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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.
Carrying the personal and collective experience of the internet shutdown in Bangladesh, Taosin Md. Bahadurshah Zafar went on to create The Black Kite, a film produced under EngageMedia’s Tech Tales Youth film collection and mentorship program.
Hai Anis, by Azura Nasron, is not just a film. It is a warning. A refusal to look away. A confrontation with a truth too many refuse to acknowledge: that grooming does not begin with violence—it begins with kindness.
For filmmaker Intan Sakinah, stories hold the power to unravel prejudice. Her film A Jar of Light (Balang Terang), part of Tech Tales Youth 2, takes a critical look at how racial bias spreads in digital spaces and its tangible consequences in the real world.
Ishtiyak Ahmed Zihad, a young filmmaker based in Bangladesh, captured the chaos and uncertainty of the July uprising in Bangladesh in his short film “Whispers of the Ink”. A Film and Media Studies