DARFUR NOW
Collaborative Stakes In The World's Most Pressing Human Crisis
PopcornReel.com Movie Review: "Darfur Now"
By Omar P.L. Moore/"Darfur Now" opens on November 2, 2007 (NY/LA) [EARLY
REVIEW]
Six Of The Best: Clockwise, from top left: Don Cheadle, Luis Moreno Ocampo, Pablo Recalde, Hejewa Adam, Ahmed Mohammed Akbar, and Adam Sterling, from the movie poster for Ted Braun's documentary "Darfur Now", a special early review film for The Popcorn Reel. "Darfur Now" opens in select cities this Friday. (Photos from movie poster via Warner Independent Pictures)
Ted Braun's significant and hopeful documentary "Darfur Now", which opens on Friday (November 2) in New York and Los Angeles (with November 9 openings in Boston, San Francisco and numerous other U.S. and Canadian cities) pulls its audience towards action, leading by example with six stories of people around the globe who are doing their part to make a difference to stem the genocide that continues right this second in the Darfur region in Sudan. Almost half a million men, women and children have been killed during Sudan's civil war, and Mr. Braun's film both edifies and inspires audiences in ways subtle and bold, deftly juxtaposing the stories of women of conscience like Sudanese rebel leader Hejewa Adam, actors of stardom like Don Cheadle, and activists of passion like Adam Sterling, who began as an apathetic spectator and has grown into an agitator, pushing for California's governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign a bill enabling the state to divest from Sudan.
"Darfur Now" also chronicles the first-person stories of Pablo Recalde, a local organizer and relief official in the region, Darfur villager Ahmed Mohammed Akbar, and Luis Moreno Ocampo, a prosecutor, all of whom struggle with the toll that working overtime on ending the genocide in Darfur brings -- separation from family, risk of life and limb, and an isolation that sometimes invites doubts about whether the hard work and persistence is all worth it in an apathetic, largely selfish and uncaring world. It is through these types of harsh realities and crossroads that "Darfur Now" mirrors some of the concerns that its audience -- one not necessarily part of the proverbial "choir" -- may also bring to the table while watching Mr. Braun's film on the urgent issue of Darfur. It is also in this sense that Mr. Braun's documentary covers all of its bases, never pretending that there isn't a need to challenge the thinking of a jaded or cynical audience who may (or may not) decide to see his film. "Darfur Now" shows, tells, and does, and in so doing, makes the reality of action -- any action, no matter how small to end the biggest political and humanitarian crisis of the 21st century -- a simpler issue than some may think. There may be an African proverb that states, "it takes a small village", but "Darfur Now" shows that it takes just one person to send money, to sign a petition, to spread a message, to educate and to inspire.
"Darfur Now" is one of the best documentaries of the year, not only because it does all of the things that it wants its audience to do, but also because it leaves that same audience with the hope and confidence that its own activism and any other type of contribution to ending the world's most serious political and humanitarian crisis can be effected or enabled, one step at a time. The documentary is powerful, painful, triumphant and liberating, all at the same time -- and it is beautifully shot by cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. The film is about learning, understanding, and passing on good habits to the younger generation in the hope that they will take up the mantle to end a genocide that is repeated through cycles of history. As Mr. Sterling, for example, talks about the mass murder of millions of Jewish people in Nazi Germany, the wholesale slaughter of over a million Africans in Rwanda in the 1990's, you feel his impassioned sense of mission and frustration that history repeats itself, as much through inaction of good-hearted people as through the actions of bad or nefarious souls.
"Darfur Now" also shows that you can fight City Hall -- and you can win. The documentary skillfully weaves education about the Darfur crisis and its harrowing ordeals with the work of those committed to changing the circumstances in Darfur. Not only does "Darfur Now", which features the song "Love's In Need Of Love Today" -- re-sung by Stevie Wonder (from his original version) with Bono assisting -- show its audience how easy it is to make a difference, it also ends making you feel like wanting to make a difference.
"Darfur Now" is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for thematic material involving crimes against humanity. The film will open on Friday in New York and Los Angeles. On November 9 the film opens in Boston, San Francisco and numerous other cities in the U.S. and in Canada. The film features various other noted names involved in the fight to end the genocide in Darfur, including George Clooney and Adam Prendergast. "Darfur Now" is produced by Cathy Schulman, Don Cheadle and Mark Jonathan Harris.
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