After watching most of the movies, I found the ones that stood out most were documentaries that haunted me for days afterward. Such is the case with the opening film, “On Her Shoulders.” It follows the young activist Nadia Murad, who survived genocide and sexual slavery when the Islamic State took over the homeland of the Yazidi, an ethnic minority in northern Iraq, in 2014.

Ms. Murad, spearheading a campaign to bring justice to fellow Yazidi victims, travels the world sharing her story in an effort to enlist global leaders to to her cause. But the work takes a toll on her; she relives the trauma every time someone apologetically asks her to describe what she endured. Even though Ms. Murad says she just wants to return to her past life as a “village girl,” she persists because she sees nothing being done about the plight of her community.

Khatera, the 23-year-old woman at the center of “A Thousand Girls Like Me,” shows the same resoluteness. Khatera’s father physically and sexually abused her for more than 13 years. After several aborted pregnancies, she is raising a daughter and a son.

Despite several attempts to file charges, Khatera is only taken seriously when she tells her harrowing story on national television. Her father lands in prison awaiting trial, but she and her mother are still threatened by his relatives for “tarnishing their reputation.” The raw, heartbreaking film, directed by the Afghan filmmaker Sahra Mani, shows the double threat of a broken judicial system and ingrained oppressive and sexist attitudes. But the uplifting ending (no spoilers here) offers a glimmer of hope.