Link Voices

Every year tens of thousands of people are driven by grinding poverty and conflict to leave their homes in Central and South America and journey through Mexico towards the U.S. They brave one of the world’s most dangerous journeys, traveling along a stretch of desert called the “corridor of death,” for the chance of a better, more secure life for themselves and their families.

On the front line of the Syrian war, 30-year-old Commander Arian guides a female battalion towards the city of Kobane to release its people from the grip of ISIS in Alba Sotorra’s empowe- ring tale of emancipation and freedom.

Sepideh is a young Iranian woman who dreams of becoming an astronaut. At night, she stares up at the sky while taking lessons from a space fanatic who teaches schoolchildren about astronomy. At home, full of hope and longing, she watches recordings of the world's first female space tourist, Iranian-American, Anousheh Ansari.

When Sepideh's father died suddenly six years ago, she discovered that she could feel closer to him by watching the stars, and so her dream was born. But not everyone around her appreciates her boundless ambition.

In 1994 Rwanda suffered a devastating genocide. Close to a million were killed by neighbors, friends, even family.

The country has made great strides in economic recovery since then, but "people are not like roads and buildings" says Kiki Katese, pioneering Rwandan theater director. "How do we rebuild a human being?"

Kiki decided to start Ingoma Nshya, Rwanda's first and only women's drumming troupe, open to women from both sides of the conflict. There was only one requirement: to leave the categories of the past at the gate.

The West African country of Mali is a birthplace of the blues, a musical tradition later carried by the transatlantic slave trade to America's cotton fields. Yet today, the music and musicians of Mali are in grave danger. As fundamentalist Islam and sharia law become more widespread, dance and secular music are prohibited, musical instruments are destroyed, and musicians are forced to flee their homeland.