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Hard To Believe
2015
55 min

https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/hard-believe

Winner of 14 film awards, "Hard to Believe" is a disturbing yet essential serious investigation into one of the most horrifying medical crimes of our time: forced live organ harvesting from tens of thousands of Chinese prisoners of conscience, and the response -- or lack of it -- from the media and governments around the world. eThis isn't a new phenomena -- governments killing their own citizens for their political or spiritual beliefs -- but it's never happened like this.

From an author’s 7-year investigation into a doctor’s confession, to determination of the son of a Holocaust survivor, and to the persistence of a culturally-challenged victim community, “Hard To Believe” explores the mystery of why so few people seem to be paying attention to a crime so horrific it goes beyond belief. “Hard To Believe” also challenges Western stereotypes surrounding the largest group targeted for organ harvesting, practitioners of the spiritual discipline, Falun Gong.

"This documentary is extremely important for those involved in organ donation and transplantation, human rights, health care, ethics, and the law." ~ Journal of Bioethical Inquiry

“An important, timely and deeply disturbing account of one of the great human rights abuses of our time.” ~ Dr. Arthur Caplan, PhD, Founding Director of the Division of Medical Ethics, NYU

"This illuminating, often deeply unsettling PBS-aired documentary is highly recommended.” - Video Librarian Magazine

Winner of Best Documentary Editing, 2017 Global Cinema Film Festival of Boston

Best Documentary, Hoboken International Film Festival

Award of Excellence, 2016 International Film Festival for Peace, Inspiration & Equality

Winner of Outstanding Achievement, Accolade Global Film Competition 2015 Humanitarian

Winner of Outstanding Achievement, Global Film Awards Humanitarian Award

Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhaqQT-JSOE

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Hard To Believe

https://filmfreeway.com/440529

It's happened before: Governments killing their own citizens for their political or spiritual beliefs. But it's never happened like this.

It's happened so often that the world doesn't always pay attention. But is economic influence the reason, that this time, it's going largely unreported? It's hard to believe that doctors would carve up innocent people so their organs could be sold. It's even harder to believe that major media are not investigating. Yet it happened tens of thousands of times, and may be happening still.

Hard to Believe is a documentary that examines the issue of forced live organ harvesting from Chinese prisoners of conscience, and the response -- or lack of it -- around the world. Produced by Swoop Films, two-time Emmy Award-winning director/producer, Ken Stone, and Irene Silber.

Director Biography - Ken Stone

Ken Stone spent 20 years in American broadcast newsrooms -- the bulk of that time at public television stations. His national awards include a duPont Silver Baton (Columbia University's broadcast equivalent of its Pulitzer) and a Gabriel Award and he is a two-time documentary winner of a regional Emmy Award.

Director Statement

I had spent 20 years in radio and television newsrooms -- and was currently well into my second decade as an independent producer and I had never heard of the term "live organ harvesting," I had virtually no knowledge of Falun Gong, and I was pretty skeptical when I was first approached to do a documentary about it.

After some cursory research, when I saw all the information about allegations that prisoners of conscience have been killed so their organs could be transplanted, I realized I had stumbled on a gruesome murder mystery: tens of thousands of murders may have been committed and the mystery is that so few people are paying attention.

That is the story I wanted to tell. "Hard To Believe" is not a documentary that proves, once and for all, that large scale organ harvesting has been happening in China for more than a decade. Other journalists, researchers, doctors and human rights activists have tried to do that (and, with just a bit of effort, you can judge for yourself how convincing their case is). The mystery I wanted to unravel, is why so little attention has been paid to the people trying to make the case and, more importantly, why so little attention has been paid to the testimony from tens of thousands of people who spent time in Chinese labor camps.

You may be familiar with the quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., writing about the civil rights era in the United States: "History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

One of the lessons, I think, from "Hard to Believe" is that so many good people -- so many of us -- haven't just been silent, we haven't even paid attention. I hope this film prompts a few more people to do so.