By Delinda Lombardo on
In 2003, three guys from Southern California with a passion for filmmaking took a trip to the Sudan in search of a story. Instead, they ended up in Uganda where they learned that over 30,000 children had been kidnapped to fight for the rebel group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Their film, Invisible Children, is a moving and powerful documentary about one of Africa’s longest running wars and how thousands of people are being brutally and viciously attacked by the rebel army and fleeing their villages without any sign of hope.
The filmmakers – Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole – first screened ‘Invisible Children’ on June 22, 2004 at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego to friends and family of the filmmakers. Not long after, students across the United States were passing along DVDs of the documentary and wanted to know how to help the children in northern Uganda.
“The world knows that they are just a rebel army, but in truth they are children,” says Poole in the film.
Due to overwhelming public response, the filmmakers co-founded the nonprofit Invisible Children Inc. – an awareness and development organization about the great humanitarian crisis of child soldiers.
And the organization took it to the streets, where last week, what started with one volunteer camped out in front of Oprah’s Harpo Studios, soon turned into a crowd of thousands begging Oprah to hear their voices. And she did.
She’s urged viewers to visit the Invisible Children website and watch the 36-minute film. Activists outside the studio thanked Oprah and cheered as they were given a plug by one of the worlds most powerful and influential women.
The films opening credits explain the title: “They are Invisible because no records are kept of their numbers or age. Their own armies deny they exist. They simply vanish.”
To join the movement, watch the film or simply learn more about how to help the children of Uganda escape this outrageous humanitarian crisis, please visit Invisible Children.com.
Copyright © 2009 Look to the Stars
