I’ll be straight up: Hunger Ward was an extremely difficult watch. That’s what makes it all the more essential viewing. It examines the effects that Yemen’s ongoing civil war is having on its most vulnerable population: children. The short but nevertheless impactful documentary provides an inside look into two pediatric feeding centers through the eyes of two female healthcare workers. The camera lens doesn’t flinch away from the haunting eyes of emaciated children or the desperate wails of grief-stricken mothers and grandmothers, but it’s hard for the viewer not to. This is pain on the most human level. During treatment, medical workers attempt to coax smiles out of the children, but the children are sapped of energy. Witnessing this despondence from kids who are supposed to be full of life and joy is heart-wrenching. by Janey Wong