One organizing harnessing the power of the internet to document human rights violations worldwide is WITNESS.  Through photography, blogs and video, they help to bring important human rights stories to the world’s attention and help to facilitate action to stop these abuses.  When you read through the stories on their site, you realize that without a group such as WITNESS, it would be challenging for many of these stories to get the attention they deserve because of oppression by media and governments.

One story they recently exposed is about slave labor in Brazil. Approximately 25,000 young men, aged 18-25 are enslaved by land owners in the Amazon. Their papers are confiscated, they are forced to work to repay for their food, lodging and transportation and they are watched by armed guards. However, WITNESS and two other organizations documented these mens’ stories in the film, Bound by Promises.

The film is being used to expose this modern-day slavery in Brazil and to end it. Businesses for Social Responsibility uses it as an educational tool to help companies eliminate any slavery from their supply-chains. The Brazilian government continues to make strides towards ending slavery but much needs to still be done help. takepart today to sign WITNESS’ petition.  Also, learn more about slavery worldwide with Free the Slaves.

(photo by _FleMmA_)

On March 10th, the 2008 International Documentary Challenge wrapped up their timed filmmaking competition! 122 filmmakers from 16 different countries participated in the challenge ” to make a documentary film in five days. Each documentary filmmaker was assigned a different genre, including music, politics and character studies, all embodying the theme of “Change.”

The 2007 Doc Challenge was a big success, with ten of the twelve filmmaking teams attending the sold out screening in Toronto. Additional screenings took place this year at the Northwest Film Forum and the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Check out what some of the filmmakers had to say about their experience from last year’s event.

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