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A young Kenyan’s life changes drastically when his education is sponsored by a Swedish stranger. Years later, he founds his own scholarship program to replicate the kindness he once received. Read more at IMDB or support this site by buying it at Amazon.
We Are Together: The Children of Agape (aka Thina Simunye), documentarian Paul Taylor follows young children residents of Agape Orphanage in the Natal, South Africa as they sing their way into the hearts of people who can help them reshape their lives and better their circumstances. The kids’ compelling stories and a brilliant soundtrack make this film a must see. Read more at IMDB or support this site by buying it at Amazon.
In 1987, Sudan’s Muslim government pronounced death to all males in the Christian south: 27,000 boys fled to Ethiopia on foot. In 1991, they were forced to flee to Kenya; 12,000 survived to live in a U.N. camp in Kakuma. Archival footage documents the 1,000 mile flight; we see life in the camp. We follow three young men who repatriate to the U.S. John Bul Dau goes to Syracuse, and by the film’s end, becomes a spokesperson for the Lost Boys and Lost Girls of Sudan; Daniel Abol Pach and Panther Bior go to Pittsburgh. All work several jobs, send money back to the camp, search for relatives lost in the civil war, acclimatize to the U.S., seek an education, and miss their homeland.
The larger scope of the story explores the gun trade to Africa that takes place under the covers — Russian pilots fly guns into Africa, then fly fish back out to Europe. The hazards and consequences of this trade are explored, including the pan-African violence propagated by constant flow of weapons into the continent. If it is a “survival of the fittest” world, as Darwin concluded, then the capitalist interests that fund the gun runners are climbing the evolutionary ladder on the backs of the Africans in this stark Darwinian example. Much like the foreseeable extinction of the Lake Victoria perch, and death of Lake Victoria itself, the Africans are in grave jeopardy, even as they survive in the only ways they know how. Read more at IMDB or support this site by buying it at Amazon.
The story of Canadian Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire, and his controversial command of the United Nations mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. Read more at IMDB or support this site by buying it at Amazon.
