The Dark Side of Chocolate :
Synopsis: 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 program we will bring the chocolate makers to book, and confront them with our visual evidence. We will 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 will be held accountable. “The Dark Side of Chocolate” is a journalistic documentary which will reveal 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.
INDIA: REPUBLIC OF HUNGER :
Torture on Trial :
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2009 | Story Teller’s Country: United States
Koltavanej :
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2012 | Story Teller’s Country: Mexico
Synopsis: Rosa López Díaz, a Tsotsil woman who was tortured during her pregnancy so that she would claim the fault for a crime of which she pleads innocent, was introduced to many faces of violence against women far before she went to prison. From cell number 5 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, her voice brakes walls and illustrates her dignity.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/52951/Koltavanej
The Village of Korah – A short documentary :
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2010 | Story Teller’s Country: United States
Synopsis: A short documentary that explores the current state of one of Ethiopia’s poorest villages, the village of Korah and the challenges the people there face every day.
The village of Korah is a small village just outside Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. The village was founded over seventy five years ago by people inflicted with leprosy, seeking treatment in Addis. Three generations later, over 100,000 people live in Korah, most of whom have leprosy, HIV/AIDS, are widows, or orphans. Their extreme poverty has forced many of the villagers to forage through a local trash dump to find enough food to survive each day.
The Anonymous :
Director: Mazin M Sherabayani | Producer: Mazin M Sherabayani
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2013 | Story Teller’s Country: United Kingdom
Tags: Conflict, Europe, Human Rights, Middle East, United Kingdom, War
Synopsis: At the Domez Camp in Iraqi Kurdistan for Syrian refugees, I met this amazing anonymous guy – no name or background – who wanted to show my camera the life at the camp, even though he is unknown to everyone there.
Rebuilding Lives :
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2015 | Story Teller’s Country: United Kingdom
Synopsis: Written and Directed by Simon Waller for The Passage with narration from the BBC’s Petroc Trelawny.
Rebuilding Lives is a film that asks what it means to have a home, and explores what life is like for those without one.
The Passage has been helping to transform the lives of homeless people since it was established in 1980. More than 30 years on, 2016 is set to be a momentous year for the charity. St Vincent’s Centre, which is at the heart of The Passage, is undergoing a substantial renovation that will enable it to continue its essential work, and to thrive in effective and inspiring surroundings.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/54407/Rebuilding-Lives
Trapped in Transition :
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2015 | Story Teller’s Country: Canada
Synopsis: Over 1 million Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon. Displaced in the Middle East is about the refugees trapped in transition in Beirut and near the Lebanese-Syrian border. Shot on location during October 2015, in the homes of the refugee families as they share their personal stories of escape and overcoming the odds.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/54252/Trapped-in-Transition
Aguililla. The Effects of War on Drugs in the Transnational Migratory Circle :
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2015 | Story Teller’s Country: Mexico
Synopsis: Mexico, D.F. Nov. 2015. The War on Drugs created by former president Felipe Calderon in 2006 unleashed a wave of violence in Mexico, unlike any other in its history since the Mexican Revolution: over 150,000 dead, hundreds of thousands disappeared, and countless displaced persons. The effects of this war are not merely contained in statistics: they spill over into the fabric of society, especially in vulnerable villages as well as in the migrants and their families. A case in point is the migrant link between Aguililla, Michoacán, Mexico, and Redwood City, California.
Redwood City, a suburb of San Francisco that lies south of the Bay, is part of San Mateo County in California. Its population is 76,000, more than 30,000 of them believed to be Mexican migrants, most of whom come from Aguililla. That is why Redwood City is also known as “Little Michoacán” (Pequeño Michoacán) or “Little Aguililla” (Pequeño Aguila) or Aguililla 2.
Aguililla is one of 113 municipalities in the state of Michoacán de Ocampo, Mexico. The states of Michoacán, Guanajuato, Nayarit, and Zacatecas, are the states with the highest incidence of migration to the U.S.
Michoacán is the site of 11 of the 500 most marginalized municipalities in the nation. Aguililla is one of them, with a “very high level of marginalization.” As such, the funds sent from “Aguililla 2” play a vital role in the local economy.
Aguililla lies within the so-called “Tierra Caliente” (Hot Land) area where the various groups of drug-traffickers that operate there in complicity with the local, state, and federal governments as well as the police, make moving around freely very difficult. Some of these groups are extremely violent, such as the Knights Templar, whose main activities are drug production and trafficking, kidnapping and extortion of small businesses and migrants, and clandestine mining.
According to anthropologist Roger Rouse, the transnational migratory circle between these two towns began in the 1940s. Many of the economic, cultural, and educational activities that take place in Aguililla, Michoacán, such as the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, are dependent on the influx of dollars sent from Redwood City.
However, the extreme violence that the War on Drugs brought to Aguililla starting in 2006 has caused a break in that migrant connection, with the following consequences: a deep economic and cultural crisis in Aguililla, Michoacán, as well as a strong sense of alienation on the part of the Redwood City migrants from Aguililla.
“The Jungle”, A Humanitarian Disaster in France :
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2015 | Story Teller’s Country: Mexico
Synopsis: After terrorist attacks in Paris 2015, European countries tightened border control, which worsened the refugee crisis. “The Jungle”, a camp in France, has been described as inhuman and in terrible conditions.
Hazardous Child Labour in Agriculture
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2006 | Story Teller’s Country: Switzerland
Synopsis: Across the world 218 million children, as young as five and six, are engaged in child labour. Seventy per cent of these, over 150 million, work in agriculture. While the good news is that child labour has declined by eleven per cent in the last four years, much more needs to be done in agriculture. The ILO and its social partners from member governments, and employers and workers organizations have committed themselves to eliminating the worst forms of child labour by 2016, including hazardous child labour in agriculture.
Out of sight :
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2012 | Story Teller’s Country: Kenya
Synopsis: Millions of Zimbabwean migrants have made the dangerous journey across the border to South Africa for a more promising future. Among these migrants, the disabled are among the most vulnerable. “Out of Sight” explores the lives of blind undocumented migrants from Zimbabwe as they try and eke out a living begging on the streets of Johannesburg.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/11616/Out-of-sight
I Am Agha :
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2010 | Story Teller’s Country: France
Synopsis: Lahore, Pakistan: during one day, we follow Agha, a young boy who picks garbage in the street to survive, no matter what happens around him. Agha shares with us his states of mind and vision of life.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/10618/I-Am-Agha
Russia on Trial :
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2008 | Story Teller’s Country: United States
Synopsis: In 31 rulings to date, the European Court has found Russia responsible for serious human rights violations in Chechnya, including torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions. Moreover, the court has repeatedly condemned the Russian government’s failure to ensure effective domestic remedies. In this video, Human Rights Watch highlights some of the abuses committed against Chechens by Russian forces.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/5645/Russia-on-Trial
Truth Lies Beneath :
Director: Gautam Sen | Producer: Masum AHRC
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2005 | Story Teller’s Country: India
Tags: Asia, Human Rights
Synopsis: It was the day of Deepavali, festival of lights… When others were busy in celebrating the sounds and lights of the festival, Mousumi Ari, a girl of seventeen years of age, was being tortured in her in-laws house. She was murdered eventually. Mousumi was married to a boy of her village, at the age of barely sixteen. Her father-in-laws, Swadesh Ari was a home guard in the local Kakdwip Police Station. After her marriage she fell prey to the wrath of her in-laws and was subjected to torture regularly. The administration remained mute. An unholy nexus of the police, hospital-morgue authority and legal administration tried to veil the culprits… to establish the murder as suicide. The film depicts the victim’s voice, so far unheard and the experience of the rights activists stood by the side of the victim family.. narrating what happened actually and explores the eventually of Mousumi’s murder.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/1372/Truth-Lies-Beneath
Please Bear With Us :
Director:Kestur Vasuki | Producer:Infact Films
Genre:Documentary | Produced In:2011 | Story Teller’s Country:India
Tags: Animals As Friends, Asia, Earth As Mother, Ecology, Environment, Globalization, India
Synopsis:”Please Bear With Us” is a documentary on endangered sloth bears in an arid region of Karnataka state in India. The focus of the film is basically on unmindful mining policies of the government and its consequences on the sloth bears and their natural habitat in Bellary district of Karnataka. The Daroji Bear Sanctuary is the only natural bear sanctuary in India which has a congregation of bears. The film questions the mining policies and its direct implication on people and their environment which includes the bear sanctuary. The mining lease to a steel company in the periphery of the sanctuary has created a commotion and people and environmentalists fought the decision of the government. The film finally influenced the government and the project has been shelved. The film also looks at empirical analysis of the government policies and its direct correlation with the industrial lobbies. In a way, it has looked at dynamics of the changing geopolitical situation, which has a direct effect on the environment.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/12393/Please-Bear-With-Us
The Bread Winner :
Director:Sonia Cole | Producer:Sonia Cole
Genre:Documentary | Produced In:2007 | Story Teller’s Country:United States
Tags: Afghanistan, Americas, Education, Freedom, Livelihood, Poverty, United States
Synopsis:In the dusty streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, eight year old Farouk works tirelessly day after day peddling calendars while also attending school. Farouk’s father, crippled during the decades-long war and occupation, is unable to work, which makes Farouk the sole provider of his family of six.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/51092/The-Bread-Winner
Prameela, a Girl with Veiled Vision :
Director:Chinju Prakash | Producer:WAVE
Genre:Documentary | Produced In:2010 | Story Teller’s Country:India
Tags: Asia, Education, Gender, Healing, Health, Oppression
Synopsis:Chinjuprakash shares the story of a vision-impaired girl in Kerala who is a trainer with the Insight program. This program helps differently-abled persons access technology skills, as explored in “Prameela, a Girl with Veiled Vision”.
Anais 