''A Small Act'' is a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

produced by Harambee Media and

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

and directed by Jennifer Arnold. The documentary chronicles Chris Mburu's search for his benefactor, whose

sponsorship Sponsoring something (or someone) is the act of supporting an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. The individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor, is kn ...

allowed him to continue secondary school in Kenya. He would go on to earn degrees from the University of Nairobi and Harvard Law School.

Synopsis

Chris Mburu is a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

human rights advocate. As a child in Kenya, he was a good student, but would not have been able to enter secondary school, as only

Primary School A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

is free of cost in Kenya. Due to his outstanding grades, Chris was selected for a direct scholarship, provided to him by a Swedish woman named Hilde Back, who had fled Nazi Germany because of her Jewish heritage. In the present day, Mburu has decided to create a scholarship program of his own, and names it after his former benefactor, Hilde Back. In Kenya, Three gifted students, Kimani, Ruth, and Caroline are vying for a scholarship that may be their only chance to continue school. Kimani, Ruth and Caroline take the

Kenya Certificate of Primary Education The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) is a certificate awarded to students after completing the approved eight-year course in primary education in Kenya. The examination is supervised by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), ...

Test, a nationwide standard that will determine their eligibility for Mburu's scholarship program. However, the violence and mayhem of the

2007–2008 Kenyan crisis The 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis was a violent political, economic, and humanitarian crisis that erupted in Kenya after former President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election held on December 27, 2007. Supporters of Kib ...

may jeopardize the students' dreams. Due to a lack of students meeting the predetermined threshold on the tests, Kimani is given a scholarship. Unfortunately, Ruth and Caroline do not receive scholarships, but it is revealed in the closing credits that they have been sponsored to continue schooling by the documentary film crew. The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival and went on to win the Humanitas Prize for Documentary, a NAMIC Vision Award and was nominated for the Best Documentary Emmy Award. The rippling effect theory has never been easily proven, than in this particular story. The "drop" in the "ocean" literally formed waves across the vast ocean. From Sweden to Kenya.

External links

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A Small Act
' at

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