Movies and Documentaries

Blood Diamond

A Hollywood film about the civil war in Sierra Leone.  It connects the gruesome war with global trade and conflict diamonds.  The film explains how war and conflict are some of the greatest contributors to poverty and inhibitors to overcoming poverty. Blood Diamond also depicts the injustice of child soldiers.

Lost Boys of Sudan

A documentary about children who have fled Sudan on foot amidst civil war. The documentary then covers the transition of resettling in the United States.

God Grew Tired of Us

This documentary chronicles the challenges and adversities of three “lost Boys” from Sudan who relocate to the United States, but are deeply committed to their friends and family back home.

Hotel Rwanda

Based on the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel owner who saved thousands of lives during the Rwandan genocide.

War Dance (2007)

A documentary about 3 children who are living in a northern Ugandan displacement camp and the story of how they end up competing in their country's national music and dance festival.

Girl in the café

A HBO film about a girl who attends the g8 summit as she starts dating a man who is part of the UK delegation.  She presses him, and other world leaders, on issues of global poverty and meeting the millennium development goals.

Born into Brothels (2014)

Two documentary filmmakers chronicle their time in Sonagachi, Calcutta and the relationships they developed with children of prostitutes who work the city's notorious red light district. The filmmakers teach the children how to operate a camera and much of the film documents the children’s lives through photos they took.

HIV/AIDS

Living with Slim

A documentary following the lives of children in sub-Saharan African who have AIDS (slim)

Yesterday

HBO presents a very powerful film about a woman with AIDS.  This film shows how many innocent people are dying of this disease and it also gives an insightful glimpse of rural poverty in Africa.

A Closer Walk

A documentary about HIV/AIDS.

Black Gold

A documentary that covers the journey coffee takes from impoverished farmers in Ethiopia to our coffee cups.

The True Cost (2015)

This documentary covers the clothing industry and how the human and environmental costs of making clothing are always increasing, while the price of purchasing clothing is always decreasing. A documentary that explores who is really paying the price for our clothing? 

Racing Extinction (2015)

Louie Psihoyos, who made the Oscar-winning The Cove about dolphin slaughter in Japan, explores a mass extinction caused by illegal fishing trades.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell

This film chronicles the remarkable story of the courageous Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country. Through peaceful protests, Liberian women were able to find a voice in wartime.

Half the Sky (2012)

This 4-hour series is shot in 10 different countries (Cambodia, Kenya, India, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Liberia and the United States). The film depicts the lives of women around the world that are living in extremely difficult and harsh situations. The documentary shows how these same women are bravely fighting to change their circumstances and fight for empowerment and transformation.

Maria, Full of Grace

Maria Alvarez, a teenager living in Bogotá, Colombia, works a dead-end job in a flower exporting plant along with most of the other able-bodied people in her community. She wants to quit, but her family depends on her meager salary. One day, Maria meets a smooth-talking young man named Franklin who offers her a business proposition to make some money and travel. However, she sees and experiences the horrors of the drug smuggling trade first hand and finally makes a life-affirming decision. (R) 2003.

CALL+RESPONSE

A first-of-its-kind feature documentary film that reveals the world’s 27 million dirtiest secrets. The secret? There are more slaves today than ever before in human history. CALL+RESPONSE goes deep undercover into the world where slavery is thriving, from the child brothels of Cambodia to the slave brick kilns of rural India. The film reveals that in 2009, Slave Traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.

She Has a Name

Haunted by anguished voices, a lawyer poses as a john to build a legal case against a brothel trafficking girls into Bangkok. Can he win the trust of a young prostitute and convince her to risk her life for the sake of justice?

Nefarious: Merchant of Souls (2011)

This documentary reveals the trends of modern day sex slavery-- giving a look into the trafficking industry, showing how slaves are sold, where they are forced to work, and their living conditions. "Nefarious features expert analysis from international humanitarian leaders, and captures the gripping and triumphant testimonies of survivors in order to galvanize hope and vision". 

We Were Children (2012)

For over 130 years, until 1996, more than 100,000 of Canada’s First Nations children were legally required to attend government-funded schools run by various Christian faiths. There were 80 of these ‘residential schools’ across the country. Most children were sent to faraway schools that separated them from their families and traditional land. These children endured brutality, physical hardship, mental degradation, and the complete erasure of their culture. The schools were part of a wider program of assimilation designed to integrate the native population into ‘Canadian society.’ These schools were established with the express purpose ‘To kill the Indian in the child.’ Told through their own voices, ‘We Were Children’ is the shocking true story of two such children: Glen Anaquod and Lyna Hart.

Bee Nation (2017)

An inspiring film about First Nations youth in Saskatchewan who compete at their first-ever Canadian Spelling Bee, both provincially and nationally. 

Finding Dawn (2006)

Métis filmmaker, Christine Welsh, explores the epidemic of missing or murdered Indigenous women in Canada. The documentary covers an Indigenous women's experience, from Vancouver's skid row, down the Highway of Tears in northern BC, and on to Saskatoon, where the murders and disappearances of these women remain unsolved”.