Invisible Hands (2018)—This more recent documentary follows the groundbreaking film, Stolen Childhoods (2006), which Meryl Steep narrated. From my perspective, Stolen Childhoods told the story of children caught in the web of slavery more clearly and effectively. Yet, this documentary, too, is as disturbing, since each of us are connected with it on some level. We only wish there had been more progress in reducing these crimes since the earlier documentary.

The film, as Stolen Childhoods did in Mexico, shows the nicotine and herbicide poisoning of children in Indonesia.

The film spends the most time with the chocolate industry in Ghana and Sierra Leon—and child trafficking. The film maker and narrator, Shraysi Tandon, alludes to solutions and she herself got the police to do a one-time raid on a child trafficking ring, where the leader was arrested.

As Stolen Childhoods, Tandon also had lengthy interviews of Kailash Satyarthi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner of 2014, with Malala, for his work in rescuing children from slavery and giving them a new start in life through his Ashram educational centers.

Tandon interviews Siddharth Kara, who has written excellent books, Bonded Labor (2012), Modern Slavery (2017), and Cobalt Red (2023), the last one covering the horrors of cobalt mining in the Republic of Congo, where economic, child, and sexual abuse are the norm in the rush to get this precious mineral out to help in the recharging of the world’s batteries to propel the Green Movement forward.

Tandon covers this briefly, but I wish she had spent more time in the Republic of Congo to help raise awareness of the cruelty at the heart of everyone’s cell phone and portable computer. Apple did pull out of the Congo, fortunately. The world needs to pull out of the Congo.

I hope the film will add to the awareness of the enormous and abusive supply chain each of us is unwittingly part of.

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