An estimated 50 million people are currently living as slaves - more than at any other time in history.
Through our six compelling documentaries about slavery and ten informative short films, WHY SLAVERY? uncovers the stories of men, women, and children trapped in modern slavery across all corners of the world. Whether it is the deeply flawed Kafala System, which binds migrant workers to their employers in the Middle East, or the prolific number of children being bought and sold in India, WHY SLAVERY? sheds light on the stories of people living in the shadows of enslavement.
The aim of the WHY SLAVERY? campaign can be succinctly captured by the words of the 18th century Abolitionist William Wilberforce:
“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”
WHY SLAVERY? ensures that modern slavery is not only acknowledged but brought to the fore of the global political conversation.
In India, the world’s largest democracy, millions of vulnerable children are bought and sold, given only what they need to survive another day. In this film, we follow the lives of children who have been denied a childhood and an education to work in mica mines, pick tea leaves at plantations, work as domestic helpers and be sold as brides.
This film tells the story of Shirin and Lewiza, two Yazidi women captured by IS, who escape to Germany.
Harassment, abuse, rape and 18-hour work days are a commonplace reality for domestic helpers who have traveled to the Middle East to find employment. Trapped in the Kafala system, domestic workers have their passports confiscated and are bound to their employer.
Shrouded in secrecy and notoriously cash-strapped the North Korean regime has resorted to running one of the world’s largest slaving operations - exploiting the profits to fulfill their own agenda. These bonded laborers can be found in Russia, China and dozens of other countries around the world - including EU member states.
Can Freedom ever be more frightening than enslavement? A Woman Captured is a raw and intimate portrayal of the psychology behind enslavement. Award-winning Director Bernadett Tuza-Ritter offers an evocative study of a woman so debased and disregarded that even she has lost sight of her own life. As a close friendship develops between the captured woman (Marish) and the filmmaker, Marish’s confidence is slowly restored as she begins to imagine a different life for herself. With this new found sense of confidence, will A Woman Captured ever be able to escape the unbearable oppression to become a free woman?
How do prisons make a profit from crime? In the last 30 years, America’s prison population has surged from 330,000 to 2.3 million inmates. In this deeply personal and provocative film, Academy Award-winning director Roger Ross Williams sets out on a mission to investigate the prison system that has helped drive this explosive web of political, social, and economic forces that have consumed so many of Roger’s friends and family.
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