Choosing the right film to both engage and inform students can be a real challenge. As a librarian in higher learning, you can make the choice easier for teachers by curating films and documentaries that highlight important topics in recent history or communities facing some of the biggest human rights struggles. This is a short list of films I've personally reviewed that have strong human rights messages and important information from marginalized people and groups, and will be sure to engage students instead of making them stare at their phones in boredom.
Stories of A
Originally published in 1973, Stories of A is a classic French documentary about abortion rights. Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022, many human rights and abortion watchdogs have braced for a wave of punitive measures for women seeking abortions, and we've seen some egregious human rights abuses perpetrated in the name of protecting fetal "right to life." Stories of A gives us a glimpse into a world where necessary healthcare is declared illegal and allows victims of such misogynistic regulation to speak for themselves. The story of the film's production and escape from censorship, too, is fascinating and holds many potential lessons for today's students. Consider this one most highly if you have an active gender or women's studies department.
Read our review of Stories of A.
Kenya
Trans women in many places are often forced into full-service sex work to make ends meet because of societal bigotry and legalized discrimination. Kenya follows a woman of the same name in Mexico City who is forced into activism after witnessing the savage murder of her friend and co-worker, Paola, by a client and the subsequent inaction by the police and other law enforcement bodies. Even after such a cruel death, Paola is forsaken by her family, who refuse to accept that she is a woman.
This raw and emotional look into one of the most universally brutalized communities will be incredibly shocking and informative for any queer studies student, but there is also a focus on the injustice and mistreatment of these women by the forces that are supposed to protect and defend them that will generate broader appeal. Kenya will also be very useful for anyone studying the politics or recent history of Mexico.
Stream Kenya on Amazon Prime Video.
The Forgotten Occupation
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far," President Theodore Roosevelt wrote in a letter in 1900 as his administration funded and defended brutal imperialism along the Gulf of Mexico and throughout the Caribbean. The impact of these policy decisions and invasions reverberates to this day.
The Forgotten Occupation is perhaps the best history of Haiti ever put to film. Starting with French colonialism and moving through the Haitian Revolution, this documentary makes clear the island's brutal past of slavery and oppression before diving into one of history's most frequently forgotten moments: America's military occupation of Haiti.
This is one of the most valuable documentaries I've ever seen, and it's filled with so much information that ties threads to many historical moments and current events. Whether your collection serves a thriving history department constantly studying American history or your students are fascinated by Haiti and its people, The Forgotten Occupation will be a valuable addition to any human rights collection.
Read our review of The Forgotten Occupation.
Stream The Forgotten Occupation on Amazon Prime Video.
Being Michelle
Many human rights abuses are incredibly granular. They often get swept under the rug and forgotten, obfuscated by how isolated and dependent those being abused are. Being Michelle highlights one such story of one such woman.
Michelle is a deaf autistic woman who, because of a lack of support and systemic disregard, frequently finds herself in prison. Kim Law, a blind woman who volunteers as a life coach and counselor in the prison where Michelle is currently behind bars, takes it upon herself to try to find a better solution for Michelle's unmet needs so she can stop ending up incarcerated because people refuse to accommodate her deafness and abuse the confusion created by this lack of communication.
Being Michelle is an incredibly important and spellbinding documentary for anyone learning about disability, incarceration, women's issues, the justice system, social work, or medicine, tying into many human rights issues involved in those fields. This is a great documentary to have on hand for students, as it is high quality, engaging, and will see frequent use in many different contexts.
Read our review of Being Michelle.
The Illusion of Abundance
From mining and lumber extraction all the way down to growing coffee and cattle, the industries that provide abundance in places like America rely on colonialism that steals abundance from others. The violence and brutality are often obscured by distance and language barriers.
More sinister, however, is the way these abuses hide behind PR spin and complacency: "unforeseen consequences," "unpreventable accident," and "climate catastrophe" do a lot of heavy lifting to rebrand explicit negligence and environmental racism, and the sad part is that it works in a lot of cases.
At only 58 minutes in runtime, The Illusion of Abundance is an outstanding documentary that can easily fit into many college class periods. It's also a breathtaking doc that will keep students engaged and informed. The Illusion of Abundance looks at several Indigenous-led struggles, from the grassroots to the tippy-top of several countries' justice systems, connecting the human rights abuses to the system that profits from them. Consider this one most highly for environmentalism and South American studies, but other teachers discussing economics and human rights will also want to use this title.
Read our review of The Illusion of Abundance.
Twice Colonized
Part personal doc, part Inuit documentary, Twice Colonized follows Aaju Peter, an acclaimed Inuit lawyer who has pushed the global fight for Native rights through many courts in her time. This documentary does a fantastic job of showing how human rights battles impact those putting in the effort, as well as highlighting the duality of how one exists within and outside colonization.
In Twice Colonized, we're shown how colonialism impacts cultures and individuals. It also focuses on how colonialism robs them of their culture to support white supremacist ideals that most governments claim they've excised from their systems, and how the fight for simple recognition stifles and diminishes generations of Indigenous peoples. These issues cascade into cultural dissolution through erasure, ensuring languages and cultures disappear just like in the "kill the Indian to save the man" days.
Anyone studying Native cultures, anti-Native sentiment, or how human rights cases work in the legal system will want to pick up Twice Colonized.
Read our review of Twice Colonized.
Stream Twice Colonized on Amazon Prime Video.
Mapantsula
This intense drama begins with the words, "It's a miracle this film was made. It's a miracle this film survived." Mapantsula (lit. "petty gangster") is one of the most ambitious guerrilla films ever produced, and what's even more important and impressive is that it was created by a Black production team under South Africa's apartheid laws.
A fictional film that uses reality as a backdrop, Mapantsula gives us an intriguing glimpse into one of the most impactful human rights fights of the past half-century. Panic, the main character, clearly shows us how racism shapes people and forces many oppressed people into criminality to survive and thrive.
Anyone studying apartheid, systemic racism, civil rights activism, or South African history will want to use this title. Frankly, it's a film everyone should watch once, and the fact that it's an independent, guerrilla production still blows my mind: there are multimillion-dollar films with well-known actors made today that don't reach half the quality of this fantastic movie.
Read our review of Mapantsula.
Stream Mapantsula on Amazon Prime Video.
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