Activist Cinema 2015 Part 1

We start off our annual year end wrap up with some news about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigating the hiring practices of the major Hollywood studios.  Turns out, the entertainment industry is shallow, image obsessed and sexist towards women.  Hopefully this investigation will have better results than the 1969 investigation by the EEOC...or the 1983 class action law suit by the Directors Guild of America.
We also take quick look at a few of the essential documentary films of 2015.
Merchants of Doubt
Cartel Land
Best of Enemies
He Named Me Malala
[Click to Listen]

Episode III : Child Brides and Dancing Boys

It's a really shitty time to be a kid in the world today, especially if you are one of the 250 million girls under the age of 15 who are forcibly married off by their family each year.  UNICEF and Girls Not Brides are trying their best to raise awareness and combat child marriage, but on some parts of this planet a daughter is a commodity to be sold.  Some daughters as young as 8.  Often times to men old enough to be her father or grandfather.  Unfortunately, the boys of Afghanistan don't have it any better.  The centuries old practice of "bacha baazi" ("boy-play") has returned to Afghanistan, essentially making child rape a cultural norm.  Boys, from 9 to 15 years old, dance for "kaatah" ("owners") in large dance hall parties before being sexually abused.  How culturally normal is this practice?  The occupying forces of the US Military are specifically told not to interfere. [Click to Listen].