5 Must See 360 Videos On Inspiring Young Women

To mark International Women’s Month, we’ve compiled a list of five must-see documentaries featuring brave and inspiring women from all over the world.

From a young girl determined to receive an education while living under occupied territory in Palestine, to female carpenters defying gender norms in Pakistan, these 360 stories will take you into different worlds defined by resilience and strength.

Pakistan’s Women Carpenters

Perched high above Pakistan’s Hunza Valley, you can find a fort filled with over 100 women trained in the practice of carpentry, painting and polishing. Trained by Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan (AKCSP), these women often come from impoverished families and economic backgrounds. We meet two women, Shahida and Bibi, who tell us about the empowerment of taking control of their livelihoods and learning to provide for themselves and their families in what is typically a male dominant role.

Cleaning Up Lebanon’s Coastlines

We follow a young woman, Joslin Kehdy, who founded the project Recycle Lebanon in November 2015 as a response to Lebanon’s ongoing waste crisis. Passionate about the environment, Joslin first began the initiative as a beach clean-up group on Facebook, developing events from her home in Beirut. Now Recycle Lebanon is the main non-profit environmental organization in the country, connecting all the different environmental related initiatives within Lebanon.

Palestine’s Barbershop Turned Classroom

This 360 video follows a 7 year old Palestinian girl, Hanan, who is determined to continue going to school despite the challenges she faces. She is from Abu Al-Nawar, a Bedouin community that lies in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. As a result of the Israelis demolishing the only schools in the community, Palestinian children must walk at least 3 kilometers daily to get to the closest school, which for Hanan is now located in a barbershop for lack of a better space.

Not only does the 360 video follow an inspiring young girl who will stop at nothing to continue her education, it is also filmed by a talented young woman, Elia Ghorbiah, a freelance journalist and producer from the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank. Her work has been broadcast on Al Jazeera English, AJ+, Middle East Eye and others and often explores Palestinian issues.

Brazil’s People Without Fear

In this 360 video, we meet Mary Lane Dos Santos, an activist for housing rights in Brazil. In a São Paulo suburban area, Mary Lane Dos Santos, alongside 300 other people (“People Without Fear”), began squatting on 6,000 square meters of land that has been abandoned for 40 years. Due to lack of housing and high rents, thousands of Brazilians struggle with securing homes. Within only three months, the occupation of the territory grew into a cluster of 8,000 families. Their objective: occupy the place and reclaim their right to proper housing. This 360 video was also filmed and produced by women, including Priscila Guedes and Marlene Haberard.

Oil In Our Creeks

Lessi Phillips was only 16 years old in 2008 when a Shell Oil pipeline burst pouring an un-assessed amount of oil into the mangrove swamps near her village, Bodo City, Nigeria, for 77 days. The pipeline ran under the creeks of the Niger Delta and the leaking oil devastated the diverse ecosystem, destroying the vibrant local fisheries and farms. It pushed families like hers to find new places to live and sent a once thriving community into a downwards economic and social spiral. Nearly ten years later Lessi has graduated from university and returns to Bodo City where she shows us both the environmental devastation that has impacted her community and also the work that she does with young women to revive hope as the community grapples with its long road to recovery.