 "Stolen Childhoods"
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
7:30 pm
Memorial Hall
Producer/Director Len Morris and Co-Director and Director of Photography Robin Romano confront global child poverty in their film Stolen Childhoods. On Wednesday, September 21, 2005, the filmmakers came to North Carolina to discuss Stolen Childhoods and lectured on the causes of child labor, its costs to the global community, its contributions to global insecurity, and what it will take to eliminate it.
Stolen Childhoods is the first feature documentary on global child labor ever produced. The  film features stories of child laborers around the world, told in their own words. Children are shown working in dumps, quarries, brick kilns. One boy has been pressed into forced labor on a fishing platform in the Sea of Sumatra, a fifteen-year-old runaway describes being forced into prostitution on the streets of Mexico City, while a nine-year-old girl picks coffee in Kenya to help her family survive. The film places these children's stories in the broader context of the worldwide struggle against child labor.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill welcomed the participation in this lecture via live webcast by The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Winston-Salem State University, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, East Carolina University, and Fayetteville State University.
Len Morris - Producer, Director, Writer
Len has produced, directed and written documentaries for over twenty years. His films have been syndicated and broadcast on HBO, TNT, PBS and other cable and international networks. His independent production company Galen Films has produced numerous award-winning documentaries. His films are on subjects as diverse as schizophrenia, environmental justice, street children, hunger in Africa, legal aid during the apartheid era in South Africa, the Holocaust and a string of specials on Hollywood ... film noir, the American Western, Republic Pictures and singing cowboys. Len is a recipient of an Independent Filmmaker Award from the American Film Institute and is a director member of the Directors Guild of America.
Robin Romano - Co-Director and Director of Photography
As a writer/director/cameraman, Robin Romano has worked in Canadian news programming and international documentary television. His most recent projects have been "Death of a Slave Boy," a two-hour special shot in Pakistan for European broadcast and "Globalization and Human Rights," hosted by Charlayne Hunter Gault for PBS. As a still photographer, Mr. Romano is represented by Alan Kaplan Studios. He has taught Advanced Cinematography at the Graduate Film Institute of NYU, was visiting instructor at Columbia Graduate Film School and has lectured at Rhode Island School of Design and the Oak Institute for International Human Rights at Colby College.
This lecture series honors Frank Porter Graham, President of the University of North Carolina, 1930-1949, and United States Senator, 1949-1950. “Dr Frank,” perhaps more than any other person, defined education, culture, and politics in North Carolina in the twentieth century. Three of the enduring themes throughout Graham’s life were:
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a universal concern for those living in desperate conditions – the disadvantaged, the dispossessed, or the oppressed in body and spirit;
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an unflinching commitment to freedom of speech as the essence of a free University in a free society, a commitment grounded in the knowledge that when the despised speaker is denied a forum, democracy is threatened; and
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an abiding confidence and trust in the ability of students to play a responsible role in the affairs of the University.
This lecture series seeks to enshrine these parts of the legacy of Frank Porter Graham.
The Frank Porter Graham Lecture Series is made possible by a generous gift to the University by Taylor McMillan ’60.
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