I will be screening my full-length documentary entitled “Becoming a Foot Soldier for Children’s Human Rights in Africa” on Thursday, May 6 at 6:30 p.m. in McEwen 011.
If you had a chance to see my SURF presentation and the trailer, this is your opportunity to see the full-length feature. If you do not know what this film is about, here is my abstract for SURF to better explain my documentary below or click on the link to see my trailer on YouTube.
Abstract:
Jason Russell, Laren Poole, and Bobby Bailey traveled as young filmmakers in 2003 to Uganda and stumbled onto a problem that most of the world had not yet confronted: children recruited as soldiers in the country’s brutal war. The Rough Cut documentary that emerged from this trip became the recruitment tool and basis for Invisible Children, the organization the three men founded to enlist the help of America’s youth in ending the practice of child soldiering. As an impressionable high schooler, I was moved to action by the plight of Uganda’s children and wanted to learn and do more. During my first year at Elon in 2006, I founded a branch of Invisible Children and worked to mobilize the campus to end what to me was “the central issue plaguing Africa’s children.” What a difference two years make! Child soldiering, I discovered, is symptomatic of some of the larger issues (like poverty, disease, modern slavery . . .) facing many of the continent’s youth, that Invisible Children is not the best or only method for combating the problem, and Uganda is not the only country grappling with the plight of its young people . My focus has expanded and shifted with these growing insights. As someone concerned with children’s human rights in Africa, I have learned the importance of comprehensive research in and outside the classroom, intimate knowledge of one’s subjects through ethnographic methods like interviews, surveys, and field work, a willingness to alter one’s perspective, and a plan of action shaped by one’s knowledge and experiences. These revelations have led to the creation of my own documentary, Becoming a Foot Soldier for Children’s Human Rights in Africa. It demonstrates the idea that student activists who are moved to pursue a cause with determination, passion, and perseverance will sometimes do more harm than good unless they educate themselves to the various perspectives, harness their paternalistic attitudes, and seek partnerships in creating sustainable solutions for their cause.
Come see it next Thursday in the basement of McEwen in Room 011 – Thanks!
Katie Meyer