The arthouse hit A film about an obese teenager suffering harrowing abuse from both parents might not strike you as an easy sell at the box office, and that's leaving aside any additional marketing challenge presented by an all-black cast.
A number of those who spoke recounted harrowing tales of personal suffering and then went on to describe how they thought technology could help others caught up in similar trafficking networks.The meeting was the brainchild of Google Ideas, a small unit inside the internet giant that calls itself a "think/do tank".
The truth remains: To the mainstream, America is all flag-waving patriotism and God-sanctioned moral righteousness, and any blood or misery or harrowing Hurt Locker-like suffering is reserved for some faraway place most can't locate on a map.
Tender depictions of the Virgin Mary and harrowing visions of the sufferings of Christ abound in the first few galleries of this show, in stone and wood and stained glass.
That final tranche of evidence included typically harrowing images and haunting indications of suffering.
The spectacle of a suffering child is so harrowing, our inability to relieve that suffering so demoralizing, that even experts differ about how best to respond.
In "Prison," a couple who have emigrated to the United States return to China in search of a surrogate mother to bear their child and learn a harrowing lesson about the consequences of suffering and the ferocity of maternal affection.
But it's the harrowing scene of a Jewish woman suffering the agonies of a difficult childbirth while a howling mob threatens violence that sums up Royal's two dark themes: the lowly status and cruel treatment of women, and the persecution of England's Jewish population.
Arsenal's manager knew the questions heading his way as soon as he took his seat in a room inside Anfield just yards away from where he had spent a harrowing 90 minutes watching, make that suffering, as Liverpool crushed his side 5-1.
It is a situation as harrowing as it is rare: a pregnant woman suffering severe trauma arrives in an emergency room on the edge of death, and the life of her unborn baby hangs in the balance.
