Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Let's change the world


KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.



I first watched Invisible Children almost 10 years ago. It was being screened at a cafe near our apartment in downtown Fullerton. I remember the place was packed-- a bunch of 20-something hipsters and college students who had heard about this "amazing documentary" that three USC grads had filmed while in Africa.


In 2003, the filmmakers-- Bobby Bailey, Laren Poole, and Jason Russell-- traveled to Sudan to document the genocide in Darfur but instead discovered the ongoing war raging in northern Uganda. Invisible Children documents the atrocities of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army), a rebel group infamous for abducting children into its ranks. 


Led by Joseph Kony, a terrorist with a major Messiah-complex, it's estimated the LRA has abducted some 60,000 children as soldiers over the past 25 years. Kony kidnaps these kids, trains them to use guns, and forces them to commit heinous crimes-- even the murder of their own parents.

Invisible Children is the kind of film that leaves a mark on you. If you're a human being with a heart beat, there's no way you leave unchanged.  


KONY 2012 is the follow-up to what Bailey, Poole, and Russell have been pouring their passions into since making that first documentary. Watch it, now. You can spare 29 minutes of your life. You might even walk away wanting to change the world.



Update: So whatever happened to KONY2012? Read here.