Invisible Children
As the sun sets, fear rises. Fear of being abducted. Fear of losing friends and family. Fear of being forced to kill. Fear of innocence lost, and childhood taken away. These are the fears of the children in Northern Uganda, and it drives them nightly to leave their homes, go to a town, and sleep wherever they can find room in large groups… for protection from their fears. These are Invisible Children, whose plight and story went unseen by the world until three students from Southern California happened upon it.
Invisible Children is a documentary made by Jason Russel, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole, all three of whom are from Southern California. In 2003, they decided that they would travel to the Sudan to document the civil war that was taking place there. Once they arrived, however, they had trouble finding anything worth documenting other than snakes and their own sickness. Discouraged, they decided to travel to some refugee camps that had been set up in Northern Uganda. It was during this side-trip when they discovered the story of children who would travel into town each night to sleep in large groups. Thousand of kids, with nary an adult in sight, packed together in conditions we here in American wouldn’t wish on our pets, let alone our kids. It was a horrifying, confounding image, and so the three friends begin to digger deeper into the story of these Invisible Children.
There is no denying that the story of this short (55 min.) documentary is a powerful one, but first I want to talk about it just as a film. It’s obvious that this was the first attempt by these young filmmakers to create a documentary film. The first quarter of the film demonstrates this best. While it’s nice to meet the makers of the film, and it’s good to get to know a little about them, for the most part the beginning of the film feels a bit over-indulgent. Shaving even five or six minutes off of this portion would have helped quite a bit. Now that isn’t to say that this portion of the film is bad; it is in fact necessary. The tone is so radically different from the later part of Invisible Children that it shows just how much these people were changed during the course of film. However, choices such as using music from The Lord of the Rings (a bit jarring and distracting) and showing themselves throwing-up repeatedly take a bit too long. After this section is over, we hardly see the creators of this film anymore, which again shows just how much they were changed and their focus changed during the course of their adventure.
Once the story moves on to the events of Northern Uganda, Invisible Children becomes one of the most affecting and powerful documentaries I’ve seen in a while. It does a good job of explaining the situation and why these children sleep in huddled masses. The images used to go along with what is talked about are hard to forget, and help the viewer further grasp just how dire the situation is. One problem with this later section of the film is that it’s almost too much information. We get the entire history of the civil war, the stories of several individual children, stories of those who survived being abducted, and the story of what takes place each night as the children travel to town to sleep. That’s a lot of information to cover in the forty-minutes or so it has of screen time, but it’s handled well for the most part. You will definitely have a better understanding of what is taking place after seeing this film, which is certainly a success for those who made it.
Perhaps the best part of Invisible Children is the fact that it isn’t a film that shows comfortable westerners how good they have it just for the sake of making them uncomfortable; it compels the viewer to do something about what is going on. It is perhaps not professional to become involved in one’s subject matter, to develop an emotional attachment to that which you are objectively documenting, but in this case it couldn’t be helped. During one of the most powerful scenes, a young boy talks about his brother who was killed by the rebels and he begins to cry.
Now the children of Uganda never cry, because if the rebels who abduct these children see them crying, they believe that they must be thinking of home, and so they kill them. To see this young boy finally begin crying, weeping for the loss of his brother is both shocking and moving. As he cries, you can hear one of the film makers try to comfort him and eventually start crying as well.
It’s at this point that you realize what the filmmakers realized; Invisible Children had to be more than just film, something had to be done. Jesus said that if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones they will not lose their reward, a mandate that seems to echo in the hearts of the creators of Invisible Children. This story has become their mission. They have returned to Uganda to document more of what has taken place and hope to make a feature length film to show in theatres sometime in 2007. They have created a movement that is traveling across the country trying to raise awareness of the horrible tragedy that is taking place in Uganda. They are organizing The Global Night Commute, a night when people across America will travel to central locations in cities all over to sleep in the streets as the children of Uganda do; and once you see Invisible Children, I think that you too will be moved to do something; whatever your time and talents may be.
Invisible Children may not be a perfect film, but it is a moving one. It will move you emotionally, and it will move you to action. There are horrible atrocities taking place all over the world, and we would feel much more comfortable not to know about them—if they remained invisible. However, there is hope if we are willing not to ignore that which is ugly, but instead are willing to confront it. The children of Northern Uganda have hope now that three friends who were looking for something to film happened to stumble across their story, and are now working tirelessly to do something about it. Darkness can be oppressive and massive and intimidating, but all it takes is one small light to banish that darkness. Are you willing to be that light, or will you remain invisible when the world needs you most?
If you would like to learn more about what you can do to help the children of Uganda, or about the upcoming Global Night Commute, please visit www.invisiblechildren.com.
Invisible Children is a documentary made by Jason Russel, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole, all three of whom are from Southern California. In 2003, they decided that they would travel to the Sudan to document the civil war that was taking place there. Once they arrived, however, they had trouble finding anything worth documenting other than snakes and their own sickness. Discouraged, they decided to travel to some refugee camps that had been set up in Northern Uganda. It was during this side-trip when they discovered the story of children who would travel into town each night to sleep in large groups. Thousand of kids, with nary an adult in sight, packed together in conditions we here in American wouldn’t wish on our pets, let alone our kids. It was a horrifying, confounding image, and so the three friends begin to digger deeper into the story of these Invisible Children.
There is no denying that the story of this short (55 min.) documentary is a powerful one, but first I want to talk about it just as a film. It’s obvious that this was the first attempt by these young filmmakers to create a documentary film. The first quarter of the film demonstrates this best. While it’s nice to meet the makers of the film, and it’s good to get to know a little about them, for the most part the beginning of the film feels a bit over-indulgent. Shaving even five or six minutes off of this portion would have helped quite a bit. Now that isn’t to say that this portion of the film is bad; it is in fact necessary. The tone is so radically different from the later part of Invisible Children that it shows just how much these people were changed during the course of film. However, choices such as using music from The Lord of the Rings (a bit jarring and distracting) and showing themselves throwing-up repeatedly take a bit too long. After this section is over, we hardly see the creators of this film anymore, which again shows just how much they were changed and their focus changed during the course of their adventure.
Once the story moves on to the events of Northern Uganda, Invisible Children becomes one of the most affecting and powerful documentaries I’ve seen in a while. It does a good job of explaining the situation and why these children sleep in huddled masses. The images used to go along with what is talked about are hard to forget, and help the viewer further grasp just how dire the situation is. One problem with this later section of the film is that it’s almost too much information. We get the entire history of the civil war, the stories of several individual children, stories of those who survived being abducted, and the story of what takes place each night as the children travel to town to sleep. That’s a lot of information to cover in the forty-minutes or so it has of screen time, but it’s handled well for the most part. You will definitely have a better understanding of what is taking place after seeing this film, which is certainly a success for those who made it.
Perhaps the best part of Invisible Children is the fact that it isn’t a film that shows comfortable westerners how good they have it just for the sake of making them uncomfortable; it compels the viewer to do something about what is going on. It is perhaps not professional to become involved in one’s subject matter, to develop an emotional attachment to that which you are objectively documenting, but in this case it couldn’t be helped. During one of the most powerful scenes, a young boy talks about his brother who was killed by the rebels and he begins to cry.
Now the children of Uganda never cry, because if the rebels who abduct these children see them crying, they believe that they must be thinking of home, and so they kill them. To see this young boy finally begin crying, weeping for the loss of his brother is both shocking and moving. As he cries, you can hear one of the film makers try to comfort him and eventually start crying as well.
It’s at this point that you realize what the filmmakers realized; Invisible Children had to be more than just film, something had to be done. Jesus said that if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones they will not lose their reward, a mandate that seems to echo in the hearts of the creators of Invisible Children. This story has become their mission. They have returned to Uganda to document more of what has taken place and hope to make a feature length film to show in theatres sometime in 2007. They have created a movement that is traveling across the country trying to raise awareness of the horrible tragedy that is taking place in Uganda. They are organizing The Global Night Commute, a night when people across America will travel to central locations in cities all over to sleep in the streets as the children of Uganda do; and once you see Invisible Children, I think that you too will be moved to do something; whatever your time and talents may be.
Invisible Children may not be a perfect film, but it is a moving one. It will move you emotionally, and it will move you to action. There are horrible atrocities taking place all over the world, and we would feel much more comfortable not to know about them—if they remained invisible. However, there is hope if we are willing not to ignore that which is ugly, but instead are willing to confront it. The children of Northern Uganda have hope now that three friends who were looking for something to film happened to stumble across their story, and are now working tirelessly to do something about it. Darkness can be oppressive and massive and intimidating, but all it takes is one small light to banish that darkness. Are you willing to be that light, or will you remain invisible when the world needs you most?
If you would like to learn more about what you can do to help the children of Uganda, or about the upcoming Global Night Commute, please visit www.invisiblechildren.com.
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