Invisible Children

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Invisible Children: Rough Cut

Directed by	Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole
Release date(s)	2003
Running time	55 min. 8 seconds.
Country	United States
Language	English

This article is about the film. For the related organization, see Invisible Children Inc.

Invisible Children: Rough Cut is a documentary recorded in 2003 based on the experiences of three college students (Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole) in Northern Uganda. The filmers are from San Diego, California in the United States. They went to Uganda to see what they could film, and they found thousands of people affected by the insurgency of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The resulting story focuses on the war's effects on children, particularly child soldiers.

They found that thousands of children flee their homes nightly in order to escape being abducted. Children in Uganda are regularly abducted by the LRA to be trained as child soldiers. The children who run from their homes walk miles to find shelter in hospitals or bus parks - virtually anywhere far away from rebel camps.

The filmmakers have also started a related nonprofit organization designed to help curb the problem. This is accomplished primarily by sending volunteers to Acholiland, the affected region in Northern Uganda, to aid former child-soldiers in re-integration into normal civic life through education and extensive psychological evaluation and treatment.

The organization has adopted the name Invisible Children Inc. as the official name for itself and its movement. It has been established in the United States and is currently involved with distributing copies of the Invisible Children DVD to as many people as possible. Members of the organization are currently touring the country in small groups via donated recreational vehicles.

The volunteers have been holding showings of the film at various educational and cultural centers (mostly high schools and colleges). The campaign has been centered around raising public awareness in the U.S. in an attempt to spur youth into action and change the current policies of both the United States and Ugandan governments (who have largely let the conflict fester).

They hope to achieve their goals with the Global Night Commute that took place on April 29, 2006. By the final count, some 80,000 youths from around the world converged on urban centers in 130 major cities around the world in solidarity with displaced Ugandan children who are attempting to avoid capture by the LRA as seen in the film.

As a follow-up to the Global Night Commute, the filmmakers have organized Northern Uganda Lobby Day in Washington, DC on October 9-10, 2006. The first day is to contain a series of workshops and speakers, and the second will be for actual lobbying of Congress members by their constituents.