stolen childhoods press kit

8/7/2019 Stolen Childhoods Press Kit

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A plague of child labor affects 246million children. These are not part-time workers, these are kids for whom life is nothing but work. Littlekids . . . teenagers, all have had

their childhoods stolen from themand have no hope for the future, nochance for an education or a decentlife. They are hidden in fields, backrooms, on fishing platforms, inbrothels, in factories - exploitedand often enslaved. Every countrywe filmed in had some good peopletrying to help, and successfulprograms for change - but the task

is overwhelming. Child laborers arevictims of poverty, prejudice,economic policy and internationalprofiteering. But when the childrenspeak for themselves, it is impossiblenot to listen and not to act. Thesechildren are resilient. They deservea chance. We hope that STOLENCHILDHOODS will allow them to beheard, will reveal working solutionsand inspire the determination tooffer a decent life to all of our children.

- Len Morris, Director

copyright Romano/Stolen Childhoods



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ANECDOTAL ACCOUNT

Excerpts from the e-mails that producer Len Morris sent home to his wife revealthe true nature of the experience of filming child laborers at work.

Day 1. This is not going to be easy. The government has

assigned us a “monitor” to travel with us and watch every move we make. They are edgy. Child labor is sensitive here.

Day 5. Yesterday, filmed a dozen children picking coffee andnoticed a large black wound on a girl’s leg and stopped shooting

to treat it. Today we went back to the plantation tomeet the girl’s family, change the dressings and give her

antibiotics. People lined up for the simplest medicine.

Day 9. I can’t remember from one day to the next what I’ve

written. This is a haze of sleep deprivation, malaria drugs,filming and breathing thick pesticides everywhere. Silvia's

leg wound has had two dressings. We returned Sunday for her.When we arrive she beams. We treated another line-up. Filmed

so many children working.

Day 14. Today a plantation owner sent thugs to threaten us

and our government monitor stepped in and insisted we beallowed to film! He said to me, ‘You know, when you helped

that girl it touched my heart. I thank you on behalf of my government and people.’ He’s coming with us now on his own

time. I’m amazed, and touched.

copyright Francis Irungu



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SYNOPSIS

Stolen Childhoods is the first feature documentary on global child labor ever produced. The film features stories of child laborers around the world, told intheir own words. One of the stories is about children picking coffee in Kenya,another is about a child prostitute in Mexico City, one is about a boy who hadbeen pressed into forced labor on a fishing platform in the Sea of Sumatra,children picking crops in Texas and children picking through garbage at adump in Brazil. Throughout the film, we have tried to present local, nationaland international solutions to child labor, programs that have been successfulin removing children from the workforce and returning them to school, so that

they have a chance to develop as children and also have a chance of makinga reasonable living when they grow up. Stolen Childhoods challenges theviewer to help break the cycle of poverty for the 246 million children laboringat the bottom of the global economy.



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BIOGRAPHIES

Len MorrisProducer, Director, WriterLen has produced, directed and edited television documentaries for over twenty years. His films have been syndicated and broadcast on HBO, TNT,PBS and other cable and international networks. His independent production

company Galen Films has produced numerous award-winning documentaries.Len is a recipient of an Independent Filmmaker Award from the American FilmInstitute. His films are on subjects as diverse as schizophrenia, environmentaljustice, street children, hunger in Africa, legal aid during the apartheid era inSouth Africa, the Holocaust . . . and a string of specials on Hollywood . . . filmnoir, the American Western and singing cowboys.



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Robin RomanoCo-Director and Director of PhotographyAs a writer/director/cameraman, Robin Romano has worked in Canadiannews programming and international documentary television. His most recent

projects have been Death of a Slave Boy , a two-hour special shot in Pakistanfor European broadcast and Globalization and Human Rights, hosted byCharlayne Hunter Gault for PBS. As a still photographer, Mr. Romano isrepresented by Alan Kaplan Studios. He has taught AdvancedCinematography at the Graduate Film Institute of NYU, was visiting instructor at Columbia Graduate Film School and has lectured at Rhode Island School of Design and the Oak Institute for International Human Rights at Colby College.

Petra LentCo-ProducerPetra has worked at the heart of all Galen Films productions for twenty years,as editor and producer. She was editor of Big Guns Talk: The Story of theWestern for TNT, was recently supervising editor for In-her’it-ance, an oral

history of the Hallmark company and editor of Forty Years of Passion for theTheatre Communications Group. She holds a BA from Swarthmore and an MAin English Literature from Columbia University.



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Jonathan DeullConsulting ProducerJonathan produces radio and television on issues of global concern, includingconflict resolution, the environment, sustainable human development and

international disaster assistance. His non-profit company, WorldWorksCommunications, Inc., produces radio and television for both the US and thedeveloping world, including his award-winning, Africa on the Move. Mostrecently he served as Series Producer for Africa: Search for Common Ground,a 13-part radio and television series broadcast in three languages in twentyAfrican countries. A member of the Bar of the State of New York, Jonathanhas a J.D. from George Washington University and B.A. from WesleyanUniversity.

Barbara BroccoliExecutive ProducerBarbara began her career as an assistant director on the James Bond films,Octopussy and A View to a Kill, and then became Associate Producer on TheLiving Daylights and License to Kill. She produced (with Michael Wilson),Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day. Through her independent film company, Astoria Productions, sheproduced Crime of the Century, about the kidnapping of the Lindbergh babyfor HBO, which was nominated for four Golden Globes. Barbara is a

graduate of Loyola University in Motion Picture and TelevisionCommunications.

Georgia MorrisWriterDocumentary script writer, playwright and screenwriter, Georgia is a co-owner of Galen Films and has written numerous Galen productions. Her work haswon several Cine Golden Eagles and was nominated for a Cable Ace for BestWriting for Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western. Recently, Georgia

directed a retrospective for Theatre Communications Group, Forty Years of Passion. Her plays have been produced in New York and Martha's Vineyardand her screenplay won an Independent Filmmaker Grant from the AmericanFilm Institute.



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Mark Jonathan HarrisWriter/Editorial AdvisorMark is an Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist,novelist and film professor at the School of Cinema-Television at USC. He

wrote and directed The Long Way Home, a documentary about the periodfollowing the Holocaust, which won an Academy Award for Best FeatureLength Documentary of 1997. His most recent feature documentary, Into theArms of Strangers won the Oscar for Best Feature Length Documentary in2000. Mark writes journalism for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times,Chicago Tribune and New West magazine. He has also published five novelsfor children.

Miriam Cutler ComposerLos Angeles-based film composer Miriam Cutler has been writing, producing,and performing music for over 20 years. Her evocative scores have gracednumerous narrative features and award-winning documentaries, as well astelevision, corporate videos, cartoons, and even two circuses. She's known for her versatility, her soulful integration of world music styles, and her enthusiasmfor working collaboratively. Some recent credits include Pandemic: FacingAIDS (United Nations screening; HBO), Lost in La Mancha, which won theEvening Standard 'Peter Sellers Comedy Award' at the Savoy in London and

received nominations for Best Documentary—Prix Arte at the European FilmAcademy Awards and the British Independent Film Awards, Scout’s Honor Best Doc Audience Award, Freedom of Expression Award Sundance FilmFestival, and Amy’s Orgasm, a theatrically released comedy feature film.

Sara NessonEditorPart of the Galen Films team for three years, Sara edited In-her’it-ance, a three-hour a documentary on the history of the Hallmark Company. Prior to Galen

Films, she edited news releases for European news stations and CNN as wellas educational video for Outward Bound and Expeditionary Learning.AllChildren Sing, a documentary on cultural diversity which she edited for European Communications Management, was broadcast in Europe and Asia.She also has produced, shot and edited two independent shorts,PanheadMike and Capawock .



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Jeremy MayhewTitle Design / Assistant EditorJeremy is a Film/Video graduate of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

His independent films include The Overwhelming Overflow of ‘No’, TheDiscovery, The Purloiner El Magnifico and Strikers Passing, an award-winningdocumentary on the harpoon swordfishermen of New England. Jeremy alsowas Director of Photography for a documentary on fish farming in Haiti andFirst Camera Assistant on the feature film, Mistover.

Pharis HarveySenior Program ConsultantPharis is a founder of the International Labor Rights Fund. He is the author of

Trading Away the Future: Child Labor in India’s Export Industries andnumerous articles on child labor. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of RUGMARK Foundation - USA and a member of the boards of RUGMARKInternational, the Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace, the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, the US Labor Education in the Americas Projectand the Consumers Choice Council. He is a co-chair for the Child Labor Coalition and a committee member for the Global March Against Child Labor.Pharis received the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award for “LifetimeAchievement” in developing and defending labor rights law internationally.

Pharis holds degrees from Oklahoma City University and Yale University and isan ordained Methodist Minister.

All photographs copyright Romano/Stolen Childhoods, except as otherwise noted.

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