Documentaries

In Nepal, a hidden war has raged since 1996, when the Maoist revolutionary movement was formed in the remote rural mountain villages of poverty-stricken Western Nepal. Since then over 10,000 people have been killed and many imprisoned or disappeared. This film tells the story of the mountain communities where the majority of Nepal’s population still live, people caught in the crossfire, facing punishment, imprisonment and even death by the army if suspected of being Maoists, and the same fate from the Maoists if suspected of supporting the king and his army.

In the Himalayan nation of Nepal an ancient tradition survives to this day. A young girl is chosen from the Newari people, a Buddhist cast to become a goddess. She is taken from her family to live in a temple where people from all sectors of society come to worship her to pray for good fortune, from street cleaners to the King of Nepal. In a country where girls are seen as second class citizens, the worshipping of a girl child could be seen as a positive role model. Modernisers are adamant that the tradition should be stopped, as the young girls miss out on their family and school life and suffer serious psychological problems as a result. This beautiful and intimate film looks at the life of three young goddesses and explores the debates for and against this unique tradition. -------Click here to order Kumari DVD-------

Three women from Afghanistan tell their haunting stories. They talk about the tearing away of their freedom and the frightening atrocities inflicted on them by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Stories that show clearly, for these women, there was no option but to flee and seek refuge in another country. In the UK the British media do not welcome asylum seekers with open arms, the words 'bogus' and 'fake' often precede the word refugee. The women in this film unveil a chilling and dark tale, leaving no questions about the true desperation of their plight.