About the Director
Iara Lee, a Brazilian of Korean descent, is an award-winning filmmaker, an activist and founder/director of the Cultures of Resistance Network, an organization that promotes global solidarity and connects and supports agitators, educators, farmers, and artists to build a more just and peaceful world through creative resistance and nonviolent action! As a filmmaker, Iara has directed/produced 3 award-winning full-length documentaries out of 8 and dozens of short films over the past decade.
Her latest feature documentary film, entitled Stalking Chernobyl (2020), examines the underground culture of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone three decades after the world’s most infamous nuclear disaster. Her award-winning documentary Burkinabè Rising (2018), about the intersection of art and politics in Burkina Faso has won Best Documentary Award at Winter Films Awards 2018 USA, Audience Award at Festival of Tolerance, CROATIA, UNESCO Special Award at Afrika Film Festival-Belgium, Best Documentary award at 16th Ischia Film Festival-Italy.
In 2015, Iara completed and released two award-winning documentaries: Life is Waiting chronicles the conflict over self-determination in Western Sahara received Best Documentary at Zimbabwe International Film Festival, World Award of Merit at World Film Awards in Indonesia, Merit Award of Awareness at Awareness Film Festival in United States and several other awards and nominations. K2 and The Invisible Footmen, shot in stunning northern Pakistan, chronicles the plight of the indigenous porters of majestic K2, the earth’s second-highest peak. The film won 36 International awards including Audience Award at Pakistan International Mountain Film Festival in Lahore, Best Film at Rio Mountain Festival in Brazil, Best Documentary at Salento International Film Festival in Italy, Best Cinematography Award and Best Sound & Editing Award at Jaipur International Film Festival in India and several Official Selections.
In 2012, Iara directed The Suffering Grasses: when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers, which examines the Syrian conflict through the humanity of the civilians who have been killed, abused, and displaced to the squalor of refugee camps.
