Amanda Bailly is an award-winning independent filmmaker with experience telling sensitive human stories that advocate for change. She has worked, both on-staff and as a consultant, for Human Rights Watch for more than a decade, and produced short films for Amnesty International, the United Nations, and others, while living and working in Beirut until the start of the pandemic. She now resides in upstate New York.

Amanda’s feature documentary 8 Borders, 8 Days (2017) highlighted the plight of one Syrian mother and her two kids as they fled the war in Syria for a new life in Europe. The film was given several awards on the festival circuit, and was the centerpiece of a global advocacy campaign to improve refugee policies. She traveled extensively, to big cities and small towns, to speak about refugee welcoming. The film is still used in high schools and universities curricula today.