What this film shows about the suffering of these children is enough to crush the spirit of the feeble-hearted, more so because most of us have been oblivious to what is happening in the north and as such are unprepared for what is screened in the film. It brings you face to face with a reality which you neither want to see nor can do much about, topping its causes. It leaves you helpless! - The New Vision (Uganda)
Movie Synopsis
What started out as a film-making adventure in Africa, transformed into much more, when the three young American’s (Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole) original travels took a divine turn, and they found themselves stranded in Northern Uganda. They discovered children being kidnapped nightly from their homes and subsequently forced to become fight as child soldiers. This film is dedicated to exposing this tragic, and amazingly untold story.
Even at this moment, in Uganda, Children as young as 8 are methodically kidnapped from their homes by a rebel group called the “Lord’s Resistance Army” (LRA). The abducted children are then desensitized to the horror of brutal violence and killing, as they themselves are turned into vicious fighters. Some escape and hide in constant fear for their lives. Most remain captive, and grow to maturity with no education other than life “in the bush” and fighting in a guerilla war.
Of the many ramifications that a 20 -year-long war can cause, the film “Invisible Children: Rough Cut” highlights what the community refers to as “NIGHT COMMUTERS.” We watch thousands of children “commute” out of fear, from their villages to nearby towns each night in order to avoid the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) abductions. They sleep in public places, vulnerable, and without supervision.
This film focuses in on 4 young boys: Jacob, Thomas, Tony, and Boni. Through their eyes, we relive the terror of abduction, courage of survival, the heartbreak of losing a brother, and the innate joy- found only in a child. The three filmmakers (Jason, Bobby, and Laren) were amazed to find many things in common between these kids and kids in America, themselves included.
As the three left Northern Uganda, they were appalled by what they had seen, and yet, in awe of the resilience and hope they found in these children, and this community. The filmmakers thought: How could such an atrocity exist for such a long time, without the world knowing? Believing that the “invisible children’s” story could inspire others to do something, as it did them, they created a documentary, which we now know as the “Invisible Children: Rough Cut”.
Invincible children is currently being screened across the United States. Check out the Invincible Children website for details, and to purchase a copy of the DVD.
Fact File
The United Nations estimates that 300,000 children under the age of 18 are currently fighting in conflicts around the world and hundreds of thousands more are members of armed forces - either being trained for combat or used as laborers. Physical, sexual and emotional abuse is commonplace. Most of these children were forcibly conscripted or abducted by fighting forces to become instruments of war, to kill or be killed. Without exception, the experience has devastating effects on their physical, psychological, and intellectual development.
(c) Invincible Children, Inc
Tags:UgandaLord/'s Resistance ArmyChild SoldiersInvincible ChidrenAfricaMovie Review
Seeing the Invisible: Do "the least of these' matter?
“Don’t forget about us.”
It’s just one sentence—four words. I hear them all the time. What’s so different this time? What is it about these words that makes me question my goals in life? How can they turn my desire for more stuff into revulsion at my materialistic excess?
When they come from the mouth of an African child who, as far as I know, could be dead today, they move with a force stronger than any words should. They don’t cut—they dig. They pull back the layers of excuses and cop-outs until they take hold and reveal something I’d be more comfortable leaving covered.
How often I have forgotten. How often I have just slipped back into my comfortable life here in America. I get caught up in the boring sameness of my routine—school and work, school and work.
The children of Uganda have a routine as well. Every night, children as young as five years old walk miles into the nearest cities and towns and congregate in the streets. They sleep on concrete floors, with mats and burlap sacks for comfort. Tens of thousands of children gather in bus stations and other public places across the country every night. Why?
Uganda is in the midst of the longest-running war in Africa. Every day, 130 people lose their lives to violence in this fight. The leaders of the Lord’s Rebellion Army, wanting to replenish and add to their forces, nightly raid the outlying homes and abduct the children. They force these children to be killers. Any who refuse or try to escape serve as examples to the other children. They are tortured and killed. Over the course of the war, an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 children have been abducted by the LRA.
These children flee to the cities for protection. They are not safe in their homes. This would not be tolerated in the West. If thousands of American children were sleeping in the streets every night, something would be done. If they were Europeans, someone would intervene. Why then is this happening? Are the children of Africa any less important than our own? Are they any less worthy of basic human rights, of being safe in their own homes? Indeed, are they any less human?
Where is the moral outrage, the righteous indignation? We march when the government talks of making illegal aliens felons. We protest when the government does not go through all the proper channels to listen in on phone calls and when terrorists are not treated as well as we think they should be in prison. We are furious when our country goes to war against a tyrannical dictator. We are silent when the children of Africa are turned into ruthless soldiers against their will. We stand idly by as they are brutalized and left to fend for themselves at night.
How is it that so few people in America are aware of this terrible situation? Our newspapers and televisions tell us daily all the freshest gossip in the world of celebrities. We’re always well informed of the latest basketball rankings. We are woefully, but perhaps blissfully, ignorant of the single greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today. After all, as long as we don’t know, we don’t have to do anything. We don’t have to feel bad about our rampant consumerism or our unquenchable lust for ourselves.
A movement has started that seeks to bring about an end of this ignorance. Invisible Children is an organization seeking to inform the rest of the world of the situation in Uganda. It started with three young men taking a trip to the country and returning with this unbelievable story. They made a documentary, which they have been screening all across the US. They sell DVDs and bracelets made by the Ugandans to help raise money for their cause.
The next step will occur April 29, 2006, with what is being called the Global Night Commute. Tens of thousands of people, in 130 cities across the nation, will follow the example of the children of Uganda and march into the hearts of their cities for the night, to gather together to sleep in the parks and bus stations and other public places in an attempt to draw attention to the plight of these African children.
What then shall we do? Will we just go on with our lives here in America? Will we forsake these children and leave them to whatever fate awaits them? Or will we try to make a difference? It doesn’t take much—just a night away from the comforts of home, just a few minutes to write to a senator or representative asking the government to intervene, just a few dollars to help fund the efforts of those who are working to right this very grave wrong. It only takes us looking beyond ourselves for a little while.
Will we remember these helpless young ones on the other side of the world, or will we forget them?
For more information:
http://www.invisiblechildren.com
http://www.nrc.no/UgandaKeyFacts.doc
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=2346&l=1
http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/uganda/reports.do
Posted by: Matthew Newman | April 28, 2006 at 07:32 PM
hey last year i couldnt make it to the event due to sickness but i was wondering if you knew of where i could get one of these posters. (the global night commute)i figure you had to have gone to the event but if you know of where i could get one, im willing, obviously to pay for one. thanks.
Posted by: melanie | April 10, 2007 at 12:55 PM