American video-sharing website YouTube has acquired the award-winning documentary on the work of Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi and will bring the Indian activist’s sustained efforts to end child labor to a global audience.
The Price of Free, directed by Derek Doneen and produced by American film and television personality Davis Guggenheim, follows Satyarthi and his team through secret raids and missions to rescue children.
Co-produced and co-financed by film company Participant Media and Concordia Studio, the 90-minute YouTube original feature length documentary will debut on YouTube channel SoulPancake, the digital division of Participant Media, on November 27.
The film had premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the US Documentary Grand Jury Prize. It seeks to raise awareness on child labour and through the mission of Satyarthi and his team, build a better future for children across the world, according to a statement by YouTube. The Price of Free presents an opportunity to amplify the voice of Kailash Satyarthi, a tireless global activist, and to accelerate the reach and impact of his efforts to end child labour, it said.
The 90-minute feature-length documentary, “The Price of Free” (formerly titled, “Kailash”), which is a suspenseful yet intimate look at Satyarthi’s groundbreaking struggle to liberate every child possible, will debut on YouTube Nov. 27.
From director Derek Doneen and producer Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth,” “He Named Me Malala”), the film follows Satyarthi and his team of leaders around the world through gripping secret raids and quests for missing children.
The film depicts how Satyarthi, who as a young man promised himself that he would end child slavery in his lifetime, left a lucrative career as an electrical engineer and started Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) to rescue children from the shackles of slavery.
In the decades since, he has rescued more than 87,000 children and built a global movement including one of the largest civil society movements, the Global March Against Child Labor that demanded an international law on the worst forms of child labor, and the 100 Million Campaign, a youth-driven call to action ensuring every child in the world is free, safe and educated, said a press release.
“The Price of Free” presents an opportunity to amplify the voice of the tireless global activist, and to accelerate the reach and impact of his efforts to end child labor.
“This film shows the real scourge of child trafficking, child labor, slavery and exploitation that is ruining the childhood of millions and ruthlessly crushing their dreams,” Satyarthi said in a statement. “It shares stories of the most marginalized and vulnerable children that I have been fighting for all my life and will continue to. I call on everyone to watch this film and work with us in creating a world where all children are free, healthy, safe and educated – a world where every child is free to be a child. For, if any child is not free then none of us are free.”
“We are incredibly inspired by the heroic work Kailash Satyarthi and his team do every day,” said Susanne Daniels, global head of original content at YouTube. “One of YouTube’s missions is to give everyone a voice – and so we are proud to feature such an important and educational documentary that not only gives these young children a voice, but supports Kailash’s mission in giving them the childhood they rightly deserve.”
