THE CHILDREN WE SACRIFICE

Synopsis


Shot in India, Sri Lanka, Canada and the US, The Children We Sacrifice is a 61-minute video documentary that explores the universal crime of incestuous sexual abuse through the prism of South Asian experience. Through stories by women abused from as young as two, the 61-minute video looks at the social and cultural resistance to dealing with incest and how it affects South Asian women on two continents. Throughout the documentary, images of childhood are juxtaposed against the ironies of home as source of refuge and violation, family as source of comfort and betrayal. This is no sensationalist treatment of the women who share their stories of abuse but a celebration of their struggle and resilience. It is a moving validation of those who confront different levels of silences around a deeply camouflaged issue.

Won the 2001 Creating A Voice award and the 2000 Rosebud award. Screened at film festivals including the April 2002 Women's Film Festival in Seoul, June 2000 United Nations Women's Film Festival and the May 2000 Color of Violence Film Festival in Santa Cruz.

The video is available in English, Hindi, Tamil and Bengali. It is currently being translated into Sinhala in Sri Lanka.

The Children We Sacrifice video comes with 132-page resource booklet with articles about intervention, disclosure, and statistics on the prevalence of incest in South Asia. The booklet also gives recommendations on how to talk to children about incestuous sexual abuse, how to provide support to adult survivors, resource listings, and a series of questions for interactive discussions following a screening of the video. An audience-participatory theater exercise is included for those interested in using Forum Theater as a way to break silences around child sexual abuse.

Since October 2000, The Children We Sacrifice has been screened in several cities in India and the United States. Screenings are followed by interactive discussions. Workshops and training with Grace Poore are also available with screenings. All screenings are free and open to the public. Please check our calendar.

To find out more about this video documentary or our workshops, contact us.

Read more about incestuous sexual abuse issues in:


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Modified on Oct 19, 2003