footnotes.¹

Since November 2024, Footage Foundation (Footage) funded by the U.S. Embassy in the Kyrgyz Republic, has been working with El Agartuu Public Association on a collaborative program to prevent and end intersectional violence across Kyrgyzstan. The first phase of the program was to conduct a needs assessment by consulting with government employees, non-governmental organization (NGO) employees and survivors/victims of violence. From December 2024 through January 2025, 108 people responded to the research. Footage and El Agartuu presented initial findings and insights at a webinar on June 17th, 2025. Key findings revealed that 73% of victims of violence suffer with poor mental health and seek counselling, while 44% reported that they avoid seeking help due to fear, stigma, or mistrust of authorities. Meanwhile, nearly 70% of government staff reported they’ve never received formal training on gender-based violence. The webinar provided an opportunity for discussion on how to build allian...

On this World Refugee Day, we are holding space for the  120+ million people —human beings with hearts and minds, just like me, just like you—who have been forcibly displaced from their homes, lives, dreams, and those they love. This means  1 in every 67 people on Earth  is now forcibly displaced. One in every 67 souls— whose stories are not only ignored or erased, but increasingly distorted, criminalized, and turned against them.  And far too often, we are taught to dehumanize. And once we do, brutality becomes easier to justify. This month, which holds both Pride Month and Refugee Awareness Month, we are reminding all who will listen that people are forced to flee  war, fascist regimes, criminalized identities, and the violence sanctioned not only by states, but by neighbors, systems, and silence. Heartbreakingly, unbearably, we are watching hateful narratives grow louder across the globe. Refugees are being criminalized. Families are being separated...

In June, as   Pride  and   Refugee Awareness Month  converge, we are reminded that for many in the LGBTQIA+ community—especially trans people—identity can be the reason for exile. Sometimes it’s not war or disaster that drives someone to flee,  but the threat—and often, state-sanctioned violence—that comes from simply existing. That is what we mean by  identity violence:  being targeted, silenced, or forced to flee because of who you are—because of the intertwined aspects of your identity, including gender, race, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, or other core truths. Identity violence refers to the harm, threat, or persecution someone faces simply for existing—for being seen as wrong, dangerous, or disposable. At Footage, this intersection is not symbolic. It is where we live and work every day—at the edges where queerness, migration, survival, and the urgent need for radical imagination meet. Across the globe, we are witnessing not just the erosion of ...