Movies can bring the world to your students in very realistic ways. Films are multisensory, they have the ability to create an emotional connection between the message and the interlocutor in powerful ways. Furthermote, they can help you as a teacher not only to achieve your classroom goals, but also to introduce values and to raise awareness about current topics. Stories introduced through movies can create connections across time, place and culture. Now more than ever, the world is craving for impactful, thought-provoking stories that can bring us closer to social issues that seem to be from afar.
Documentaries can be the most assertive way of talking about topics such as racism, health, or the environment that sometimes can be to vast or difficult to take on. For this reason, I would like to share three documentaries that will help you to analyze current affairs in a more appealing way.
FED UP
Fed Up is an American documentary available on Netflix and Youtube that analyzes the causes of obesity in the US claiming that the consumption of white sugar in processed foods is the main overlooked root of the problem. The director also blames the lobbying power of sugar companies for concealing the problem and points how these big corporations have blocked any policies that tried to adress the issue. Whether you are analyzing the topic of health or nutrition, I would suggest you to give Fed Up a go.
SWEATSHOP DEADLY FASHION
From fashion bloggers to activits
This Norwegian reality show would be my must-watch in my classroom whenever it comes to the topic of fast fashion, garment factories or modern slavery. This two- season documentary exhibits the working conditions of Cambodian workers through the eyes of three wealthy Norwegian bloggers who live and breath for fashion. Unaware of the situation of three quarters of the working world, these three YouTube influencers make a living by prompting the latest runway trends from giants of the garment industry such as H&M. From the day that two independent film producers invite them to star in a documentary in Cambodia, their lives will be altered forever, not to mention the way they perceive fashion and society.
Each season records their experience as they wake up and go to work in a garment factory located in Nom Pen. During this time, they have to survive on 3 euros a day. Not surprisingly, after their return to their home country, the three of them decide to forsake their past lives and become social activists, and to become the voice of those workers who lived in hazardous conditions.
SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME
This catching and sensitive documentary explores how slaves traffic was still real in the US even after the Civil War and the abolition of African slavery. In the post-war years American landlords kept on kidnapping and forcing newly free slaves into forced labour using brutal methods.
The director gathers scholars, and descendants of the victims to narrate the truth of this illegal and overlooked system that persisted without impunity in the country for more than 60 years. Slavery by another name has changed any assumptions that claim this dreadful and inhumane system ended more that 100 years ago.
