Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Bomb Harvest (2007)

play
clip Kids and bombs

Original classification rating: M. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Laith Stevens talks about the aspirations of the Laos people as we see a teacher in front of a class telling the kids not to collect iron to sell. Kids walking along in the bush look for scrap metal and find a mortar, pick it up and put it in a basket.

Curator’s notes

The filmmakers did not put any of the children at risk during the filming. All the scenes of the children searching for and collecting bomb scrap metal were re-enacted with safe empty shells that the filmmakers were able to get from the bomb disposal headquarters. When they were filming with the children, the filmmakers always had a teacher along. The teacher used this experience as a school lesson about the dangers of looking for bomb scrap metal. The children in the film were the actual children who found the two bombs near the school that Laith Stevens and his team were dealing with.