Story Type: Short Portray

A short portray film.

My Father’s Legacy

At 17 years old I became the family leader, as my father had passed away in 1997. Leaving me to look after my mother and 6 siblings. Before my father died my parents were assigned by state government to take care of a community with more than a 1,000 community members between 1979 and 1985. At that time, Cambodians leftover from khmer Rogue regime is about 6,000,000 persons only.
When I was a child and at school, civil war remained in my community and people were being killed and injured. One day a former government soldier was going to die and he held my hand and asked me to promise to take care of his children. He then died next to me. I was so young, I asked myself why was I given this job.

To this day I continue to dedicate my life’s work to supporting these communities by improving the livelihoods of families and the social infrastructure of these communities and prevent youth from falling victim to sex traffickers.

The Gift

My name is Rin Veasna, I was born in Svay Rieng province, Cambodia. I grow up in a small village and it was not easy for my family, as it was very challenging because we were very poor. It was difficult to get education and food. When I was 18 years old, I found Sao Sary Foundation and they were able to support me with accommodation and education. I learnt many skills to get a job and now 10 years later I have a successful job as General Manager. I owe my life to Sao Sary Foundation and I can now support my family in my home village.

Hoksan AN

I am Hoksan AN, I am really lucky that I was born and to grow up in Prek Toal located in Battambang province in Cambodia, with a beautiful and quiet floating village with our floating house, where is my life skills helped me to gain a tertiary education also working in nearby Siem Reap.

My parents and their parents were born in the floating village (Prek Toal). They are got married during the Polpot genocide.

There are 8 people in my family and I have five sisters. My two older sisters died during the Polpot genocide, so now I have only one older sister and two young sisters. My family is not rich and we have only fishing to support our life.

My village (Prek Toal) is a floating village. We have a dry season and a wet season for 6 months each. During dry season, the villager’s fish around the side of the Tonle Sap lake. In the middle the water is low – some places is 1 m, 2m and 3m deep. Some of them grow vegetables for eating and for sale. In the wet season, the water is very high and the villagers go fishing inside the forests, rivers, lakes…not in the middle of the Tonle Sap lake.

Love is My Medicine

Johan Danno has lived a life most dreamed of. Selling everything after college and leaving on a one-way ticket to Australia at 22, Johan left South Florida with a degree in marketing, IT, partying, surfing and music. Rising to the top as an IT consultant in the corporate world, a series of highs and lows personified in a moment that changed his life and inspired him to quit his career to become a travelling musician & songwriter.
Setting out chasing his dreams, Johan went from love to heartbreak, and from empty bars to packed shows with stages. A positive and happy face, his battles within and in private at times would rip him to shreds… until his work with plant medicines, meditation and spirituality, became his medicine for his anxiety, depression, and reason to create music.

Using breakdowns to inspire breakthroughs, it was performing and living on the road out of a suitcase meeting people from rich and successful, to liars and drug dealers, Johan discovered what connects us all, and the richness life has to offer when the journey matters more than the destination. It’s the unexpected turns. The moments shared with others we feel that is how we guide the ego, feed the soul, and bring light to keep us through our darkest moments.

Join us on a tale of an artist and poet in the truest sense, telling stories where passion, ambition, talent, anxiety, hope and depression cross into an inspiring journey told authentically. Vulnerable. Real insights from what it takes to chase your dreams, befriend your demons, and discover how to travel the distance from your head to your heart.

The Gathering

Maureen Pickstone began her life in a little town on the South Island of New Zealand 86 years ago. At the young age of 13, Maureen’s mother passed away and she had to leave school and raise her 4 siblings. Eventually travelling to Australia and surviving a marriage of 13 years of domestic violence, Maureen left her husband and discovered 40 acres of Virgin bush with no power or water. She worked the land for 2 years. The land healed her. In 2005 she opened her land to others by creating a healing space called Kupidabin Wilderness. A place of peace and harmony with the goal of helping to preserve the beliefs, traditions and ceremonies of indigenous cultures of Australia and world wide. Since 2007, Maureen has hosted the Bi- Annual Gathering of the Four Winds. A diverse group of Cultural Leaders, Teachers, Elders of Aboriginal, Hawaiian, Pacific Island, Maori, Native American come to share their Traditional Teachings.
Maureen also sponsors a program for high functioning ASD (Asperger’s Syndrome) students in her Cultural Centre on the land restoring their lives back to Peace and Harmony Learning Social and Life Skills.

Educating Communities

Education inspires and transform lives.
Inequity and inaccessibility affect our youngest and most at-risk disproportionately.
Indigenous and disadvantaged children are falling further behind academically as the digital divide widens and lockdowns close schools around Australia.
By connecting remote communities to qualified tutors and teachers, we can enable
societal and generational impact through individual personalised connection.
We aim to bring about systemic changes in equity, using the internet and technology to ensure our most disadvantaged young can access appropriate education, preparing them and providing opportunities for a positive future.

Warrior Within

A story of breaking generational patterns and stepping into your true personal power: your warrior within. As a child I remember trying to talk about the abuse but quickly learned it was taboo in the family. Fast forward to adult hood and I was still stuck in the same patterns. I was hiding in an abusive relationship and fighting depression. It was a dark time filled with a lot of inner turmoil. Something had to change. I had to ask the big question. What was I teaching my children about relationships on a generational level? During this time of transition I discovered essential oils and meditation. This was the birthing of my healing journey and reconnecting with my inner warrior. I was intuitively drawn to write a book about my healing experience to help heal multiply generations. By sharing my story of courage and hope, I honour my true self. We are continuously faced with challenges in our lives and have a choice to step into our personal power and embrace your warrior within.

Double Life

This story is about a person who lives two lives simultaneously in and out of home. He has people who he feels comfortable being himself around with, but also feels uncomfortable being himself around certain others. He identifies himself as a gay man, but is not full out of the closet. His parents are homophobic and yet he hasn’t told them the big truth. He wants to, but is afraid of the outcome. The protagonist pretends to be someone he’s not around his family, but is himself when around his friends. He’s been secretly dating a guy for over 2 years and is happy with him, but the fact that the relationship is kept as a secret from his family gradually eats him up day by day. Eventually, he comes out to his parents, and the result is not how he wanted to turn out. Sadly, the parents and their son haven’t been in contact with one another for years, but the protagonist has a steady life outside of family in terms of work, finance and relationships.

Build the social entrepreneurship movement

I’m a career social entrepreneur with a track record of building platforms, enterprises and partnerships that create change.

I’m driven by a desire to create a more participatory and responsive democracy, and a world where all communities have access to the tools, information and infrastructure to create the future they seek.

While at university I founded Vibewire Inc, to empower young Australians as changemakers and social entrepreneurs, and led it for the first 8 of its now 21 years.

During this time I raised over $1 Million, opened the first co-working space in Australia, convinced the Federal ALP and Liberal parties to allow youth reporters to follow the PM and Opposition Leaders during federal election campaigns and developed partnership with the Sydney Morning Herald, NSW Human Rights Commission and the City of Brisbane amongst others.

Vibewire won the UN’s World Summit Youth Award for Community Engagement in 2005 and I was made a Global Youth Action Fellow of the International Youth Foundation in 2007.

After four years working in the US, first as the first Digital Marketing Director for Ashoka then at Silicon Valley-based HopeLab, I founded StartSomeGood in 2011 with a mission to increase the pace of innovation for good.

StartSomeGood’s platforms and programs provide a roadmap for early-stage and aspiring social entrepreneurs looking to make a difference, helping them move from inspiration to action and impact.

We are very partnership-focused, working with ING, Optus, English Family Foundation, Ian Potter Foundation, UNDP, First Innovators and the Cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth amongst others.

Over ten years we have worked with thousands of social entrepreneurs, helping hundreds of projects/year launch through our platforms and accelerators and continuing to pioneer new ways of funding and growing impact enterprises, including the impending launch of the new blockchain-based crowd-lending platform LendForGood early next year.

Akili Australia

Akili is a Swahili noun. It means intelligence, resourcefulness, wit.
Since time immemorial, the Swahili language has connected different tribes, cultures and nations through commerce.

Akili aims to do the same; connect women with vastly different life experiences through their art, their unique styles and the products they make and use. By connecting artisans in Tanzania, Ecuador and Brazil with Australian consumers, we empower vulnerable women and their culture through commerce.

We offer carefully crafted ethical fashion accessories and homeware handmade in developing communities by social entrepreneurs. Each item makes a statement, and every piece aims to shape a better world for both user and maker, one product at a time.

My name is Fabiana. After working with female Social Entrepreneurs in Tanzania, I decided to create a platform to sell their handmade products in Australia with my partner Vlad da Cunha. We believe that by supporting artisans in the global arena, we preserve cultures at risk of disappearance. In our view, craftsmanship also provides a sustainable alternative to problematic industries, like fast fashion, whilst it empowers women in communities where their fundamental rights are often overlooked.

Designing a pathway to reduced crime

When it comes to true rehabilitation, statistics say that prison is, at best, 50% effective.
Imagine a world where prisons acted as education hubs in which inmates could learn the skills they need to find meaningful employment after their release.
This small but determined team is striving for just that – working side by side with those from a range of diverse and often disadvantaged backgrounds who have been incarcerated for a variety of reasons, to help give them another chance at life.
Their mission is to tap into the hidden potential of those who want to change for the better, make a real difference to these forgotten members of society and, in turn, make the community safer.

Victim To Empowered

Sexual abuse survivor Romecca Sawers displays her courage and inner strength as she moves through her journey in her life to rise and inspire many.