Uganda
refugees’ journeys, trials shown
in film
By Andy Reyes
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Several Cal State Long Beach students got an inside view on what it means to
be a war refugee Wednesday afternoon.
“Invisible Children,” a documentary that captures the state of children
refugees in Uganda, a country in east-central Africa, was shown to many students
at the Beach Auditorium.
The documentary, filmed by USC graduates Jason Russell, 25, Bobby Bailey, 23,
and University of San Diego student Laren Poole, 21, began as an intent to document
the civil war in Sudan.
However, according to the documentary, when the filmmakers became stranded in
Uganda they discovered stories of children kidnapped and forced to become soldiers
of the Ugandan rebel group called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Invisible Children Affiliate Jason Manion said the film is geared toward college
students.
“This film is not just about Uganda,” he said. “This film is
about social justice and the sanctity of life. We need to ask ourselves how the
principles of this [film] can fit into [our] daily routine[s].”
The documentary focuses on the thousands of children who, each night, travel
away from their villages and cities to sleep in building basements and other
uncomfortable conditions they deem safer due to fear of sleeping in their own
beds because of the LRA.
Filmmaker Jason Russell said, “what you see in the movie is what you should
know about life.”
The documentary, which has been shown to about 500,000 people since its completion
in 2004, has been gaining
popularity due to word of mouth.
Araceli Lares, a freshmen biology major who attended the screening of the documentary,
said it was overwhelming.
“I plan on donating money to help out,” she said. “The film
really opened your eyes to a reality that you don’t see [in the U.S.].”
Anyone interested in more information or wanting to get involved with Invisible
Children can read more on the organization at invisiblechildren.com. Or, they
can contact Jason Manion at JManion@mail.com.
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