The Human Rights Film Series is back!

Screen shot from "Children of Shadows," by filmmaker Karen Kramer.

This year, the theme is Human Rights in the Americas, and we’ll be kicking things off with a screening of Children of Shadows, featuring a Q & A and reception with filmmaker Karen Kramer on Wednesday, September 15, at 4 pm in Konover Auditorium at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.   More information is available on the Dodd Center’s website. 

In Haiti, many parents are forced by destitution and desperation to give away their children. The children, who may be as young as four years old, then go to live and work for other families as unpaid domestic servants, or slaves. They are known as “restavek” children. 

Children of Shadows follows the children as they go through their daily chores – the endless cycle of cooking, washing, sweeping, mopping, going to the market, or going to run errands. In heartbreaking interviews, the children speak openly and shyly about the lives they are forced to lead. Their “aunts” (adoptive caretakers) speak openly and proudly of the vast mountain of work that “their” restavek does for them. The camera goes deep into the countryside to interview the peasant families as to what kind of situation would force them to give away one or more of their children.