footnotes.¹

As Pride and Refugee Awareness Month come to a close, we are holding what they have stirred—grief, hope, fury, compassion— always compassion —and anchoring ourselves in the knowledge that these are not just commemorative months; they are part of our DNA at Footage. Solidarity, advocacy, voice, and the grit and determination to keep showing up are stitched into our daily work and our devotion to those still made most vulnerable by conflict, exile, erasure, and the loss of democratic values. Indeed, today, in the U.S. and far beyond, we are witnessing democracy itself— democracy built by those who care, by collective voice, by generations of movements, love, and tireless effort on behalf of humanity —bend under the weight of authoritarianism, greed, surveillance, and the calculated silencing of the very people it was meant to include, uplift, center. Each day, we witness destruction wrought by those who seek power at the expense of those with the least. Those who dare to speak out are si...