" was initially used by sexual assault survivor and activist Tarana Burke, on Myspace in 2006. Following the exposure of the widespread sexual-abuse allegations against American film producer Harvey Weinstein, in early October 2017, American actress Alyssa Milano posted on Twitter, "If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote 'Me too' as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem". Across social media and the world, the "Me Too" movement began to spread virally as a hashtag. By early November 2017, #MeToo had been retweeted 23 million times, in 85 countries.
Documentary Dir: Piers Garland
Sexual Abuse: Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of rape and sexual assault by courts in New York and Los Angeles, in 2023. This documentary, made prior to his conviction, features interviews of his victims of sexual abuse.
Documentary Dir: Ursula Macfarlane
Sexual Abuse: Surviving R. Kelly details sexual abuse allegations against American singer "R." Kelly. In 2022, R Kelly was found guilty of racketeering and sex-trafficking following a high-profile trial in New York and a 30-year sentence was imposed. He was also sentenced to 20 years in prison on child sexual abuse convictions by a Chicago court. Also check out Look Away (2021)
Documentary Dir:
Sexual Abuse: The Reckoning is a docudrama examining the sexual crimes of British eccentric DJ & TV personality, Jimmy Savile, with testimony from survivors. Over decades, Jimmy Savile exploited his celebrity status to prey on hundreds of girls and boys who he assaulted and raped in television dressing rooms, hospitals, children's homes, schools and his caravan.
Docudrama Dir: Sandra Goldbacher & David Blair
Rape & Murder: Brandon Teena was an American transgender man from from rural Nebraska who was kidnapped and raped by two former friends after they discovered his biological sex. After Brandon reported the rape to the local Police who pressed no charges, the two accused murdered Brandon and two of his friends.
Documentary Dir: Susan Muska & Gréta Ólafsdottir
Rape in the Forces: After the murder of Latina Army soldier Vanessa Guillen at Fort Hood military base, Karina Lopez creates a Facebook post with the hashtag #IamVanessaGuillen as she is a survivor of sexual assault on the very same military base. The post goes viral and hundreds of other soldiers open up to add their own experiences of abuse.
Documentary Dir: Christy Wegener
Gang Rape: Spanning over five years, Outlawed in Pakistan follows Kainat Soomro, a Pakistani teenager who accused four men of gang rape when she was 13 years, as she took her case to Pakistan's court in the hope of getting justice.
Documentary Dir: Habiba Nosheen & Hilke Schellmann
In 2012, a 23-year-old medical student Jyoti Singh Pandey, was brutally gang raped and murdered by the driver of the Delhi bus she was travelling on, and five accomplices. India's Daughter examines the values and mindsets of the rapists, and interviews the two lawyers who defended the men convicted of Jyoti's rape and murder.
Documentary Dir: Leslee Udwin
Rape: Seven Winters in Tehran tells the story of female student, Reyhaneh Jabbari, who was arrested for murder. In 2007 Tehran, Iran, 19-year-old Reyhaneh stabbed an alleged rapist in self-defence and was arrested for murder. Reyhaneh was sentenced to death by a criminal court in Tehran in 2009 and hanged, in 2014.
Documentary Dir: Steffi Niederzoll
Femicide: Honduras is purported to be the most dangerous country in the world for women. 19 year-old Miss Honduras Maria Jose Alvarado was shot dead, together with her sister, in 2014. Because of Maria's fame, the police investigated the murders, however, most cases of femicide in Honduras pass off un-investigated and unpunished.
Documentary Dir: Juju Chang
Femicide: One in three women in Turkey experience domestic violence while the number of femicides is soaring. Lawyer Ipek Bozkurt is part of a group of activists fighting to protect Turkish women against abuse and murder, by putting violent men behind bars. Her brave clients risk their lives to fight the culture of violence in court.
Documentary Dir: Chloe Fairweather
Morality Police: On 16 September 2022, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian girl, died in police custody. Accused of not wearing her hijab properly, Mahsa had been arrested by Iran's religious police. The authorities said she had died of a heart attack, but rumours spread that she had been beaten on arrest which sparked a wave of protests throughout Iran.
Documentary Dir: Majed Neisi
In September 2022, Nika Shakarami, a 16-year-old Iranian girl, attended a Woman, Life, Freedom protest in Tehran. Iconic photographs and videos were taken of her burning her hijab, on top of a car. That day Nika never came home. more than a week after she disappeared, her family eventually found her body in a mortuary. Iran’s government claim she jumped from a building. Purported to be an official document leaked to the BBC, records that the teenager was sexually assaulted and murdered by undercover agents working for Iran’s security forces.
Documentary Dir: Bertram Hill & Aida Miller
When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, in Afghanistan the lives and destinies of two young Afghani women, Raha and Marwa, were changed forever. Raha chose to stay in Kabul while Marwa with her husband fled to a refugee camp in Abu Dhabi.
Documentary Dir: Caroline Gillet & Denis Walgenwitz
In February 2018, Princess Latifa, the 32-year-old daughter of the ruler of Dubai escaped by setting sail for India with a plan to start a new life of freedom in America. Within days her boat was stormed by Indian commandos and she was captured and returned to Dubai.
Documentary Dir: Jane McMullen
Women's Education: In 2008, when the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan girls' schools were burned down. 15 year old Malala Yousafzai started fighting for the right of every child to receive an education by giving public speeches. One morning on the way to school, members of the Taliban boarded Malala's school bus, asked for her by name, and tried to assassinate her. Though Malala was critically shot on the left side of her head and she managed to survive but had to flee to England and live in exile because a fatwa was issued against her. She continues to put her own life in danger by speaking out against the Taliban and in 2014 was awarded the The Nobel Peace Prize.
Documentary Dir: Davis Guggenheim
Women's Education: In March 2022, the Taliban banned second level education for girls in Afghanistan, leaving around 1.1 million of them without access to formal schooling. Nine months later the Taliban banned all female students from attending universities and colleges. But across the country, BRAVE Afghan women and girls are continuing their education in secret.
Documentary Dir: Sana Safi & Paul Connolly
A group of enterprising women set up India's only newspaper run entirely by women - Khabar Lahariya. Led by women from the oppressed-caste, Dalit, they are expected to fail, but instead they stir a revolution and cover India's biggest issues. Note the Khabar Lahariya's response on seeing the documentary.
Documentary Dir: Rintu Thomas & Sushmit Ghosh
Under the mentorship of pop star and activist Aryana Sayeed two young singers are on the verge of being named the first-ever female winners of their country's hit TV show Afghan Star and then, the Taliban take over. Their lifelong dreams of becoming pop stars are suddenly under threat.
Documentary Dir: Fazila Amiri
Aged 19, rising star Mutlu Kaya, from a remote village in South East Turkey, reached the finals of Turkey’s Got Talent and stardom was within her reach. Days later she was shot by a man trying to abduct her - his motive: Mutlu rejected his marriage proposal. Against the odds, Mutlu survived, but with life-changing injuries and a bullet left in her brain.
Documentary Dir: Nick Read & Ayşe Toprak
Modern Day Slavery: From 1922 until 1996, at least 10,000 Irish "fallen girls and women" were housed in Magdalene Institutions and enslaved / forced to carry out unpaid labour in the Magdalene Laundries while being subjected to severe psychological and physical maltreatment. Still today, attempts are being made to try to silence the victims of the Magdalene Laundries.
Documentary Dir: Gerry Gregg
On 24 April 2013, the eight-storey Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people died and 2,400 were injured. The Rana Plaza housed sweat-shop factories that were making clothes for many western companies. Not only do survivors tell their remarkable stories of survival and escape they reveal how the incredible growth in the garment industry has impacted Bangladesh, and the impact of modern day slavery.
Documentary Dir: Zara Hayes
'UDITA' (Arise) journeys through five turbulent years in the lives of female garment workers in Bangladesh, from: 2010, when the unions' female members were beaten, sacked and even arrested; through the tragedies of 2012 Tazreen Fashion factory fire on the outskirts of Dhaka and the 2013, Rana Plaza building collapse up to 2015.
Documentary Dir: Hannan Majid & Richard York
Three young well-off Norwegian fashion bloggers spend a month living the life of garment workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. As well as working in garment factories, they have to survive on $3 a day. Two of the fashion bloggers return to Cambodia for their follow-up doc Sweatshop: The Hunt for a Living Wage in an attempt to hold H&M accountable to their stated production policies.
Documentary Dir: Joakim Kleven
The kafala system is a legal framework that gives companies and private citizens in Jordan, Lebanon, and most Arab Gulf countries almost total control over migrant workers' employment and immigration status. Maid in Hell follows employment agents and domestic maids who struggle to leave their employment.
Documentary Dir: Søren Klovborg