2009-2010 AIDemocracy Film Library

Global Development Films | Global Environment Films | Global Health Films | Global Peace & Security Films

Screening a film is an excellent way to raise awareness or launch a campaign, initiative, or project you are organizing on your campus or in your community. AIDemocracy has a large variety of documentaries which we lend out for free. This can be a fantastic way to engage your peers and members of your community in important global issues.  We encourage you to show one of these films and start a dialogue about it on your campus, in a community institution such as a public library or church, or an event at your apartment!  Use the momentum gained from your film screening to engage participants and draw even more attention to these urgent issues!

AIDemocracy offers screening kits, which include the DVD and discussion guide, a comprehensive organizing toolkit to secure a venue and attract large audiences, and $35 mini-grants to reimburse you for flyers and light refreshments.

AIDemocracy is only sending out copies of the film that we have received from production companies with the express purpose of having public educational screenings.  You must not charge admission or issue tickets for your events. 

Please click here to sign-up in order receive one of the following films. We will then email you with all the materials you will need to publicize your event! Access comprehensive organizing toolkits with pre-tailored templates to help you reserve room, recruit co-sponsors, invite professors and students, contact the press, and so much more. Click on the topic area that most closely matches the theme of your selected documentary: development, environment, health, or peace and security. AIDemocracy staff are happy to support you - just call 202-544-9662!

Global Development Films

Andre's Life
Between the months of August 2004 and January 2005, a University of Texas graduate student Joseph Carter, went to Brazil to study the effects of tourism on the favela regions of Rio de Janeiro. Although his studies were mainly on tourism, he found himself more and more interested in the daily life and struggles of those living in the favela regions. This led him to explore the Roupa Suja region in the favelas, in which most of the people survive by picking up trash on a daily basis. Joseph Carter follows the life of Andre, a Roupa Suja inhabitant who takes him on a tour of his daily life and the lives similar to his own, lives of poverty and strife.

Black Gold
This film illustrates how international commodity markets are rigged against the nations of the Global South, tracing the tangled trail from the two billion cups of coffee consumed each day back to the coffee farmers who produce the beans. Black Gold follows Tadesse Meskela, representative of 70,000 farmers in the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, as he searches for new markets for Oromia coffee and living wages to spur development in Southern Ethiopia. The film documents how developed countries like the U.S. subsidize agricultural products, flooding markets in the developing world with low-priced goods while demanding that poor countries remove tariff barriers and open their markets. In total, Black Gold provides the most in-depth study of any commodity on film today and offers a compelling introduction to the “fair trade” movement galvanizing consumers around the globe. 77 minutes.

The Day My God Died
This film tracks the sex trafficking process from beginning—as young girls are tricked into leaving home with a friend or acquaintance—to end—as survivors struggle to reenter society and put a stop to the practices that changed their lives. The Day My God Died uncovers the realities of child sex slavery through hidden camera footage from Bombay brothels, the stories of several Nepalese girls sold into prostitution, and the testimony of individuals fighting to stop sex trafficking. The film vividly illustrates one of modern society's greatest evils, but also highlights rehabilitation efforts and programs that empower survivors to rescue other trafficking victims. 53 minutes.

Debt of the Dictators
The Debt of the Dictators travels to Argentina, South Africa, and the Philippines to examine the effects of odious debt upon individuals and communities, decades after authoritarian leaders plunged their nations into debt. Having found a highly profitable loan market in the dictatorships of the developing world, Western banks poured money into repressive, exploitative, and brutal military regimes for years – only with deleterious effects on development. The documentary looks beyond local tourist destinations to examine life in the poorest neighborhoods and slums of these countries. Along the way, the film examines global debt cancellation initiatives and the dynamic local movements campaigning for debt relief. 46 minutes.

Maquilapolis
This film features several women factory workers-turned-activists' testimony and home video footage. These promotoras, shocked by the behavior of their multinational corporate employers and moved to act by the suffering of their communities, are now fighting legal battles and leading movements to raise awareness of their hardships and promote justice. Maquilapolis takes you into their homes and factory towns along the US-Mexico border, where houses are built from discarded garage doors, toxic soil and surface water cause birth defects and chronic diseases, and workers are perpetually at risk of losing their assembly line jobs to workers in Asia. Maquilapolis then takes you to the front lines of the promotoras' struggle for environmental justice and labor rights. The film, produced with a great deal of input from the workers themselves, is both startling and inspiring. 68 minutes.

Sisters On The Planet*
In much of the developing world, women are in charge of agriculture and food production, their children's health and education, and the wellbeing of many others in their community. As climate change causes increasingly severe storms, droughts, floods, the destruction of ecosystems, and shifts in agricultural cycles, women are often those struggling to deal with the food insecurity and societal destabilization that result. Sisters on the Planet documents the lives and work of four women affected by global warming, following their efforts to adapt to changes in climate in their individual countries. The film poignantly highlights the unfairness of these circumstances, as impoverished communities struggle to adapt to changes in climate caused by the developed world. 40 minutes.

Slum Survivors*
Around one million people live in Kibera in an area smaller than New York's Central Park, making the Nairobi settlement Africa's largest slum. Slum Survivors draws you into the lives of six slum dwellers – Jane, Carol, Dennis, Patrick, Abdul, and Christina – all fighting to break the cycle of abject poverty for themselves and their children through hard work, education, and determination. They struggle not only with the economic limitations of poverty, but with the many other challenges that accompany it: disease, continual unemployment, alcoholism, lack of access to education, abandonment, gender discrimination, HIV/AIDS, violence, and crime. Slum Survivors vividly illustrates the realities of urban poverty and living conditions in the slums, calling attention to issues that beg attention from policy makers in the US and around the world. 40 minutes.

What Are We Doing Here?*
This film follows three brothers (and their cousin) on a trip across Africa as they investigate why increased foreign aid has failed to spark sustainable development and search for new sources of hope. In their journey from Cairo to Cape Town, they meet activists, professionals, and community members fighting to ease poverty, disease, and hunger. Their search for answers yields only more questions, however, as the filmmakers consider the usefulness of humanitarian aid, charity from the developing world, and foreign assistance channeled into undemocratic states. What Are We Doing Here? looks beyond good intentions, calling on development experts to see Africans as more than statistics, to empower local solutions, and to admit fault and change course when necessary.

Global Environment Films

Addicted to Oil
Examines a wide variety of developments taking place across the energy spectrum, from hybrid car enthusiasts who are converting their autos into "plug-ins" and getting 300 miles to a gallon of gas, to the current state of the hydrogen fuel cell. Other areas explored include "flex-fuel" vehicles that can run on an assortment of biofuels such as ethanol, which emits virtually no greenhouse gases and can be made from almost any biomass — like sugar cane, corn and even certain types of grass. (For example, in Brazil, 40 percent of all fuel used by drivers is ethanol.) Solar and especially wind power have made great advances in practical technologies that are increasingly being used throughout the world. Global warming is no longer a matter of debate, but a proven problem of potentially catastrophic proportions. As Friedman discovers in the course of our program, there is much we could do immediately, with technology at hand, to break our addiction to oil — and developing technologies promise a future free of a sole dependence on fossil fuels, a truly post-oil era. It can be done, if we have the will and leadership to do it. 60 minutes.

Sisters On The Planet
In much of the developing world, women are in charge of agriculture and food production, their children's health and education, and the wellbeing of many others in their community. As climate change causes increasingly severe storms, droughts, floods, the destruction of ecosystems, and shifts in agricultural cycles, women are often those struggling to deal with the food insecurity and societal destabilization that result. Sisters on the Planet documents the lives and work of four women affected by global warming, following their efforts to adapt to changes in climate in their individual countries. The film poignantly highlights the unfairness of these circumstances, as impoverished communities struggle to adapt to changes in climate caused by the developed world. 40 minutes.

Global Health Films

Confronting the Pandemic
The YouthAIDS Global Ambassador, Ashley Judd, is teaming up with her friend Salma Hayek on a one-hour documentary about Judd¹s work with YouthAIDS. On this trip through Central America, she takes Hayek on anunforgettable journey.  From the brothels of Guatemala City to the coast of Honduras, these women are on a mission to get the message out.  It's a message of hope, these young people can change their future by changing the behavior that puts them at risk of infection.

Health for Sale
Health for Sale asks: are the world's largest drug companies, paradoxically, major obstacles to making a healthier world? The film focuses on Big Pharma, the ten largest pharmaceutical makers, who account for 500 billion dollars of world health spending a year and whose 205 billion dollars in pre-tax profits were more than the combined profits of the 490 other Fortune 500 companies. Officials from all sides debate the impact of drug companies' patenting, "intellectual property," pricing and new product development strategies on global public health. These policies, according to Nobel Prize winning economist and former World Bank Chief Economist, Joseph Stiglitz "are condemning billions of the world's poorest citizens to death." 59 minutes.

India's Hidden Plague
This film documents the Youth AIDS Global Ambassador and Actress Ashley Judd on her trip to India where she explored the lives of many at risk for HIV or already infected men, women and children. She travels through the brothels of Mumbai, truck stops in Jaipur as well as affluent communities in Delhi to explore and reveal the immediate threat of the spread of HIV. The film was made to spread awareness as well as fundraise to support the efforts of Youth AIDS in their mission to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS in the world.

The Last Child: The Global Raee to End Polio
The Last Child tells the behind-the-scenes story of the global campaign to eradicate polio, a campaign which is the largest non-military global enterprise ever, involving dozens of organizations, scores of governments, thousands of health workers, and millions of volunteers. From the frontlines in Nigeria, India, Haiti and elsewhere, you'll witness the victories and challenges of trying to wipe out a disease worldwide for only the second time in history. Approximately one hour and with bonus videos and photo galleries.

Love, Labor, Loss
This 15-minute film follows the compelling journey of women in Niger, West Africa living with obstetric fistula who have made arduous trips from across the hot, sahara desert to arrive at the Fistula Compound at the Niamey National Hospital. Here, scores of women have been waiting--some for up to 10 years--to get the repair they need to stop their leakage, return to the villages and become reintegrated as contributed members of their communities. Love, Labor, Loss is a Governess Film directed by Lisa Russell, also the director of the Ethiopian abortion documentary Not Yet Rain.

Malaria Fever Wars
This film highlights man's interminable fight against malaria, a disease which kills millions every year, and which is continuing to worsen. It delivers an up-to-date account of the global malaria situation from the perspectives of a few heroic individuals, each fighting their own very different battles against the disease. 120 minutes.

Not Yet Rain*
Unsafe abortion threatens women's lives around the world. In 2006, Ethiopia enacted one of Africa's most progressive abortion laws. While the law was a promising change, women continue to face challenges and barriers to safe care. In Not Yet Rain, Ethiopian women share their experiences about how abortion has touched their lives. Some of the stories are heartbreaking, others are hopeful, but all illustrate the importance of ensuring that women have access to the care they need to protect their health and well-being. The film includes a toolkit with several fact sheets and some event planning materials.

Pills, Profits, and Protests: A Chronicle of the Global AIDS Movement
Pill Profits Protest is a documentary about AIDS treatment activism. It examines the national and international grass roots response to an epidemic that has already overshadowed the Black Death in terms of human lives lost. The demand for access to affordable treatment for 40 million people living with HIV, most of whom live in poor countries, represents one of the most successful political movements of contemporary history.

This documentary examines the battle for access to HIV treatment as the poorest and most marginalized individuals confront larger powers, including governments, corporate bodies and a multinational drug industry that is motivated by profit. This film allows viewers to examine HIV/AIDS issues through a lens of poverty, socioeconomic justice and human rights.

SASA! A Film about Women, Violence, and HIV/AIDS*
Sasa is a Kiswahili word that means now. Now is the time to prevent violence against women and HIV infection. This 30-minute documentary film tells the personal stories of two women and their experiences with violence and HIV/AIDS. [There is a 6-minute version of the film available as well--great for introducing awareness of the film and it's themes into larger conferences]. It also offers analysis from activists and leaders about the casual factors, cultural dynamics, and politics of preventing and responding to these dual pandemics. This film is an inspiring look at two women's lives and it is a call to action. It calls on everyone to take action to prevent violence against women and HIV infection. SASA!

Silent Killers
This is a powerful new documentary that tells us that there are still a billion hungry people in the world and that 15,000 children die each day of hunger.  Taking us to South Africa, Kenya and Brazil, the documentary provides the viewer with a message of optimism that innovative programs are showing us how global hunger can be eradicated. 57 minutes.

Tracking the Monster
This VH1 News documentary chronicles two emotional journeys to Africa by Golden Globe nominee Ashley Judd and Grammy winner India.Arie. They travel to the front lines of the global fight against HIV/AIDS. Through their eyes and in their own words, Ashley and India.Arie tell the stories of lives forever changed by the pandemic and witness how the disease is decimating communities in Kenya and Madagascar.

Yesterday: Powerless to Change the Past, She Lived to Change the Future
The first film nominated for both an Oscar and and Emmy Award, and the first international film produced in Zulu, a South African language, Yesterday is the empowering and inspiring story of a South African woman diagnosed with HIV. Yesterday, a South African woman, doesn't have an easy life. There's little money, no modern conveniences, her husband is away working in the mines of Johannesburg, yet she possesses a sunny nature and takes great joy in her seven-year-old daughter, Beauty. The precarious balance of Yesterday's life is suddenly threatened when she is diagnosed with AIDS. She never had the chance to go to school and although her health is failing, she sets her sights on a single goal: to be with Beauty on her first day of class.

Set against the awe-inspiring, harsh landscapes of South Africa's Zululand, Yesterday is an eloquent, heartbreaking film that quietly builds an overwhelming emotional force. In some places, for some people, yesterday is always better than tomorrow.

Global Peace and Security Films

America's Funniest Muslim: A Townhall with Azhar Usman
Azhar Usman is a Muslim comedian whose purpose is to improve and promote cultural understanding of Islam and Muslim population. He was born in Chicago and received his bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois and his J.D. from University of Minnesota Law School. He started a career in comedy in 2001 and since then he has performed stand-up in many major American cities as well as abroad in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He most recently finished a comedy tour with fellow comedians Mohammed Amer and Preacher Moss entitled "Allah Made Me Funny.

Between Two Fires
This filim documents the results of two decades of armed conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government in the Northern Uganda, which has caused some nearly two million civilians to be displaced from their homes. While the LRA have been perpetrators of these crimes, the Ugandan People’s Defense Forces (UPDF), the national army, has also committed human rights violations against civilians that include extrajudicial killing and torture. Through the personal stories of torture survivors, Between Two Fires advocates for official acknowledgement of these abuses, redress for torture victims, as well as implementation of legislative measures to strengthen national mechanisms against the use of torture. 14 minutes.

Beyond Belief*
Susan Retik and Patti Quigley were widowed on September 11, 2001. Their husbands were both victims of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, leaving their wives alone with their children and families. Although grief stricken at first, these two widows channeled their grief into growth by learning more about the country and people of Afghanistan, the country where the terrorists who killed their husbands were trained. They realized that this was a country suffering from 23 years of war. While Susan and Patti were tragically impacted by the events of 9/11, there were thousands of women in Afghanistan who were impacted in a similar way by the years of war in the country. Susan and Patti wanted to connect with these women. Although they were almost half way around the world and from a completely different culture, Patti and Susan knew that since 9/11 they had a connection to these Afghani women, a bond that would last forever. And with this in mind, they embarked on their journey and mission to help the lives of these Afghani widows in any way they possibly could.

Cities of Light
This film takes viewers on an epic journey back into one of the most fascinating and important periods of world history. It tells a story of vital importance for our contemporary world about the triumphs and shortcomings, achievements and ultimate failures of a centuries-long period when Muslims, Christians and Jews inhabited the same far corner of Western Europe and built a society that lit the Dark Ages. Cities of Light shows how it was possible for Muslims, Christians and Jews to co-exist and thrive together—and yet how fragile that union can be when religious extremism begins to rise. The glories of Islamic Spain are beautifully rendered, but the film does not flinch when vividly portraying the violence and horror that ultimately engulfed it—violence that seems similar to what we witness today. The history of Islamic Spain demonstrates that when religious diversity is accommodated within a social and political system, problems and tensions may still exist, but society is able to successfully manage them, generally to the benefit of all. But when a power system or religious movement rejects complexity and insists on a single cultural and religiously-centered point of view, then society is likely to come to grief with everyone losing something. 116 minutes.

Great Decisions 2008 Edition*
Foreign Policy Association's "Great Decisions 2008 Edition" is a continuation of the highly coveted series of documentaries that highlight 8 pressing social issues of 2008. Each topic is comprehensively examined as how it relates to the future of the United States as well as the world. This years topics consist of: "Exiting Iraq: Deadline for Democracy," "The European Union at 50," "Dangerous Dialogue," "Reexamining Russia," "Waning War Machine? The State of the U.S. Military," "The Latin American Left," "Out of Balance: U.S.-China Trade," and finally "Philanthropy and the Rise of Global Giving."

Ghosts of Abu Ghraib*
The familiar and disturbing pictures of torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison raise many troubling questions: How did torture become an accepted practice at Abu Ghraib? Did U.S. government policies make it possible? How much damage has the aftermath of Abu Ghraib had on America's credibility as a defender of freedom and human rights around the world? Acclaimed filmmaker Rory Kennedy looks beyond the headlines to investigate the psychological and political context in which torture occurred in the powerful documentary GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB.

Hacking Democracy*
Electronic voting machines count about 87% of the votes cast in America today. But are they reliable? Are they safe from tampering? From a current congressional hearing to persistent media reports that suggest misuse of data and even outright fraud, concerns over the integrity of electronic voting are growing by the day. And if the voting process is not secure, neither is America's democracy. The timely, cautionary documentary HACKING DEMOCRACY exposes gaping holes in the security of America's electronic voting system.

Heavy Metal In Baghdad*
Heavy Metal started out of an article about the band that Vice magazine ran in 2004. Unable to shake the idea of these four musicians struggling to make a go of the rock-and-roll life in the middle of a war zone, a pair of Vice journalist/filmmakers (Moretti and Alvi) went to Iraq a year later to find out what was going on with the band. What the rather raggedly produced film still manages to vividly put across is that, like many elements of Iraqi society, after the 2003 American invasion, things for the band members went from bad to worse. Under Saddam Hussein, Acrassicauda (a superbly metal name, it comes from the Latin for "black scorpion" and is regularly misspelled by the band members) were barely allowed to play, which was insult enough. But in Baghdad's post-invasion sectarian tumult, the English-speaking metalheads were seen as practically infidels. In a bitterly comic aside, one of them notes how some Islamists claimed that the long-haired headbangers were actually singing Jewish prayers and so deserved to die. Death threats and accusations of Satan worship were par for the course.

Invisible Children
This is a rough cut documentary made by several young Americans to document the war in Northern Uganda, in which children are being abducted by a rebel army and forced to fight as child soldiers.  AID organizers from across the country that have already seen the film say it is one of the most affecting documentaries they’ve ever watched; as Bethany Egan at Grove City College put it, “I can’t even express to you the impact that it had on my heart and mind.”  You can watch a trailer online here and also learn important information about the film and the movement that it has inspired by downloading the media kit. 55 minutes.

Iran (Is Not the Problem)*
IRAN (is not the problem) is a new feature length film responding to the failure of the American mass media to provide the public with relevant and accurate information about the standoff between the US and Iran, as happened before with the lead up to the invasion of Iraq. We have heard that Iran is a nuclear menace in defiance of the international community, bent on "wiping Israel off the map", supporting terrorism, and unwilling to negotiate. This documentary disputes these claims as they are presented to us and puts them in the context of present and historical US imperialism and hypocrisy with respect to Iran.

Last Best Chance
Thanks to the generous support of the Stanley Foundation, AIDemocracy is offering Last Best Chance. The film is a docudrama that shows the threat posed by vulnerable nuclear weapons and materials around the world and underscores what the stakes are.  In the movie, which was produced by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, al Qaeda operatives organize three separate operations aimed at getting nuclear weapons.  The material is then fabricated into three crude nuclear weapons by small groups of trained terrorists, who have recruited bomb-making experts to help them manufacture their weapons.  To learn more, you can read an article about the film that was in The New Yorker and this transcript from “Meet the Press”.  45 minutes.

Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet 
This film travels in the footsteps of the Prophet to the Arabian desert and the holy city of Mecca where much of Muhammad's story unfolded. But the film does not just stay in the past. Much of its story is told through the observations of contemporary American Muslims, including a fireman at the World Trade Center on September 11, a second generation Arab-American family building a community based on Islamic principles, a Congressional Chief of Staff working for justice, and a refugee fleeing religious persecution, whose experiences in some way echo Muhammad’s life. With some of the world’s greatest scholars on Islam providing historical context and critical perspective, Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet is history in the present tense. It tells of intrigue and faith, bitter persecution and the birth of a holy book, brutal war and brilliant diplomacy in a desert environment where tribal allegiance was often the only protection.  This 2 hour documentary film aired on PBS in December 2002 and has broadcast worldwide on numerous channels.

The Power of Good
On September 1, 1939, World War II broke out and the Nazi Army began it's attack and dominance over the European continent. But even before the war began, lives were in danger, especially in Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, where children and their families had been taken to refugee camps to await their uninviting fate under Nazi occupation. On a vacation trip to Prague in 1938, Nicholas Winton was shocked to see how many people's, especially children's, lives were at high risk with no way out. There was nobbody taking responsibility for the thousands of children that would be left to the hands of the Nazis, for most people believed that the oncoming war would never arrive. Nicholas Winton felt compelled to do something. Without any organization or money he began to write letters to foreign embassies, asking to admit these "stateless" children into their country. This is the story of Nicholas Winton and his heroic efforts to save hundreds of children from the horrors of Nazi occupation. Even without money, an organization, or a plan, he knew he had to do something to help. Little did he know he would help saves hundreds of lives and consquently be responsible for the lives and families of thousands of people today.

Our Voices Together
This is a short documentary film on the lives of a few families who have lost their loved ones during the tragic attacks of 9/11. From building schools in Afghanistan to providing cultural spaces of dialogue, these families show how their relative's spirit survives through their acts of compassion for others in the Muslim community. Their creation of the organization Our Voices Together encourages others to continue their call for a safer, more compassionate world. 13 minutes.

Outlawed
This film tells the stories of Khaled El-Masri and Binyam Mohamed, two men who have survived extraordinary rendition (a procedure in which a nation sidesteps its human rights commitments by sendingforeign suspects another country for interrogation under less humane conditions), secret detention, and torture by the U.S. government working with various other governments worldwide. Outlawed features relevant commentary from Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, U.S. President George W. Bush, Michael Scheuer, the chief architect of the rendition program and former head of the Osama Bin Laden unit at the CIA, and Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. Secretary of State. 30 minutes.

A Son's Sacrifice  
This is a documentary film of 27 year old Imran who takes over a very different family business- a traditional Muslim slaughterhouse in New York City. But his father's demands and the community's doubts may prove too much for him. On the holiest day of the year, Imran must lead a sacrifice that will define him as a Muslim, as an American, and as a son. A Son's Sacrifice is the winner of the "Best Documentary Short" at the TriBeCa Film Festival. 27 minutes.

The Peacekeepers  
With unprecedented access to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping, The Peacekeepers provides an intimate and dramatic portrait of the struggle to save "a failed state."The film follows the determined and often desperate manoeuvres to avert another Rwandan disaster, this time in the Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC). Focusing on the UN mission, the film cuts back and forth between the United Nations headquarters in New York and events on the ground in the DRC. We are with the peacekeepers in the 'Crisis Room' as they balance the risk of loss of life on the ground with the enormous sums of money required from uncertain donor countries. We are with UN troops as the northeast Congo erupts and the future of the DRC, if not all of central Africa, hangs in the balance. 83 minutes.

Uganda Rising
This film tells the story of what has been called the world's "biggest hostage crisis", where more than 2 million Acholi living in northern Uganda have been held hostage and terrorized for the past 20 years by a group of rebels known as the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led by their spiritual and military leader Joseph Kony. 82 minutes.

-Back to top-

* denotes a new addition to AID's media library

Please click here to sign-up in order receive one of the following films. Email Laura@aidemocracy.org with any questions or concerns regarding film requests.