IHRC has produced a number of documentaries relating to cultural and physical genocide. It is currently producing a new documentary on the Bosnian genocide. All the videos are available online and can be used without seeking IHRC’s permission in lesson. It may be possible to arrange a screening with a Q&A with a member of the production team. Please contact us on gmd@ihrc.org.
These documentaries are suggested as possible resources for class discussion. IHRC is not responsible for external content.
IHRC Productions
Forgotten Genocide (approx. 45 mins)
14+ Although there has been some recognition of the genocide in Srebrenica towards the end of the Bosnian war in the 1990s the extent of genocide across the country from 1992 – 1995 against Bosnian Muslims has often been ignored or down-played. This documentary interviews survivors, lawyers and experts on genocide to argue that the whole war, and its mass killings and mass rapes be recognised as one the genocides of the current era.
16+ Additional resource Forgotten Genocide Film Premier and Q&A with IHRC Chair Massoud Shadjareh, poet Hodan Yusuf, documentary director Assed Baig and Bosnian activist Demir Mahmutcehajic and event curator Hamja Ahsan. The film Forgotten Genocide premiered at Rich Mich in East London in 2015. This question and answer session probes issues raised and beyond the film including international involvement in the crimes and cross cuts Government & Politics, History, Religious Studies, Sociology, Law.
Zone of Non-Being: Guantanamo (2014) (approx 51 mins)
14+ The film looks at the implications of new forms of warfare like the use of drones, and raises questions about the nature of asymmetric warfare and genocide and genocidal acts. This documentary cross cuts History, Citizenship, Religious Studies.
16+ The film addresses sociological issues around the development of ‘race’ as a prism through which colonial and post-colonial societies have been organised. This film raises issues around the role of genocide in the foundation of the modern world, discussing the transatlantic slave trade, the genocide of Native Americans, structural racism, modern forms of warfare and their connection to genocidal thinking and praxis.
Government & Politics, History, Religious Studies, Sociology, Law.
External Productions
Even the Crows: Divided Gujarat
14+ Sisters Sheena and Sonum Sumeria direct this film journey across Gujarat and the UK to find out about the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, and the ongoing human rights abuses of Muslims in that state. They uncover not just the extent of abuses but a trail of nationalistic rhetoric both in India but also in the UK that was and is a harbinger of violence.
To buy the DVD with a Schools Discount please visit the IHRC Bookshop here and and enter the code BOOKS4SCHOOL for 15%. discount.
16+ Q&A with the Writers and Directors of Even the Crows
Sheena and Sonum Sumeria join IHRC for a Q&A about their film, and the journey they took to make it. This cross cuts Government & Politics, History, Religious Studies, Sociology, Law.
Kani Shingal: Shingal, where are you?
Watch the trailer here
Set in an abandoned coalmine at the Turkish border, Shingal, where are you? weaves together the dramatic stories of Yezidi refugees following ISIS attacks and the kidnapping of more than 3000 women and children.
Directors: Angelos Rallis, Hans Ulrich Goessl (co-director) Writer: Angelos Rallis
Shingal’s Children: Banished by Daesh (40 mins)
The Takfiri terrorist group, Daesh or ISIL has been attacking and devastating towns and villages in Iraq and Syria. Daesh terrorists control some parts of Syria and Iraq and they are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control. ISIL Takfiris have terrorized and killed people of all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians. With the liberation of Shingal eventually a humanitarian corridor for the hundreds of civilians who had been stranded in the Mount Sinjar area was opened. With their evacuation terrifying stories of massacre and abduction emerged.
Burnt Books (40 mins)
Until recently Mali society lived in relative peace with one another, tolerant of minority religions and integrated into societal norms. However, for the past three years alone people in Mali have dealt with a government takeover, civil war, foreign terrorism as well as local terrorism and rebellion, displacement of masses of people, government collapse, and destruction of the country’s most endearing artifacts.
The Trial of Radovan Karadzic (10 mins)
Two decades after the guns fell silent in Bosnia, a special U.N. court in The Hague, Netherlands, sentences the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to 40 years in jail.
Vietnam: Orange Memories (1 hour)
During the Vietnam War, the US Army used Agent Orange as part of its herbicidal warfare program. This agent became the main reason of more than 500,000 birth defects in both the US and Vietnam.
MAAFA 21 (2 hours 26 mins)
Maafa 21 is a documentary on the modern eugenics movement, from its roots in 19th century imperialist Europe and in various post-slavery elitist milieus in America, to the Third Reich and its Final Solution for the “Jewish question” — the film proceeds on to today, where it exposes the incredible proportions of the culling of Black people by abortion, in 21st century
The Truth About Congo (30 mins)
Millions of Congolese have lost their lives in a conflict that the United Nations describes as the deadliest in the world since World War Two. United States allies, Rwanda and Uganda, invaded in 1996 the Congo (then Zaire) and again in 1998, which triggered the enormous loss of lives, systemic sexual violence and rape, and widespread looting of Congo’s spectacular natural wealth.
The Canary Effect
Delving deeply into the often misunderstood and frequently over looked historic realities of the American Indian, The Canary Effect follows the terrifying and horrific abuses instilled upon the Indigenous people of North America, and details the genocidal practices of the US government and its continuing affects on present day Indian country.
Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia
The film recounts the bombing of Cambodia by the United States in 1970 during the Vietnam War, the subsequent brutality and genocide that occurred when Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge militia took over, the poverty and suffering of the people, and the limited aid since given by the West.
Aghet (93 mins)
Aghet is a powerful documentary, depicting the annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians from 1915-1923 and the effects of the Turkish government’s international campaign of genocide denial.
Utopia [WATCH] (1 hour 33 mins)
Utopia highlights that Aboriginal Australians in Australia are currently imprisoned at 10 times the rate that South Africa imprisoned black people under apartheid, rates of rheumatic heart disease and trachoma among Aboriginal Australians are some of the highest in the world and suicide rates are increasing, especially among youths.
