2008 Woodie Awards
"Darfur Diaries" Shares Stories of Victims of Genocide
Lily March
Issue date: 4/11/06 Section: News
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Thursday night, students packed into Williams 301 to view S.T.A.N.D's (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur) presentation of "Darfur Diaries: Message from Home."
The viewing began with one of the three filmmakers, Jen Marlowe, making a presentation about the background and motivation of the piece. Marlowe spoke of the importance of this film as activism.
Making the film was difficult due to the fact that they were filming in Sudan, a country that was then, as it is now, war stricken. But, Marlowe noted, the film "had to be done."
The mission was to cover a genocide that no one knew was happening.
Marlowe expressed frustration with how the media has presented the genocide that is taking place in Darfur. The media "simplifies" the story, which is often called "ethnic conflict."
In reality, the Sudanese government is killing its own people, using an ethnic group, the "Arabs" as their weapon.
Simplification comes also in the form of numbers. While shocking numbers exist around the conflicts in the region - there are 200,000 refugees in Chad, and 400,000 have been murdered in Darfur - Marlowe stressed that "numbers don't tell a story; have pain or dignity."
The film team traveled to eastern Chad and snuck over the border into Darfur, Sudan in October of 2004. They left one month later with 45 hours of footage.
Much of what makes up the film are the testimonials made by people who have been displaced by the conflict.
As the film opens one hears the clapping and singing of young children and childish drawings are animated across the screen. In the drawings are colorful scenes of happy, playing children.
Then comes the sounds of airplanes and exploding bombs. Gunshots and screams take over ones auditory senses and the childish drawings literally burn in flames.
This scene expresses the horror of what the people of Darfur have and currently are experiencing. While the media has claimed that conflict began in 2003, in reality it has been going on for much longer.
The viewing began with one of the three filmmakers, Jen Marlowe, making a presentation about the background and motivation of the piece. Marlowe spoke of the importance of this film as activism.
Making the film was difficult due to the fact that they were filming in Sudan, a country that was then, as it is now, war stricken. But, Marlowe noted, the film "had to be done."
The mission was to cover a genocide that no one knew was happening.
Marlowe expressed frustration with how the media has presented the genocide that is taking place in Darfur. The media "simplifies" the story, which is often called "ethnic conflict."
In reality, the Sudanese government is killing its own people, using an ethnic group, the "Arabs" as their weapon.
Simplification comes also in the form of numbers. While shocking numbers exist around the conflicts in the region - there are 200,000 refugees in Chad, and 400,000 have been murdered in Darfur - Marlowe stressed that "numbers don't tell a story; have pain or dignity."
The film team traveled to eastern Chad and snuck over the border into Darfur, Sudan in October of 2004. They left one month later with 45 hours of footage.
Much of what makes up the film are the testimonials made by people who have been displaced by the conflict.
As the film opens one hears the clapping and singing of young children and childish drawings are animated across the screen. In the drawings are colorful scenes of happy, playing children.
Then comes the sounds of airplanes and exploding bombs. Gunshots and screams take over ones auditory senses and the childish drawings literally burn in flames.
This scene expresses the horror of what the people of Darfur have and currently are experiencing. While the media has claimed that conflict began in 2003, in reality it has been going on for much longer.