Iara Lee is a Brazilian of Korean descent, an activist, filmmaker, and founder/director of the Cultures of Resistance Network. She promotes global solidarity and connects and supports agitators, educators, farmers, and artists to build a more just and peaceful world through creative resistance and nonviolent action.
As a filmmaker, Iara has directed/produced several full-length documentaries and dozens of short films over the past decade. Her latest film, FROM TRASH TO TREASURE, is a short documentary on turning negatives into positives in Lesotho and will be released in June 2020.
Iara has also directed/produced other recent documentaries, including STALKING CHERNOBYL (2020),WANTOKS: DANCE OF RESILIENCE IN MELANESIA (2019),BURKINABÈ RISING (2018),and BURKINABÈ BOUNTY (2018).
She currently has three other projects in post-production: THE SAMI SONG OF SURVIVAL, THE SAMI IN RUSSIA, and BETTER MUST COME.
Iara has also completed several documentaries, including K2 AND THE INVISIBLE FOOTMEN (2015),LIFE IS WAITING: Referendum and Resistance in Western Sahara (2015),THE KALASHA AND THE CRESCENT (2013),THE SUFFERING GRASSES: when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers (2012),and CULTURES OF RESISTANCE (2010).
In May 2010, Iara was a passenger on the MV Mavi Marmara, a vessel in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that was attacked in international waters by the Israeli navy. Her crew was the only one to successfully hide and retain most of the raid footage, which she later released to the world after a screening at the United Nations.
Iara is dedicated to the support of Palestinian civilians who have been victims of war crimes committed by the Israeli military and who suffer from the Israeli government's ongoing acts of collective punishment.
In the past, Iara lived in Lebanon during the 2006 war and experienced firsthand the Israeli bombardment of that country. She has since dedicated herself to the pursuit of a just peace in the region and is an enthusiastic supporter of those initiatives which strengthen adherence to international law.
From 1984 to 1989, Iara was the producer of the Sao Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil. From 1989 to 2003, she was based in New York City, where she ran the mixed-media company Caipirinha Productions.
Iara is a long-time supporter of Greenpeace, Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, and many organizations around the world through the Cultures of Resistance Network.
