Today YouTube and Global Fund for Women launched “Fundamental. Gender Justice. No Exceptions” – a brand new five-episode documentary series that follows dynamic activists from five countries who are disrupting the status quo and radically altering the course of history. What does it really look like to be a feminist leader in 2020? Partnering with Refinery29 on the series, the first episode of “Fundamental”, titled Rights Not Roses, which focuses on ending child, early and forced marriages in Pakistan, premieres today on Refinery29’s official YouTube channel and YouTube.com/Learning.

“Fundamental” is a character-driven documentary series that invites global audiences to engage directly with grassroots movements who are standing up for our fundamental human rights. Each episode profiles a distinct set of remarkable leaders mobilizing to write new futures for themselves, their societies, and the world – working on issues from ending child marriage in Pakistan, to pursuing LGBTQI+ liberation in Georgia, and racial justice in the United States. 

Watch “Fundamental. Gender Justice. No Exceptions” Episode 1: Rights Not Roses

The series is from Global Fund for Women and directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, two-time Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker. Her most recent film, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, won the 2016 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject and was screened for the Pakistan’s Prime Minister and government officials to raise the need for an anti-honor killing bill, which was subsequently passed in Parliament. In the past 15 years, she has made over a dozen award-winning films in more than 10 countries around the world, working with refugees and marginalized communities from Saudi Arabia to Syria and from Timor Leste to the Philippines. She runs SOC Films, a production house in Karachi, Pakistan, which specializes in investigative and socially motivated content, and an animation studio.

Presented by YouTube Originals, the series is a production of SOC Films and Global Fund for Women in association with Fork Films and Secret Sauce Media. Executive Producers include Julie Parker Benello (Secret Sauce Media), Catherine King (Global Fund for Women), Abigail E. Disney (Fork Films), Maria Nunez, Susan Sherrerd, Patty Quillin, and Lynda Weinman. The project has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts and Levi Strauss Foundation.

“Fundamental” joins a growing slate of YouTube Originals focused on learning. Other projects include “Could You Survive the Movies?” hosted by Vsauce3’s Jake Roper; “Mind Field: What is the Scariest Thing?” with Vsauce creator Michael Stevens; “Glad You Asked” from Vox Media Studios, “Retro Tech” with Marques Brownlee and “The Age of A.I.” with Robert Downey Jr.  “Fundamental” and “Creators for Change with Michelle Obama: Girls’ Education” are two YouTube Originals projects focused on empowering women and girls globally in the month of March and beyond.

Global Fund for Women envisions a world in which movements for gender justice have transformed power and privilege for a few into equity and equality for all. As a feminist fund, we offer flexible support to a diverse group of partners—more than 5,000 groups across 175 countries so far—to create meaningful change that will last beyond our lifetimes. To learn more about our work, visit www.globalfundforwomen.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.