Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (2012)

           In 2009 Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn of the New York Times published their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. It's about what many are calling the most important human rights issue of the day, "gendercide" or the systematic oppression of women and girls in the developing world. If you can't read the book, this film with the identical title was released in the fall of 2012, and is a good substitute. It consists of two two-hour "episodes" (too long in my view). Each two-hour episode focuses on three countries and a sample issue, accompanied by an American actress. For example, Meg Ryan accompanies Kristof to Cambodia to examine sex trafficking. The celebrities are intended to "amplify" the issue, says George Clooney at the beginning of the film, but I thought their presence was a distraction; the heroes and victims of the third world can speak for themselves well enough. Still, this is a first class production about an urgent issue, and well worth watching. I watched it on Netflix Streaming, but I see that you can also watch it from their own Half the Sky website: http://www.halftheskymovement.org/.