Film Guide

Born into Brothels, Directed by Zana Briski, USA/India, 2004, 85 mins.

British filmmaker Zana Briski’s Oscar-winning documentary is a portrait of several unforgettable children who live in Calcutta’s red-light district, where their mothers work as prostitutes to ensure their survival. Spurred by the kids’ fascination with her camera, Briski decides to teach them photography. As they begin to look at and record their world through new eyes, the kids awaken to their own talents and sense of worth. Bengali and English with English subtitles.

Available on amazon, Google Play, YouTube, etc. for personal use.

Child Brides, Stolen Lives, USA, 2007, 60 mins.
In the Emmy nominated documentary, PBS NOW takes an unprecedented inside look at a global custom that devastates girls’ lives and holds back communities.

Available for free streaming, plus additional related resources at:
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/341/video.html

Children of War, Directed by Brian Single, USA, 2010, 75 mins.

A unique and incandescent documentary which follows a group of former child soldiers as they undergo a process of trauma therapy and emotional healing while in a rehabilitation center. (Awards)

Available on DVD and streaming via New Day Films: https://www.newday.com/film/children-war

Sex Trafficking in America, Directed by Jezza Neumann, USA, 2019, 55 mins.
Produced as part of PBS’s Frontline, Sex Trafficking in America tells the unimaginable stories of young women coerced into prostitution – and follows one police unit that’s committed to rooting out sexual exploitation.

DVD: $49.50 (PBS)
Available for free streaming, plus additional related resources at: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/sex-trafficking-in-america/

The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan, USA, 2010, 57 mins
PBS: Frontline. In Afghanistan today, in the midst of war and endemic poverty, an ancient tradition — banned when the Taliban were in power — has re-emerged across the country: Many hundreds of boys, often as young as 11, are being lured off the streets on the promise of a new life, many unaware that their real fate is to be used for entertainment and sex. With remarkable access inside a sexual exploitation ring operating in Afghanistan, an Afghan journalist investigates this illegal practice, talking with the boys and their masters, and documenting how the Afghan authorities responsible for stopping these crimes are sometimes themselves complicit in the practice.

Available for free streaming, plus additional related resources at:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/dancingboys/

Machines, Directed by Raul Jain, India/Germany/Finland, 2016, 71 mins.
With rare access to the guarded world of sweatshops, Rahul Jain brings us into one of the thousands of textile mills in heavily industrialized Sachin, India. Moving through the corridors and bowels of an enormous and disorientating structure, the camera takes the viewer on a descent down to a dehumanized place of physical labor and intense hardship. This gigantic textile factory in Gujarat, India might just as well be the decorum for a 21st century Dante’s Inferno. In his mind-provoking yet intimate portrayal, director Rahul Jain observes the life of the workers, the suffering and the environment they can hardly escape from. With strong visual language, memorable images and carefully selected interviews of the workers themselves, Jain tells a story of inequality, oppression and the huge divide between rich, poor and the perspectives of both. In Hindi with English subtitles.

Kino Lober: https://www.kinolorber.com/product/machines-dvd_1
Personal use DVD: $17.47
DVD with Classroom Rights: $9.99-$14.95
Institutional purchase: $349-$499

Available on Netflix, amazon, etc. for personal use.

I am Jane Doe, Directed by Marie Mazzio, USA, 2016, 99 mins.
Called “a gripping legal thriller” (Esquire), “a powerful call to action” (The Los Angeles Times), “the rare social-issue documentary that has an effect” (The Washington Post), I AM JANE DOE chronicles the epic battle that several American mothers are waging on behalf of their middle-school daughters, victims of sex-trafficking on Backpage.com, the adult classifieds site that for years was part of the Village Voice. Reminiscent of Erin Brockovich and Karen Silkwood, these mothers have stood up on behalf of thousands of others, fighting back and refusing to take no for an answer. It is a gut-wrenching human story and fresh look at a social and legal issue that affects every community in America. The voices of these mothers and their children, amplified by I AM JANE DOE, has helped to catalyze legislation which recently passed overwhelming in the House and Senate (97-2) and was signed by the President on April 11, 2018. The OECD, which invited Mary to speak about the issue of online harm, moved to amend its charter documentation, so that human rights violations and harm to children happening online are addressed as the organization moves forward to establish global policy for online platforms.

Institutional online streaming license anytime: $245 https://vimeo.com/ondemand/iamjanedoeedu

Available on Netflix, amazon, etc. for personal use.

Not My life, Directed by Robert Bilheimer, USA, 2012, 64 mins.
Filmed on five continents, in a dozen countries, NOT MY LIFE takes viewers into a world where millions of children are exploited, every day, through an astonishing array of practices including forced labor, domestic servitude, begging, sex tourism, sexual violence, and child soldiering. Challenging though it may be, NOT MY LIFE’s message is ultimately one of hope. Victims of slavery can be set free and go on to live happy and productive lives. Those who advocate for slavery victims are growing in numbers, and are increasingly effective. At this crossroads for the defining human rights issue of our time, NOT MY LIFE tells us, as the late Jonathan Mann said, “We can no longer flee, no longer hide, no longer separate ourselves.”

DVD: $95 Available for educational purchase at https://www.notmylife.org/watch

Available on amazon prime and Vimeo. for personal use.

Tales from the Organ Trade, Directed by Ric Esther Bienstock, 2016, 82 mins.

This film is a gritty and unflinching descent into the shadowy world of black-market organ trafficking: the street-level brokers, the rogue surgeons, the impoverished men and women who are willing to sacrifice a slice of their own bodies for a quick payday, and the desperate patients who face the agonizing choice of obeying the law or saving their lives. (Awards)

The Apology, Directed by Tiffany Hsiung, USA, 2016, 104 mins.
Winner of a Peabody award, a duPont-Columbia award, and named Best Documentary at the Busan International Film Festival, THE APOLOGY follows the personal journeys of three former “comfort women” who were among the 200,000 girls and young women kidnapped and forced into military sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
Seventy years after their imprisonment in so-called “comfort stations,” Grandma Gil in South Korea, Grandma Cao in China, and Grandma Adela in the Philippines are facing their twilight years. After decades of living in silence and shame about their experiences of institutionalized rape and sexual slavery, in THE APOLOGY they give first-hand accounts of the truth. They are seeking an apology, and hope that this horrific chapter of history will not be forgotten.

Icarus Films: http://icarusfilms.com/if-ap
Rent: $3.99
Institutional online streaming license anytime: $348
Personal use DVD: $29.98

The Dark Side of Chocolate, Directed by Miki Mistrati and U. Roberto Romano, Denmark, 2010, 46 mins.
Children in Germany eat chocolate every day of the year. They enjoy the delicious taste of cocoa, which originated in africa. But behind the production of their delicious treats, there is another taste altogether: the taste of child abusers and child slavery. In this film, directors Mistrati and Romano bring the chocolate makers to book, and confront them with our visual evidence. They reveal the conditions under which the apparently innocuous chocolate bar is produced, and thereafter follow the coco beans’ route from the plantation to the chocolate bar in Germany, all with the consumer oblivious to the full story behind what their chocolate bar actually contains. In the process, those responsible are held accountable. The Dark Side of Chocolate is a journalistic documentary which revealed for the first time on film the hideous truth behind the manufacturing of german and international chocolate, as sold and enjoyed in Germany and the rest of the world.

Available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/7Vfbv6hNeng

Trafficked in America, USA, 2018, 55 mins.
FRONTLINE and the Investigative Reporting Program at U.C. Berkeley tell the story of Guatemalan teens forced to work against their will in the Midwest. The investigation uncovers a criminal network that exploited undocumented minors, companies that profited from forced labor and the U.S. government’s role.

DVD: $19.99 (PBS)
Available for free streaming, plus additional related resources at:
https://www.pbs.org/video/trafficked-in-america-pppgmt/

Tricked, Directed by Jane Wells & John-Keith Wasson, USA, 2013, 75 mins.
Modern-day slavery is alive and well in the United States, as thousands of victims are trafficked across the country to satisfy America’s $3-billion-a-year sex trafficking industry. Meet the pimps, the johns, the police, the parents and the victims of the thriving sex trade in Tricked, a comprehensive and daring documentary that uncovers one of America’s darkest secrets.

DVD: $13.98 available at: https://firstrunfeatures.com/tricked.html

Available on iTunes

Stopping Traffic, Directed by Sadhvi Siddhali Shree, USA, 79 mins.
Today, with the instant reach of social media and the explosion in cyber-porn, a child sex slave can be purchased online and delivered to a customer more quickly than a pizza. STOPPING TRAFFIC investigates the international crisis of human sex trafficking, particularly of minors, from a deeply personal point of view. It is anchored by frank interviews with child sexual abuse and sex trafficking survivors and veteran activists, with additional commentary from social service agents, academics, and young activists. STOPPING TRAFFIC establishes how and why the U.S., with its relative affluence, technological sophistication, and solid tourist industry, has become the greatest source of sex traffickers’ customers. Our most popular event for scoring a trafficking arrangement is the Super Bowl.

Available on Amazon, Vimeo, YouTube etc. for personal use.