IWT Film Festival: Still We Rise Short Film Collection

Five powerful films. Five very different encounters with adversity. Still We Rise explores what it means to keep moving forward — through trauma, loss, injustice, illness and the struggles we don't always see. These are stories of resilience, connection and the extraordinary difference it can make when someone chooses to see, hear and stand alongside another person.

Sapphire & Song — Directed by Nikki Hevesey

When Sapphire begins a new chapter in the United States, a crisis back home dramatically reshapes her journey. Through an original song written for her sister, she transforms fear, separation and trauma into an intimate expression of resilience and connection. A music-driven documentary about identity, memory and belonging.

Fallen — Directed by Sam Joseph

Inspired by conversations with Killed Women and its Fallen Women campaign, Fallen confronts the devastating reality of femicide. Through a striking performance piece, the film transforms grief and injustice into a powerful call for visibility, remembrance and change.

Every Life Counts — Directed by Nathaniel James Ginn

Four women. One extraordinary bicycle. More than 4,000 kilometres across Australia. Four riders set out from Perth to Sydney on Australia’s first quad tandem bicycle with a simple mission: to start conversations about mental health and suicide. Over six weeks, they encounter people from all walks of life — some grieving loved ones, others carrying struggles of their own — and discover the power of simply giving people space to talk. Following both the communities they meet and the riders’ own deeply personal journeys, Every Life Counts is an uplifting road-trip documentary about the people behind the statistics and how one conversation can make a difference.

Syndrome — Directed by Yannick Barbara

Leo is a university student quietly navigating chronic illness and unresolved grief. As he moves through lectures, friendships and fleeting moments of connection, memories intrude upon the present. Syndrome is an intimate portrait of endurance and the often-invisible struggle of trying to hold yourself together when nobody else can see you falling apart.

My Name Is Joy — Directed by Alexandra Strunin

After being rescued from a human trafficking network, 20-year-old Joy, from Mozambique, finds herself in a shelter in a small Polish town. For the first time, she has the opportunity not simply to survive, but to begin rebuilding her life. Inspired by real experiences, My Name Is Joy is a moving story of a young woman reclaiming her voice, identity and agency after unimaginable trauma.

Together, Still We Rise reminds us that resilience doesn't always look like triumph. Sometimes it is finding the strength to keep going. Sometimes it is speaking when silence feels easier. And sometimes it begins with another person simply being willing to listen.