How we do it
Film, Verify, Expose
Our methodology overcomes a fundamental problem with traditional human rights documentation: its failure to centre and elevate frontline voices and knowledge.
Many communities face significant security challenges when gathering the details of the violations they suffer, and verification and dissemination problems stymie their effectiveness and utility. We overcome this by developing close, enduring relationships with local activists and communities, reaching areas where the most vulnerable live and harnessing the power of local knowledge.
As civic space contracts and physical, digital, legal, and psychological attacks on human rights defenders increase, our responsibility to our partners and team members has never been greater. In-country, we work covertly to protect the identity of the activists we work with as well as our staff, and continuously update holistic security protocols that minimize risk.
Security
We equip local activists with the technology and training to capture compelling visual evidence of the human rights violations suffered by their communities.
We then put this evidence in the hands of those that can secure accountability and justice, including courts, policymakers, and the media – forcing perpetrators to answer for their actions.
Public disclosure of where and how we operate would place our teams at substantial and immediate risk, making them obvious targets, and would result in greater surveillance of all residents in the communities where we work. Therefore our public profile is deliberately limited and we do not publicize the countries where we work.
Courageous activists are often under-resourced and overexposed. With the right support the risks they face can be minimized, and they can share their story with the world, exposing what outsiders never could. We stay in the background, ensuring the world focuses on what they film instead of who we are.