A SMALL ACT (HBO) First Look

Take a first look at A SMALL ACT a new documentary premiering tonight, Monday July 12th at 9pm on HBO as part of their Documentary Film Summer Series.

A Small Act Synopsis: As the top-ranked student in his rural Kenyan school district, Chris Mburu had little hope of a future beyond coffee picking – until Hilde Back, a Swedish pre-school teacher, decided to sponsor him. Her monthly donation of just a few dollars ultimately paved the way for Mburu to go all the way to Harvard Law School and become a United Nations human rights advocate. When Mburu creates his scholarship program, he tracks down 80-year-old Hilde Back in Sweden and convinces her to come to Kenya to see the result of her generosity. To his surprise, he learns that his benefactor is a Holocaust survivor who fled Germany as a child, leaving her parents behind. In turn, Back is astonished to learn her small contribution enabled Mburu to go so far, growing up to fight genocide himself.

A SMALL ACT follows the competition between three gifted students vying for a scholarship that may be their only chance to continue school and change their lives. Underscoring education’s crucial role in alleviating poverty and conflict, A SMALL ACT shows that no gesture is too small to effect tremendous change.