CHILDREN OF SHADOWS

In Haiti, many parents are forced by destitution and desperation to give away their children. The children—who may be as young as four years old—then go to live and work for other families as unpaid domestic servants, or slaves. The film follows the restavek children of Haiti as they go about their daily chores—the endless cycle of cooking, washing, sweeping, mopping, shopping at the market, fetching water, running errands, etc. In heartbreaking interviews, the children speak openly and shyly about the lives they are forced to lead. Their ‘aunts’ speak openly and proudly of the vast mountain of work that ‘their’ restavek does for them, while the parents talk about the kind of situation that would force them to give away one or more of their children. Both emotional and informative, this is the first film to be made about this subject, which, until recently, had never been talked about.