Posted on 01/31/2005 1:17:18 PM PST by macbee
Young, idealistic filmmakers want to bring plight of 'Invisible Children' of Uganda to world's attention
Jacob, an African boy, looks into the camera and lets go with great, chest-heaving sobs. He cries until both he and the viewer hurt. Then he cries some more.
Surely at some point the camera will look away. But it never does.
When night falls, Jacob runs and hides with thousands of other youngsters in basements and back alleys of towns in Northern Uganda. They flee a rebel army composed largely of children like them who were beaten and brainwashed into fighting in a pointless, 18-year civil war the world has largely ignored.
Jacob cries for his brother who was slaughtered by the rebels. The boy expresses his grief in plain English. He hopes, Jacob says, to rejoin his brother someday in heaven.
It is one of many gripping scenes from "Invisible Children," a documentary whose plaintive appeal is surprising effective.
The core truth of this deceptively crude film, its harsh beauty, flows from the blissful innocence, unyielding idealism and self-acknowledged naivete of its makers.
They are three white kids who grew up safe and comfortable in San Diego's suburbs. They firmly believe their documentary, still a work in progress, could be powerful enough to change the world...
I've had the pleasure of working with two of the young filmmakers and with the young lady who donated $3000 to help them. They are three very good reasons to be optimistic about the future.
"fighting in a pointless, 18-year civil war the world has largely ignored."
Isn't it interesting that if a story can't get an anti-American pro-leftist spin, it can't get any play in the MSM? Or the UN?
Thank you for posting this. These are the "children's rights" issues the U.N. should be addressing...
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