Darfur Diaries: Message From Home
by Aisha Bain, Jen Marlowe, Adam Shapiro
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DVD details
Actor: n/aDirector: Adam Shapiro, Aisha Bain, Jen Marlowe
Brand: CINEMA LIBRE DISTRIBUTION
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 55 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-10-17
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: CLS1016
Studio: Cinema Libre
Product features:
- This is a brutally honest look into the current tragedy befalling the Darfur region. A team of three independent filmmakers in Darfur monitored the worsening political and humanitarian crisis in 2004 and recognized that the mainstream media offered marginal and inadequate coverage. They set out with the goal of providing a platform for the people of Darfur to speak for themselves about their exper
DVD Reviews of Darfur Diaries: Message From Home
DVD Review: Beyond the Slaughter: Smiles, Singing & Other Surprises...
Summary: 5 Stars
Imagine that, Darfurians get to speak for themselves and turns out the conflict's about way more than the media voices make it out to be. And this documentary, it's not what one might expect either. Jennifer Lopez look-alike Aisha Bain was working for The Center for Prevention of Genocide in 2003 when asked to look into NGO reports coming out of Darfur. Dismayed at mainstream media's lack of interest in the story, she shares her information with pal Adam Shapiro who up and decides to go and check out Darfur for himself, with Bain and a third independent filmaker, Jen Marlowe, joining him. Shortly before their departure the Darfur story breaks into the news, but in an oversimplified form focusing on the black versus Arab characterization of the conflict, something this movie clarifies. The three producers remain offscreen during the feature film, but add their well-expressed observations and making-of-Darfur-Diaries insights appearing in the special features' "Context," "Director's Note," and "Slide Show." They avoid the political debates over what to call the Darfur crisis and whether the matter should be dealt with in the Interational Criminal Court (ICC) or an ad hoc tribunal, and cast the light on the central concern of protecting the people from violence.
The historical overview of the conflict is most clearly laid out in the "Context" feature of the DVD, which if watched first helps provide a better framework for understanding the 55-minute feature film, which is more relational, filled with magnetic smiles, childplay, a wedding, singing (even Bob Marley), sacrificial service, and optimistic aspirations of resilient people who don't define themselves as mere victims, and who are given voice and humanized by this film. The burned out depopulated villages, aerial bombings, and refugee camps are shown, but with a hopeful slant full of personality and people we can connect with.
Contrary to typical media impressions, the conflict didn't really start in 2003, but earlier with the marginalization efforts of the governmental elites led by the unpopular Omar Bashir who took power in a 1989 coup and by his support of Arab tribes sought to drive a wedge between Arabs and the black tribes, though actually there is much fluidity between them due to intermarriage, common arabic language and more, and the Arab Janjaweed proxy militia are just being used as a tool of the government to further their aims while shielding the government from the international community. While the government denies direct involvement, the story coming from the refugees of various villages is the same: aerial Anatov and helicopter bombing, followed by both Janjaweed and Sudanese government army mop-up land attacks, looting, raping of young and old, burning the villages to the ground, and flight of the villagers, many to neighboring Chad, since it is more difficult for international aid to get to internally displaced people due to impediments imposed by the Sudanese government.
Withstanding the Janjaweed and government is the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), the larger of the two main rebel groups, which had previously been called the Darfur Liberation Army, but changed its name to emphasize that all people of Sudan need to be free from Bashir's criminal government, that the conflict is not just a racial Darfur issue. The movie was made in 2004 and 2005, and as of then 200,000 had fled across to refugee camps in Chad, 2 million were driven from homes but still in Darfur, 2000 villages were burned and destroyed, and an estimated 400,000 were dead as a result of the conflict--as of then.
Don't miss the Director's Note, which shares some of the producers' activist energy along with filming stories, some humorous, other poignant. Another extra is the Slide Show, which is accompanied by some great music and filled with more of those heart-melting smiles so hard to ignore.
Description of Darfur Diaries: Message From Home
This is a brutally honest look into the current tragedy befalling the Darfur region. A team of three independent filmmakers in Darfur monitored the worsening political and humanitarian crisis in 2004 and recognized that the mainstream media offered marginal and inadequate coverage. They set out with the goal of providing a platform for the people of Darfur to speak for themselves about their experiences their fears and their hopes for the future.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 881394101623 Manufacturer No: CLS1016Bestsellers in DVD
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