In Beyond Assignment, we see the approaches and personalities of three photographers as they work on longterm projects in their respective countries of Mexico, South Africa and Israel. That they are women should not matter, at the same time it is extremely important. Through these women we learn lessons of how to see, what is important in story telling, and examples of commitment to their subjects. In one case the photographer has become an activist with intrepid spirit, with another we see an empathetic eye trying to make sense of violence plaguing a neighborhood and how people deal with it, and with the third we see how religion manifests itself in peoples' lives.