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An estimated 50 million people are currently living as slaves - more than at any other time in history.

Through our six compelling documentaries 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.

An estimated 50 million people are currently living as slaves - more than at any other time in history.

Through our six compelling documentaries 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.

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WHY SLAVERY?
Documentary

Selling Children

Pankaj Johar


Is poverty raising a generation of children for sale in India? In the world’s largest democracy, India, millions of vulnerable children are bought and sold, given only what they need to survive another day. Throughout Indian society the mechanisms of bonded slave labor are insidious, powerful and nearly impossible to escape for children who have become trapped in a system driven by profits. Indian director, Pankaj Johar, looks behind the overwhelming statistics - revealing how a lack of education and persistent poverty provides a breeding ground for modern slavery.

WHY SLAVERY?
Documentary

I Was a Yazidi Slave

David Evans


Can there be justice after genocide, sexual violence and slavery? In August 2014, an Islamic State massacre of unimaginable proportions took place during the rapid invasion of the Yazidi people in Sinjar, northern Iraq. Young Yazidi women were separated from the old and taken to the Galaxy Cinema in Mosul. There they were paraded, selected, enslaved, tortured and systematically raped. Some were only 11 years old. I was a Yazidi slave follows the Yazidi women’s journey to recovery and ask how a survivor of unthinkable sexual violence can find justice and a path to rehabilitation.

WHY SLAVERY?
Documentary

Jailed in America

Roger Ross Williams


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.

WHY SLAVERY?
Documentary

North Korea's Secret Slaves: Dollar Heroes

Carl Gierstorfer & Sebastian Weis


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 labourers can be found in Russia, China and dozens of other countries around the world - including EU member states. Featuring undercover footage and powerful testimonials, Dollar Heroes reveals the scale and brutality of this modern slavery operation.

WHY SLAVERY?
Documentary

Maid in Hell

Søren Klovborg


Can an employment system hide a reality of torture and humiliation? Maid in Hell offers a glimpse into the commonplace reality of harassment, abuse, rape and 18-hour work days which migrant domestic workers across the Middle East face. Trapped by the Kafala system, their passports are confiscated and they are bound to their employer. Unable to flee, they risk harsh punishments or imprisonments if they try. “Maid in Hell” gives unprecedented access to this frightening and brutal form of modern slavery. Following employment agents who vividly describe the trade, as well as maids who struggle to find a way home after harrowing, and sometimes, deadly experiences, we come to understand the grotesque reality faced by thousands of women each day.

WHY SLAVERY?
Documentary

A Woman Captured

Bernadett Tuza-Ritter


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?

WHY SLAVERY?
Campaign

CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer on BBC World News


BBC World News is one of THE WHY Foundation's most important partners. Via their extensive broadcasting network, reaching more than 200 countries and territories, the WHY SLAVERY? films can be seen by people all over the world. CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer was invited to "Impact" to talk about the campaign with Philippa Thomas. 

Show more films

Documentaries

A Woman Captured

Bernadett Tuza-Ritter

2018

Can Freedom ever be more frightening than enslavement?

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?

CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer on BBC World News

2018

CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer talks about the WHY SLAVERY? campaign on BBC World News.

BBC World News is one of THE WHY Foundation's most important partners. Via their extensive broadcasting network, reaching more than 200 countries and territories, the WHY SLAVERY? films can be seen by people all over the world. CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer was invited to "Impact" to talk about the campaign with Philippa Thomas. 

I Was a Yazidi Slave

David Evans

2018

Can there be justice after genocide, sexual violence and slavery?

Can there be justice after genocide, sexual violence and slavery? In August 2014, an Islamic State massacre of unimaginable proportions took place during the rapid invasion of the Yazidi people in Sinjar, northern Iraq. Young Yazidi women were separated from the old and taken to the Galaxy Cinema in Mosul. There they were paraded, selected, enslaved, tortured and systematically raped. Some were only 11 years old. I was a Yazidi slave follows the Yazidi women’s journey to recovery and ask how a survivor of unthinkable sexual violence can find justice and a path to rehabilitation.

Jailed in America

Roger Ross Williams

2018

How do prisons make a profit from crime?

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.

Maid in Hell

Søren Klovborg

2018

Can an employment system hide a reality of torture and humiliation?

Can an employment system hide a reality of torture and humiliation? Maid in Hell offers a glimpse into the commonplace reality of harassment, abuse, rape and 18-hour work days which migrant domestic workers across the Middle East face. Trapped by the Kafala system, their passports are confiscated and they are bound to their employer. Unable to flee, they risk harsh punishments or imprisonments if they try. “Maid in Hell” gives unprecedented access to this frightening and brutal form of modern slavery. Following employment agents who vividly describe the trade, as well as maids who struggle to find a way home after harrowing, and sometimes, deadly experiences, we come to understand the grotesque reality faced by thousands of women each day.

North Korea's Secret Slaves: Dollar Heroes

Carl Gierstorfer & Sebastian Weis

2018

How does North Korea sell their own people to fund its dangerous regime?

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 labourers can be found in Russia, China and dozens of other countries around the world - including EU member states. Featuring undercover footage and powerful testimonials, Dollar Heroes reveals the scale and brutality of this modern slavery operation.

Selling Children

Pankaj Johar

2018

Is poverty raising a generation of children for sale in India?

Is poverty raising a generation of children for sale in India? In the world’s largest democracy, India, millions of vulnerable children are bought and sold, given only what they need to survive another day. Throughout Indian society the mechanisms of bonded slave labor are insidious, powerful and nearly impossible to escape for children who have become trapped in a system driven by profits. Indian director, Pankaj Johar, looks behind the overwhelming statistics - revealing how a lack of education and persistent poverty provides a breeding ground for modern slavery.

A Woman Captured

Bernadett Tuza-Ritter

2018

Can Freedom ever be more frightening than enslavement?

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?

CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer on BBC World News

2018

CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer talks about the WHY SLAVERY? campaign on BBC World News.

BBC World News is one of THE WHY Foundation's most important partners. Via their extensive broadcasting network, reaching more than 200 countries and territories, the WHY SLAVERY? films can be seen by people all over the world. CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer was invited to "Impact" to talk about the campaign with Philippa Thomas. 

I Was a Yazidi Slave

David Evans

2018

Can there be justice after genocide, sexual violence and slavery?

Can there be justice after genocide, sexual violence and slavery? In August 2014, an Islamic State massacre of unimaginable proportions took place during the rapid invasion of the Yazidi people in Sinjar, northern Iraq. Young Yazidi women were separated from the old and taken to the Galaxy Cinema in Mosul. There they were paraded, selected, enslaved, tortured and systematically raped. Some were only 11 years old. I was a Yazidi slave follows the Yazidi women’s journey to recovery and ask how a survivor of unthinkable sexual violence can find justice and a path to rehabilitation.

Jailed in America

Roger Ross Williams

2018

How do prisons make a profit from crime?

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.

Maid in Hell

Søren Klovborg

2018

Can an employment system hide a reality of torture and humiliation?

Can an employment system hide a reality of torture and humiliation? Maid in Hell offers a glimpse into the commonplace reality of harassment, abuse, rape and 18-hour work days which migrant domestic workers across the Middle East face. Trapped by the Kafala system, their passports are confiscated and they are bound to their employer. Unable to flee, they risk harsh punishments or imprisonments if they try. “Maid in Hell” gives unprecedented access to this frightening and brutal form of modern slavery. Following employment agents who vividly describe the trade, as well as maids who struggle to find a way home after harrowing, and sometimes, deadly experiences, we come to understand the grotesque reality faced by thousands of women each day.

North Korea's Secret Slaves: Dollar Heroes

Carl Gierstorfer & Sebastian Weis

2018

How does North Korea sell their own people to fund its dangerous regime?

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 labourers can be found in Russia, China and dozens of other countries around the world - including EU member states. Featuring undercover footage and powerful testimonials, Dollar Heroes reveals the scale and brutality of this modern slavery operation.

Selling Children

Pankaj Johar

2018

Is poverty raising a generation of children for sale in India?

Is poverty raising a generation of children for sale in India? In the world’s largest democracy, India, millions of vulnerable children are bought and sold, given only what they need to survive another day. Throughout Indian society the mechanisms of bonded slave labor are insidious, powerful and nearly impossible to escape for children who have become trapped in a system driven by profits. Indian director, Pankaj Johar, looks behind the overwhelming statistics - revealing how a lack of education and persistent poverty provides a breeding ground for modern slavery.

A Woman Captured

Bernadett Tuza-Ritter

2018

Can Freedom ever be more frightening than enslavement?

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?

CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer on BBC World News

2018

CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer talks about the WHY SLAVERY? campaign on BBC World News.

BBC World News is one of THE WHY Foundation's most important partners. Via their extensive broadcasting network, reaching more than 200 countries and territories, the WHY SLAVERY? films can be seen by people all over the world. CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer was invited to "Impact" to talk about the campaign with Philippa Thomas. 

I Was a Yazidi Slave

David Evans

2018

Can there be justice after genocide, sexual violence and slavery?

Can there be justice after genocide, sexual violence and slavery? In August 2014, an Islamic State massacre of unimaginable proportions took place during the rapid invasion of the Yazidi people in Sinjar, northern Iraq. Young Yazidi women were separated from the old and taken to the Galaxy Cinema in Mosul. There they were paraded, selected, enslaved, tortured and systematically raped. Some were only 11 years old. I was a Yazidi slave follows the Yazidi women’s journey to recovery and ask how a survivor of unthinkable sexual violence can find justice and a path to rehabilitation.

Jailed in America

Roger Ross Williams

2018

How do prisons make a profit from crime?

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.

Maid in Hell

Søren Klovborg

2018

Can an employment system hide a reality of torture and humiliation?

Can an employment system hide a reality of torture and humiliation? Maid in Hell offers a glimpse into the commonplace reality of harassment, abuse, rape and 18-hour work days which migrant domestic workers across the Middle East face. Trapped by the Kafala system, their passports are confiscated and they are bound to their employer. Unable to flee, they risk harsh punishments or imprisonments if they try. “Maid in Hell” gives unprecedented access to this frightening and brutal form of modern slavery. Following employment agents who vividly describe the trade, as well as maids who struggle to find a way home after harrowing, and sometimes, deadly experiences, we come to understand the grotesque reality faced by thousands of women each day.

North Korea's Secret Slaves: Dollar Heroes

Carl Gierstorfer & Sebastian Weis

2018

How does North Korea sell their own people to fund its dangerous regime?

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 labourers can be found in Russia, China and dozens of other countries around the world - including EU member states. Featuring undercover footage and powerful testimonials, Dollar Heroes reveals the scale and brutality of this modern slavery operation.

Selling Children

Pankaj Johar

2018

Is poverty raising a generation of children for sale in India?

Is poverty raising a generation of children for sale in India? In the world’s largest democracy, India, millions of vulnerable children are bought and sold, given only what they need to survive another day. Throughout Indian society the mechanisms of bonded slave labor are insidious, powerful and nearly impossible to escape for children who have become trapped in a system driven by profits. Indian director, Pankaj Johar, looks behind the overwhelming statistics - revealing how a lack of education and persistent poverty provides a breeding ground for modern slavery.

A Woman Captured

Bernadett Tuza-Ritter

2018

Can Freedom ever be more frightening than enslavement?

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?

CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer on BBC World News

2018

CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer talks about the WHY SLAVERY? campaign on BBC World News.

BBC World News is one of THE WHY Foundation's most important partners. Via their extensive broadcasting network, reaching more than 200 countries and territories, the WHY SLAVERY? films can be seen by people all over the world. CEO Mette Hoffmann Meyer was invited to "Impact" to talk about the campaign with Philippa Thomas. 

I Was a Yazidi Slave

David Evans

2018

Can there be justice after genocide, sexual violence and slavery?

Can there be justice after genocide, sexual violence and slavery? In August 2014, an Islamic State massacre of unimaginable proportions took place during the rapid invasion of the Yazidi people in Sinjar, northern Iraq. Young Yazidi women were separated from the old and taken to the Galaxy Cinema in Mosul. There they were paraded, selected, enslaved, tortured and systematically raped. Some were only 11 years old. I was a Yazidi slave follows the Yazidi women’s journey to recovery and ask how a survivor of unthinkable sexual violence can find justice and a path to rehabilitation.

Jailed in America

Roger Ross Williams

2018

How do prisons make a profit from crime?

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.

Maid in Hell

Søren Klovborg

2018

Can an employment system hide a reality of torture and humiliation?

Can an employment system hide a reality of torture and humiliation? Maid in Hell offers a glimpse into the commonplace reality of harassment, abuse, rape and 18-hour work days which migrant domestic workers across the Middle East face. Trapped by the Kafala system, their passports are confiscated and they are bound to their employer. Unable to flee, they risk harsh punishments or imprisonments if they try. “Maid in Hell” gives unprecedented access to this frightening and brutal form of modern slavery. Following employment agents who vividly describe the trade, as well as maids who struggle to find a way home after harrowing, and sometimes, deadly experiences, we come to understand the grotesque reality faced by thousands of women each day.

North Korea's Secret Slaves: Dollar Heroes

Carl Gierstorfer & Sebastian Weis

2018

How does North Korea sell their own people to fund its dangerous regime?

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 labourers can be found in Russia, China and dozens of other countries around the world - including EU member states. Featuring undercover footage and powerful testimonials, Dollar Heroes reveals the scale and brutality of this modern slavery operation.

Selling Children

Pankaj Johar

2018

Is poverty raising a generation of children for sale in India?

Is poverty raising a generation of children for sale in India? In the world’s largest democracy, India, millions of vulnerable children are bought and sold, given only what they need to survive another day. Throughout Indian society the mechanisms of bonded slave labor are insidious, powerful and nearly impossible to escape for children who have become trapped in a system driven by profits. Indian director, Pankaj Johar, looks behind the overwhelming statistics - revealing how a lack of education and persistent poverty provides a breeding ground for modern slavery.

6 DOCUMENTARY FILMS /
70+ BROADCASTERS / 700 MILLION VIEWERS / LAUNCHING OCTOBER 2018

Using the power of strong storytelling as the foundation of the campaign, six compelling and informative documentary films will uncover the lives of men, women and children living as slaves in all corners of the world. Whether it is the deeply flawed Kafala System in the Middle East or the prolific number of children bought and sold in India, the WHY SLAVERY? series will shine a light on the millions of lives lived in the shadow of enslavement.Following the unprecedented success of Why Democracy? and Why Poverty? THE WHY is creating a ground-breaking new cross-media project that asks why slavery remains so endemic in the 21st Century.We aim to create the largest ever public media campaign about modern slavery reaching an unprecedented number of people through broadcast partners, online engagement, and in public spaces like schools, libraries, museums factories, and even football stadiums.

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

Impact

NGO and charity providing free access to information through human rights documentaries.

NGO and charity providing free access to information through human rights documentaries.

NGO and charity providing free access to information through human rights documentaries.


Are you interested in learning more about this project? Please write us an email at: info@thewhy.dk


To find out more about our impact download the respective impact reports under materials

COLLABORATION

Are you interested in becoming part of WHY STORIES?
Join us

As a Broadcaster

Show WHY STORIES? and become part of a global network of broadcasters. We operate with sliding-scale fees dependent on ability to pay. We donate WHY STORIES free of charge to most broadcasters in low and middle-income countries. 

As a Filmmaker

Tell your story to a global audience: we are constantly on the lookout for good films. If you have film you think could be part of WHY STORIES? let us know. WHY STORIES films are paid a standard license fee to cover worldwide distribution.

As a Supporter

Support us to extend access to independent factual films about the key global issues facing the world today. We work with a wide range of partners to extend access to independent factual films to audiences around the world.

Outreach

In addition to the broadcast of Why Slavery? films we are working with schools, universities, non-profit organizations and film festivals around the world to ensure the films reach a broad and diverse audience.

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Are you interested in taking part in the ASK WHY? FILM CLUB?
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IMPACT REPORTS & OTHER MATERIAL

ADVISORY BOARD

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