If you read yesterday’s news about The Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights – FIFDH, you know for sure that watching a human rights documentary or movie is a great way to learn more about the harsh realities people are facing around the world. Documentaries are one of the most effective ways to expose human rights exploitation and abuse. The on-screen trauma sticks to the psyche and, in many cases, becomes a catalyst for human rights advocacy education, reflection, and inspiration.
For example, did you know that the United States have only 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners? This research is given in the movie 13th (named after the 13th amendment, which made slavery illegal) and traces how slavery continued after the Civil War until today in the form of Jim Crow laws, lynchings, disenfranchisement, the war on drugs, and mass incarceration. Director Ava DuVernay did her research and provides a clear-eyed look at the prison-industrial complex.
13th won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
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