A Worldwide Quest for ‘Just Solutions’

What’s the connection between a pig farming debacle in Haiti and the demise of prison education programs in New York? The answer is provided by “Just Solutions: Campaigning for Human Rights,” a four-part series that links these and two other seemingly disparate subjects.

“Just Solutions” brings together a quartet of independently produced, 60-minute documentaries that chronicle social and political injustice, both here and abroad. Airing on four consecutive Sundays at 11 p.m. on KCET beginning this weekend, the series was assembled by Colorado-based cable network, Free Speech TV and New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch to commemorate the recent 50th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The series kicks off with “A Pig’s Tale,” which explores the 1983 eradication of Haiti’s native swine population and the resulting economic and political upheaval. “Poverty Outlaw,” the next segment, is the story of homeless women in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood who become grass-roots activists. “The Last Graduation” looks at the termination of prison education programs in the U.S. and its social costs. The series concludes with “Dirty Secrets,” a documentary on American attorney Jennifer Harbury and her search for her murdered Guatemalan husband.

Of the four segments, Patricia Goudvis’ “Dirty Secrets” falls most obviously into the category of the traditional human rights expose, as it focuses on the abuses of a brutal military dictatorship. But “Just Solutions” employs a broader definition of human rights abuse, according to Jon Stout, Free Speech TV program director, thus allowing the filmmakers to look at systemic problems of social and economic inequality.

“We’re talking about violations of economic human rights,” says Pam Yates, who co-produced and co-directed “Poverty Outlaw.” Yates and her partner, Peter Kinoy, are currently making a series of documentaries about poor people’s movements in the U.S.

For Barbara Zahm, co-producer (with Deep Dish TV) of “The Last Graduation,” the punitive social climate that has led to record levels of incarceration--and the elimination of prison college programs--is likewise a deeply troubling human rights issue. “[Prison is] a growth industry,” Zahm says. “The U.S. has more incarcerated people per capita than any country in the world. . . . And we’re not dealing with rehabilitation.”

The four documentaries that constitute “Just Solutions” were drawn from an 18-part series broadcast on Free Speech TV in December and January.

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“Just Solutions: Campaigning for Human Rights” airs at 11 p.m. four consecutive Sundays beginning this weekend on KCET.