EngageMedia is providing extended impact campaign support to four filmmakers from across two editions of Tech Tales Youth. Following a competitive selection process, these filmmakers—from the Philippines and Thailand edition (2023-2024) and the Bangladesh and Malaysia edition (2024-2025)—have each been awarded an additional USD 1,000 to deepen their community engagement and digital rights advocacy work.
The Tech Tales Youth Impact Campaign Builder
As part of the Tech Tales Youth program, filmmakers applied the Tech Tales Youth Impact Campaign Builder, a strategic planning tool we developed specifically for this initiative. The Impact Campaign Builder guides filmmakers through a systematic process: from identifying what audiences take away from their films to defining concrete impact goals, connecting with key partners, categorising types of change, and finally planning specific activities and tasks.
During the initial phase of their impact campaigns, the Impact Campaign Builder revealed the vast potential for advocacy work around their films. However, the original USD 1,000 grant could only support a fraction of their planned activities. Thanks to the additional support from our funder, we are able to provide another USD 1,000 to each filmmaker—bringing the total impact grant to USD 2,000. While this amount remains small compared to other film impact grants in Southeast Asia, we believe it will meaningfully advance the digital rights advocacy at the heart of each film’s mission.
The Filmmakers and Their Extended Campaigns
Echoes of Exile (Bangladesh)
Director: Lamea Tanjin Tanha
This documentary-animation hybrid addresses how online extremism and digital harassment force hijra and transgender people into exile—both online and offline. Lamea and her collaborators will launch the Diversity & Films Forum/Collective, creating Bangladesh’s first sustained platform for LGBTQIA+ film dialogue and screenings with the extended grant. The forum will pair screenings of local and international queer films with conversations led by filmmakers, activists, and allies—filling a critical cultural gap in a country where queer narratives are systematically erased.
The Black Kite (Bangladesh)
Director: Taosin Md Bahadurshah Zafar
Set during Bangladesh’s 2024 internet shutdowns, this fiction film follows a disabled freelancer whose livelihood is devastated when digital access is severed. The extended campaign will feature “Stories of Resilience: PWD Voices on Shutdowns”, a series of facilitated conversations with persons with disabilities (PWD) about their experiences during internet blackouts. This activity highlights how shutdowns disproportionately affect PWD communities who rely on digital technologies for assistive tools, remote work, telehealth services, and social support networks.
Hai Anis (Malaysia)
Director: Azura Nasron
This fiction film exposes how online predators disguise manipulation as care and affection. With the extended grant, Azura will develop and distribute the Hai Anis Impact Toolkit, combining the film, lesson plans, and interactive materials. The toolkit will equip educators, parents, and youth workers with rights-based tools for comprehensive digital and sexual education, promoting awareness without resorting to censorship that undermines freedom of expression.
On Our Own Time (Philippines)
Director: Kat Catalan
This documentary reveals how delivery platform companies use algorithmic management to exploit workers, stripping them of rights and autonomy while maximising profits. The extended campaign will develop an activist toolkit on platform workers’ struggles that combines policy knowledge, workers’ lived experiences, and creative storytelling. Through study groups with riders, labour organisers, and digital rights activists, the toolkit will serve as a practical guide for platform workers to assess their working conditions and advocate for labour rights, positioning union organising as a concrete tool to navigate digital rights issues.
Timeline and Partnership Opportunities
All four filmmakers will implement their extended impact campaigns by December 2025. We’re actively seeking partnerships with organisations, cultural institutions, educational groups, labour unions, disability rights advocates, and digital rights networks that want to collaborate on these initiatives. Interested in partnering with us? Email us at [email protected]