This is a depressing movie in all senses of the word. It tells the story of a former U.S. Marine Captain Brian Steidle who went to Darfur as part of an African Union peacekeeping force. Which, of course, meant his hands were tied as far as actually helping anybody.Instead, he took devastating picture after devastating picture of the aftermath of attack after attack in Darfur. Eventually, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times got in touch with Steidle and used his pictures to help draw attention to the atrocities.
And, of course, nothing changed. George (Not on my watch) Bush did nothing other than actually utter the word genocide which I guess is something.
The movie's second half is more interesting to me than the first. The first half lays out the genocide but is a bit clunky and a little too reliant on piped in old radio broadcasts to catch the viewer up. The second half where Steidle presents his case to the world and the leaders collectively yawn is damning and more interesting to watch.
I'm looking forward to the Justin Timberlake 2018 film, Motel Darfur, where he plays Steidle and all of us can feel bad that we didn't do anything but feel good about the fact that we will, of course, never let something like this happen again, now that we know about it and how to prevent future atrocities. Here here for Justin Timberlake, Best Actor of 2018!
Directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg
2007
DVD
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