ACTIVITY GUIDE mpact Starts Here - American Red Cross Youth
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Youth & Young Adults
ACTIVITY G U I DE
Impact Starts Here
The American Red Cross has developed fun activity guides for youth volunteers to use to help
spread the word about the Red Cross and its mission: to prevent and alleviate human suffering in
the face of emergencies, by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.
Activity Guides can be used by Red Cross Clubs, general youth groups or any other students who
want to organize Red Cross mission-related activities. No matter which activity you choose, get in
touch with your local Red Cross region or Service to the Armed Forces (SAF) station. With these
helpful resources and guidelines, you can definitely make your activity a success!
I H L I N TH E MOVI E SI H L I N T H E M OV I E S
About
Teach International Humanitarian Law (IHL) by watching a movie and discussing how IHL rules and principles apply.
Invite student groups, Red Cross Volunteers, or anyone interested in learning more about IHL.
Purpose
Bring together people in your community to discuss and visualize the role of International Humanitarian Law in film.
Through seeing how it is portrayed in the media, it can become easier to see how it can be applied in real life.
Time Required
This activity can take up to three weeks to plan, but should have a run time for about two hours with an additional
thirty minutes set aside for discussion.
Volunteer Services Contact
Before you begin, contact your Regional Volunteer Services Officer (RVSO), who will guide you to resources that
can make this an impactful and successful event! You can search for your regional Volunteer Services contact info
by entering your zip code here.
IHL Youth Action Coordinator Contact
Before you begin, contact your IHL Youth Action Campaign Coordinator Contact.
If you do not know who that is, contact IHLYouth@redcross.org for more resources
and materials to make sure that this is an impactful and successful event. You can
also ask them about additional ideas and materials for other IHL activities!
2I H L I N T H E M OV I E S
How to Get Started:
Step 1: Set goals Step 6: Host the event
❏ Set a time frame for your event, set a goal ❏ Be sure to arrive a little early and set up for the
for how many people you want to attend. event. Set out enough chairs for the participants
and ensure that everything will run smoothly. You
can even bring movie snacks and encourage
Step 2: Decide on a movie others to do so as well. Be sure to prepare to hold
❏ Choose from our expansive list of IHL Movies (or get a fruitful discussion using the questions below
permission from your YAC Coordinator if you want and the additional ones you brainstormed.
to use a movie not on our list) and decide on which
movie you want to show. Be sure to review the movie ❏ In the case that this event is being held virtually,
before showing it and include any disclaimers that ensure that you are set up early and that you have
may be necessary. Be cognizant of your audience a strong and stable Wi-Fi connection. Encourage
and the type of content they are comfortable with. others to keep their cameras on but to turn their
microphones off while the movie is playing.
Step 3: Discussion questions
❏ Brainstorm some discussion questions in addition Step 7: Thank your participants
to the ones included in this activity guide. ❏ Be sure to thank everyone who attended for coming
Depending on the movie, they can be specific and for their active participation. Let them know that
to the annual YAC theme or IHL in general. if they are interested, they can follow up with you
or contact us at IHLYouth@redcross.org. They can
also follow us @YouthVoices4IHL on Instagram.
Step 4: Decide on a venue
❏ Decide on where you want to host this event. It
can be at school, in a community center, or even Step 8: Share your stats and
in your backyard! Just be sure that you would have Celebrate your success
access to a monitor/screen and enough seating for ❏ Give your total number of participants to your
all participants. Be sure to work with your volunteer YAC Coordinator so they are counted towards
supervisor to determine the best location and your events goal. Also be sure to log all of your
acquire the correct permissions for the event. volunteer hours and check that all other participating
registered volunteers submit their hours as well.
❏ In the case that this event is being held virtually, Share your success stories on your social media
find the movie online and use a video conferencing accounts. Check with your region if you would
platform to share your screen so all the participants like to highlight your event and share pictures in
can watch together. Some streaming services, like regional communications/newsletters. Don’t forget
Netflix Party, even allow for a joint watch party on to share with us through @YouthVoices4IHL on
their platform through extensions. Also consider Instagram or email us at IHLYouth@redcross.org!
applications such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.
Step 5: Spread the word
❏ Post on social media, send evites to friends,
hang up these flyers (or make your own!), make
announcements in class, and even ask your school
news team to make an announcement. Advertise
your event@YouthVoices4IHL on Instagram or
use the hashtags #IHLYouthActionCampaign to
be spotlighted!
3I H L I N T H E M OV I E S
Resources Included in This Package:
• Discussion Questions
• What’s Next
• Movie Suggestions
Parental Guidance —13 Movies (PG-13)
Unrated Movies (UR)
Restricted Movies (R)
Mature Audiences Movies (MA)
• Harry Potter Additional Activity
• Star Wars Additional Activity
• Customizable Movie Night Flyer Template
Red Cross Club Toolkits:
Review youth volunteer resources on RedCrossYouth.org. Share the Red Cross Club Toolkits with
students at the event who may be interested in learning about Red Cross Clubs.
Share with Us
Share pictures and videos of your Live Stream Gaming activity by posting
them in the American Red Cross Youth Network Facebook Group or
posting on Instagram and tagging @americanredcrossyouth.
Looking for More Information?
If you’re interested in organizing another activity, visit our Activity Guides Archive here!
If you would like to use a different flyer to promote your event—one with custom photos and more room
for description—log on to Brand Central and search “Youth Engagement—Flyer.”
Have more questions about volunteering with the American Red Cross as a youth volunteer? Email
youthinvolvement@redcross.org!
4 254001-17 6/21I H L I N T H E M OV I E S
Discussion Questions:
After screening the movie, you can use these questions as a starting point for a
discussion about the themes, rules, and principles of international humanitarian law.
General:
• Which people or groups of people are fighting?
• What type of conflict do you think it is? (International armed conflict vs. non-international armed conflict)
• Which rules of IHL apply? (Geneva Conventions and/or Additional Protocols)
• How does IHL protect those affected in an armed conflict in this film?
Theme: Cultural Property:
• What types of cultural property were affected (destroyed or damaged) in this film and how?
• How does IHL protect the item and institutions affected in an armed conflict in this film?
• W
hat programs and incentives did the government offer to either protect cultural property or recover from cultural
property damage during/after the armed conflict?
What’s Next:
• R
emember to follow up with participants after the discussion. Consider having them use social media to share their
thoughts about the activity.
• Continue to spread knowledge of IHL and the rules of armed conflict to other young people!
• F
ollow @YouthVoices4IHL on Instagram and use the hashtags #PreservationofCulturalProperty and
#IHLYouthActionCampaign to get more people involved in future Red Cross activities. Send us your posts and
stories from your activities to @YouthVoices4IHL or IHLYouth@redcross.org and we’ll be sure to spotlight and
share all your great work! Email IHLYouth@redcross.org if you have any questions, would like assistance, or for
additional IHL activities.
5I H L I N T H E M OV I E S
Movie Suggestions:
*Disclaimer: Please review these movies before selecting them and include a content warning during your event
if necessary.
Parental Guidance —13 Movies (PG-13): The Book Thief EDUCATION IN WAR
In 1938, young orphan Liesel arrives the home of
Empire of the Sun her new foster parents, Hans and Rosa. When Hans
Christian Bale plays Jaime Graham, a privileged learns that Liesel cannot read, he teaches the child the
English boy living in Shanghai when the Japanese wonders of the written language. Liesel’s love for books
invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. even leads her to steal one from a Nazi bonfire. Their
Jamie Is captured with an American sailor, Basie, situation becomes increasingly precarious when they
who looks out for him when he is separated shelter a Jewish boy whose father once saved Hans’ life.
from his parents. The story follows a young boy’s
childhood in the Pacific theater of World War II. Hotel Rwanda
This captivatingly true story of Paul Rusesabagina,
Woman in Gold CULTURAL PROPERTY a Hutu hotel manager who housed over a thousand
Sixty years after fleeing Vienna, an elderly Jewish Tutsi refugees during their struggle against
woman, Maria, attempts to reclaim her family the Hutu milia during the Rwandan genocide.
possessions that were seized by the Nazis. With the During the Rwandan genocide, almost 800,000
help of a young lawyer, Randy, Maria embarks upon a Tutsis, an ethnic minority in Rwanda, were
lengthy legal battle to recover her belongings but faces murdered by the Hutus, an ethnic majority.
difficulty as Austria considers them national treasures.
Hunger Games Series
Dr. Strangelove Katniss Everdeen voluntarily takes her younger sister’s
A film about what could happen if the wrong person place in the Hunger Games, a televised competition in
pushed the wrong button. U.S. Air Force General which two teenagers from each of the twelve districts of
Jack Ripper goes completely insane and sends his Panem are chosen to fight to the death. Everdeen learns
bomber wing to destroy the USSR due to his belief the importance of friendship, family, and freedom.
that the communists are conspiring to pollute the
“precious bodily fluids” of the American people. Joyeux Noel
This film documents the true story of a brief moment
Emperor of peace and goodwill at the advent of World War
This historical drama is based on the true story of I, as soldiers in the trenches of the Western Front
Shields Gree, a slave who escaped to freedom and chose to establish a truce and celebrate Christmas.
participated in abolitionist John Brown’s raid of Viewers are invited to experience hope and goodness
Harper’s Ferry. even in the most bloody and dire circumstances.
Au Revoir Les Enfants EDUCATION IN WAR The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
A French film which follows a boy at a French boarding Bruno, the child of concentration camp commandant,
school who meets three new students, who are befriends Shmuel, a Jewish boy through the
actually Jews evading capture by the Nazis. Julien barbed wire of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
becomes friends with Jean, a boy, while the head of The innocence of childhood is shown savagely
the school, Père Jean, works to protect the boys. colliding with the brutality of the Holocaust
as the boys begin a forbidden friendship.
6I H L I N T H E M OV I E S
The Monuments Men CULTURAL PROPERTY War Machine
As Hitler’s agenda to steal and destroy priceless General Glen McMahon is sent to Afghanistan to
art during World War 2 begins to intensify, a team prepare an assessment so the government can end
of historians, architects, and scholars work to the ongoing war. While his charisma and role in the Iraq
save some of humanity’s greatest achievements. War initially gave him rock-star status, this is not long
This risky race against time details the value and lasting, as he is taken down by a journalist’s no-holds-
significance of cultural property even in wartime. barred exposé.
The War with Grandpa King of Hearts
Peter and his grandpa used to be very close, but A 1966 French movie (French Title: Le Roi de Coeur)
when Grandpa Jack moves in with the family, Peter about an imaginary town that becomes the point of
is forced to give up his most prized possession: contention for British and German armies during World
his room. Peter will stop at nothing to get his War I. The film is a lighthearted and fictitious account
room back, but grandpa doesn’t give up easily. but contains valuable and relevant themes.
This lighthearted comedy has a surprisingly large
Nuremberg
amount of relevance to the rules of war in IHL.
Not to be confused with Judgement at Nuremberg, this
Blood and Treasure (TV Show) CULTURAL PROPERTY film follows the trial of Nazi war criminals after an Allied
A globe-trotting action-adventure drama about a brilliant victory in Europe following World War II. The film stars
antiquities expert and a cunning art thief who team up to Alec Baldwin a Robert Jackson, a U.S. Supreme Court
catch a ruthless terrorist who funds his attacks through justice who served as the chief prosecutor for the Allies.
stolen treasure. Danny McNamara is the former FBI
No Fire Zone
agent specializing in stolen arts and antiquities. Lexi
Vazin is the resourceful art thief who is haunted by the This documentary depicts the harsh reality of the 26
tragic loss of her father, which she blames on Danny. year-long Sri Lankan Civil War through stories of the
surviving population. This film highlights numerous
human rights violations and war crimes.
Unrated Movies (UR): Sometimes in April
This movie focuses on the Rwandan genocide.
Promises EDUCATION IN WAR
It looks at the role of courts during this crime
A documentary which follows the lives of several Jewish
against humanity and opens discussion on the
and Palestinian children over a period of three years, all
inequalities between the living standards of victims
with totally different backgrounds. The children tell their
and perpetrators being held for war crimes.
story of growing up in Jerusalem and, as their portraits
become more define, it becomes more apparent that the Black Earth Rising (TV Show)
conflict in the Middle East is incredibly difficult to solve. Kate Ashby was raised by Britain by her adoptive
mother, Eve, but was born in Rwanda during
Eagles of Mercy
the genocide, from which she was rescued.
This film recounts the story of two young American
She works as a legal investigator for Michael
medics who found themselves trapped in a 12th-century
Ennis. When they take a case prosecuting an
Norman Church in the small French village of Angoville-
African militia leader in the International Criminal
au-Plain. They recount to rigors of basic training,
Court, their lives are turned upside-down.
surviving German Anti-aircraft artillery, and carrying on
their life-saving work even when their unit retreated. The Last Song Before the War
This documentary captures the inspiring rise and
uncertain future of Mali’s annual Festival in the Desert.
The music and festival were silenced in 2012 due to the
violent occupation of Northern Mali by Islamic extremists,
a major destabilizing factor for the entire Sahel region.
7I H L I N T H E M OV I E S
Restricted Movies (R): Lord of War
Nicholas Cage plays a major Russian arms
The Pianist trader who supplied dictators with weapons.
This incredibly movie adaptation of the autobiography This film documents the true story of how he
of Wladyslaw Szpilman, follows a Polish Jewish radio outran the law for nearly twenty years.
station pianist, who watches as Warsaw gradually
changes as World War II begins. When Szpilman is Saving Private Ryan
forced into the Warsaw ghetto, he is separated from Following the Normandy Landings, a group of
his family during Operation Reinhart and must hide in U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve
various locations among the ruins of Warsaw until the Private Ryan, a paratrooper whose brothers have
concentration camp prisoners are released. been killed in action. During this search, each man
embarks upon a personal journey and discovers
American Sniper their own strength to triumph overrun uncertain
Chris Kyle, one of the most lethal U.S. military snipers future with honor, decency, and courage.
in history, is a prime target for insurgents during his four
tours in Iraq. After returning home, he struggles with Schindler’s List
being a good husband and father as war flashbacks and Oskar Schindler, a businessman and member
PTSD haunt him. of the Nazi party, transforms his factory into
a refuge for Jews during the Holocaust. This
Blood Diamond tree story details how one man’s bravery and
During the Sierra Leone Civil War, two men kindness saved the lives of over 1,000 Jews.
discover a large diamond which holds the promise
of transforming their lives. This movie highlights 1917
issues related to child soldiers, internally displaced On April 6th, 1917, a regiment assembles to wage
people, refugees, criminal courts, and family ties. war deep in enemy territory. two soldiers are assigned
deliver a message that will stop 1,600 men from walking
Darfur, War for Water straight into a deadly trap.
After witnessing atrocities in Darfur, South
Kordofan, and the Blue Nile, three journalists The Eye in the Sky
try to help villagers facing a genocide. Colonel Katherine Powell, a military officer in
command of an operation to capture terrorists
Innocent Voices (Voces Inocentes) EDUCATION IN WAR in Kenya, sees her mission escalate when a girl
A young boy fights for his life during the enters a kill zone triggering an International dispute
Salvadoran Civil war in this raw and powerful over the implications of modern warfare.
portrait of a childhood spent in a war zone.
Land of Mine
A group of German prisoners of war are forced to dig
The Killing Fields
up millions of Nazi land mines with their bare hands
Reporter Sydney Schanberg is covering the along the coast of the North Sea in Denmark.
Cambodian Civil War with the help of Pran, a local
interpreter, and Rockoff, a journalist. When the
U.S. Army leaves Cambodia, Iran chooses to stay
Mature Audience Movies (MA):
and cover the story of tyrant Pol Pot’s bloody “Year
Zero” cleansing campaign which claimed the lives Tokyo Trial
of nearly two million “undesirable” civilians. In this four-part film, eleven Allied judges from
the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
are tasked with deciding the fates of Japanese
war criminals in the wake of World War II.
8I H L I N T H E M OV I E S
Harry Potter Additional Activity!
With Cultural Property as our theme this year, it’s only right to include Harry Potter somewhere on this
list. Watch the series—particularly the 6th movie and onwards—or read the books and try to list all the
times cultural property was compromised due to violence or strife.
From Hogwarts itself to the Horcruxes, you may be surprised how relevant IHL can be in places besides
the muggle world!
Star Wars Additional Activity!
As a neutral organization, the Red Cross is there to administer first aid to either side, whether it’s rebels
or storm troopers. IHL can be applicable no matter how far-far-away the galaxy is, so try ranking which
Star Wars character was the actual worst (in terms of following the laws of war). You may be surprised!
Check out how the Australian Red Cross ranked them below:
Star Wars Characters IHL Rankings
9International
Humanitarian Law
I H L I N T H E M OV I E S
Join the American Red Cross in an International Humanitarian Law movie night
as we watch ____________________________________ and discuss its portrayal
of conflict as well as its relevance to this year’s theme, Education in War.
Who: [Who]
What: [What]
When: [When]
Where: [Where]
Contact: [Contact]
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