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The true story of a young teenage girl whose mother is incarcerated for murder. Living in a Catholic Children's home run by an order of nuns, she provides poignant commentary about her mother, her own situation and her outlook for the future.
Anne Hamilton-Byrne was beautiful, charismatic and delusional. She was also incredibly dangerous. Convinced she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, Hamilton-Byrne headed an apocalyptic sect called The Family, which was prominent in Melbourne from the 1960s through to the 1990s. With her husband Bill, she acquired numerous children – some through adoption scams, some born to cult members – and raised them as her own. Isolated from the outside world, the children were dressed in matching outfits, had identical dyed blonde hair, and were allegedly beaten, starved and injected with LSD. Taught that Hamilton-Byrne was both their mother and the messiah, the children were eventually rescued during a police raid in 1987, but their trauma had only just begun.
8-year-old Aaron Averhart was just a year shy of being able to move up from Cub Scout to Boy Scout when he received a special request from an admired Boy Scout leader, William (Bill) Sheehan. As Aaron rose up the Boy Scout ranks, he slowly became aware of Sheehan’s grooming techniques and began to realize he had much more sinister intentions in store for him. If Aaron’s parents had known that since the 1920s the Boy Scouts of America had been keeping hidden files on dangerous pedophiles in their ranks while failing to warn the public, the police, the scouts, their parents, or even fully removing them from the Boy Scouts program, they would have never allowed young Aaron to be part of such a complicit and corrupt organization.
Melissa Lucio was the first Hispanic woman sentenced to death in Texas. For ten years she has been awaiting her fate, and now faces her last appeal.
Two ten year-old boys are detained by police under suspicion of abducting and murdering a toddler.
A group of aging former classmates begin a quest for justice when they learn from one another just how many of them had been abused as schoolboys.
Selling the Girl Next Door takes viewers into the world of underage American girls caught up in the violent sex trade. Thousands of girls under the age of 18 are ensnared into lives of prostitution annually, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Many are runaways or "throwaways" trapped in "the oldest profession" by pimps who sell them using modern sales and marketing techniques, including the online classified website Backpage.com.
Preschool to Prison is a compelling examination of how the United States public school system is built and operated like prisons. Zero-tolerance policies are used to justify suspension and arrests that set up a pathway to send children of color and children with special needs from school to prison. Children are being suspended, restrained, dragged, physically manhandled, and subsequently arrested for minor offenses such as throwing candy on a school bus. These personal accounts from people affected by the school-to-prison pipeline give riveting tales about the generational impact on society.
"Conspiracy of Silence" is a powerful, disturbing documentary revealing a nationwide child abuse and pedophilia ring that leads to the highest levels of government. Featuring intrepid investigator John DeCamp, a highly decorated Vietnam war veteran and 16-year Nebraska state senator, "Conspiracy of Silence" reveals how rogue elements at all levels of government have been involved in systematic child abuse and pedophilia to feed the base desires of key politicians
A shocking exposé of the deplorable conditions and abuses from the Willowbrook State School for children with intellectual disabilities.
Penn State football icon Joe Paterno went from revered patriarch to reviled pariah. A look back, now, ten years after the Penn State sex abuse scandal.
Social workers dispel myths about why children are removed from their biological parents, breaking down their overwhelming workload. Lawyers uncover the harsh reality of young children navigating the legal system. Advocacy organizations try to keep children safe and away from predators. An eclectic array of interviews from foster care alumni explore their connections (or lack thereof) with social workers, the fragile bond with each foster home, how trust can fall apart, and how those unable to adapt spent time in group homes. The film concludes with alumni success stories, working to remove the stigma of foster care.
British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.
Out-of-control teens across America were sent to a therapy camp in the harsh Utah desert. The conditions were brutal, but the staff were even worse.
December the 31th, 2003. Lucie decides to write a letter to the man who abused her from the age of 8 to 12 years old and resolves herself to bring it to him in person, wherever he may be.
Terrified of stories of girls bleeding to death, young Tanzanian children face a terrible choice: whether to submit to female genital mutilation and child marriage, or risk their lives and run away from home. Rhobi Samwelly, a brave local hero, stands up to her community and provides a Safe House to protect the courageous girls. Although female genital mutilation (FGM) is harmful and illegal, in Northern Tanzania it is widely believed that girls' clitorises must be cut off to reduce promiscuity. Mutilated girls also demand twice the bride price as uncut girls. The chillingly named 'cutting season' runs through the school holidays in December. Now, some of the most courageous girls in the world, some as young as eight, are leaving everyone they love behind to run to a Safe House, not knowing if they'll ever see their families again.
Manuel Barbero, father of a sexual abuse victim, and Joaquin Benitez, the pederast who abuse the son of Manuel and 20 more children, are the main characters of this documentary. The director of the film approaches these key figures of this story with a work of journalistic investigation. For the first time, a pederast speaks and confesses with his face uncovered in a documentary.
An investigation into accusations of teenagers being sexually abused within the film industry.
A documentary chronicling the shared experiences of prominent former child stars and the personal and professional price of fame and failure on a child.