WITNESS is a Brooklyn-based human rights organization that empowers activists and grassroots communities to use video and technology for social change, with a focus on safe, ethical, and impactful documentation of human rights abuses. Their work bridges grassroots activism and legal frameworks by offering guidance on filming practices that make footage admissible as evidence in court, particularly in cases related to immigration, police violence, and incarceration, as with their Eyes on ICE initiative seen in the below videos.

nDigiDreams: nDigiDreams, co-founded by Brenda Manuelito and Carmela Rodriguez, is a Native-owned media organization that specializes in Indigenous digital storytelling as a means of healing, empowerment, and cultural preservation. Grounded in Navajo cosmology and ceremonial practice, nDigiDreams indigenizes the digital storytelling process by integrating traditional knowledge systems, story circles, and the sacred four directions framework into their workshops. Their work emphasizes storytelling as medicine, offering a participatory process that honors ancestral knowledge, community resilience, and personal transformation. The organization works extensively across tribal communities in the U.S., often with elder women, to co-create short digital stories that address issues like boarding school trauma, substance abuse recovery, food sovereignty, and surviving cancer or COVID-19.

• State of Fear: The Truth about Terrorism (2005)
  Based on the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, this documentary explores how President Alberto Fujimori used the threat of terrorism to justify authoritarian rule and human rights abuses during the 1990s.
  
  
• Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)
  Investigates U.S. torture practices in the War on Terror, focusing on the story of an innocent Afghan taxi driver killed in custody.
  
  
• The Act of Killing (2012)
  Explores the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 by having perpetrators reenact their crimes in cinematic styles.
  
  
• The Look of Silence (2014)
  Companion to The Act of Killing, this film follows a victim’s family confronting the men responsible for their brother’s murder.
  
  
• Welcome to Chechnya (2020)
  A harrowing look at activists working to rescue LGBTQ+ people from persecution in Chechnya, using cutting-edge facial anonymization to protect identities.

• Filmmaker to Correct 1983 Film on Guatemala War
  
  ​In a 2014 statement, filmmaker Pamela Yates acknowledged a significant error in her 1983 documentary When the Mountains Tremble, which had depicted the Batzul massacre as perpetrated by the Guatemalan military. Subsequent investigations and human rights reports revealed that the killings were actually carried out by the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), a leftist rebel group, in retaliation against villagers collaborating with the government. Yates committed to correcting this misrepresentation in both the original film and its 2011 follow-up, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, to accurately reflect the complexities of Guatemala’s civil conflict and honor the victims’ accounts.

• Principles, Publicity, and Politics: Notes on Human Rights Media by Meg McLagan (2003)
  
  This article examines the role of media in shaping human rights discourse, emphasizing that media do more than disseminate information—they actively construct the frameworks through which human rights are understood and acted upon. She critiques the tendency to view human rights media as neutral conveyors of truth, arguing instead that they are embedded in political processes and power relations. The article calls for a more nuanced understanding of how media practices influence the visibility and legitimacy of human rights claims.
  
  
• Action, Organization, and Documentary Film: Beyond a Communications Model of Human Rights Videos by Livia Hinegardner (2009)
  
  This article challenges the conventional “communications model” of human rights videos, which separates the roles of local communicators and external actors. Through analysis of two films responding to human rights abuses, she demonstrates that the process of creating and distributing these videos is itself a form of political action. The article highlights how documentary filmmaking can serve as a participatory practice that empowers communities and fosters social change.
  
  
• Media Witness: Human Rights in an Age of Digital Media by Daniel Joyce (2013)
  
  This article explores how digital technologies—particularly citizen media and social platforms—are reshaping the practice of witnessing in human rights advocacy. He examines both the empowering potential of these tools for documentation and engagement, and the challenges they pose, such as the assumption that technology alone drives change, and concerns about whether the evidence they produce can be trusted.
  
  
• Cameras Everywhere Revisited: How Digital Technologies and Social Media Aid and Inhibit Human Rights Documentation and Advocacy by Sam Gregory (2019)
  
  This article examines the dual role of digital technologies and social media in human rights work. While these tools have expanded participation and documentation efforts, they also introduce challenges such as safety risks, misinformation, and declining trust in traditional sources.