![\"\"](\"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/littlegems-236x350.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
| 2017 – 108′ – Documentary, Family 14+. This uplifting documentary celebrates the humanitarian work of a humble French couple that dedicated their retirement years to bettering the lives of Cambodia\u2019s garbage-dump children. Christian and Marie-France des Palli\u00e8res are an unlikely pair of heroes. In the 1990s, they came upon an apocalyptic scene of ragged children trawling through a heaving landscape of junk, filth, and toxic waste trying to scavenge anything of value. These latter day ragpickers, some as young as four, exist on the edge of Cambodian society, with no access to education, medicine, or even decent food. Many of them were sold by their parents, abused, raped.\u00a0 The couple settled in Cambodia, determined to make a difference in the lives of these \u201cgems.\u201d.\u00a0Christian, a jovial man of aristocratic heritage, was soon spending his days at the dump, building shelters, and, most importantly, a school. Over the next two decades their foundation, PSE (For a Child\u2019s Smile), would result in salvaging thousands from a bleak future.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LITTLE GEMS | 2017 – 108′ – Documentary, Family 14+. Written by:\u00a0Xavier de Lauzanne. Directed by:\u00a0Xavier de Lauzanne. Official Competition\u00a0COLCOA 2017 (Winner Best Documentary Award). In French\u00a0with English subtitles. A France Channel release. | This uplifting documentary celebrates the humanitarian work of a humble French couple that dedicated their retirement years to bettering the lives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":22238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,14,126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tafff","category-documentary","category-family-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22237"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22245,"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22237\/revisions\/22245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericanfrenchfilmfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWritten by:\u00a0Xavier de Lauzanne.
\nDirected by:\u00a0Xavier de Lauzanne.
\nOfficial Competition\u00a0COLCOA 2017 (Winner Best Documentary Award)<\/strong>.
\nIn French\u00a0with English subtitles.
\nA France Channel release. |<\/span><\/p>\nWATCH NOW<\/a><\/h3>\n