Director: Lisa Merton and Alan Dater
Country: USA/Kenya
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
Time: 80min
Year: 2008
The Kenyans train in teams to help each other compete more effectively. Their ability to compete more effectively assures that more racing dollars are won and re-deployed back in Kenya. Those dollars help create businesses, buy land, build houses and help family and neighbors that have not been as fortunate.
While making this documentary short; I realized: “I originally wanted to film the Kenyans because they are the gold standard in world distance racing. What I came away with was: “they may be the “gold standard” in which community and philanthropy collide.”
Director: Ed Vaughn
From: USA/Kenya
Language: English/Swahili
Genre: Documentary
Time: 30min
Year: 2005
Uganda is in the midst of the world's longest-running civil war, a 22-year conflict that has displaced over 2 million people from their homes, resulting in the abductions of over 30,000 children to the forces of the Lord's Resistance Army. Currently, 1500 people per week are dying from the conditions in squalid camps for Internally Displaced Persons in Northern Uganda.
Patrick was four when LRA Rebels decimated his family's farm and murdered his brother and four other family members, forcing them to abandon their ancestral land. A harrowing childhood, a stint in a miserable camp for the Internally Displaced, and a stubborn desire to help his dispossessed family regain their land have driven Patrick throughout his subsequent, improbable rise to Davis Cup competition.
The camera accompanies Patrick during his last weeks in Uganda and first 2 years in the US, as his new life unfolds in unforeseen ways. The adjustment is not easy, and his tennis dream is threatened by the pressures of his new life. While seeming to have hit pay-dirt with a well-to-do American sponsor, Patrick must learn to deal with the pressure of "expectations" and "measuring up." Obstacles arise that put his status in the U.S. at risk, adding to the pressures of financial responsibility to his family in Uganda and a growing cultural divide with his Ugandan girlfriend.
A young man straddling two disparate worlds, Patrick is haunted by past atrocities, the stubborn memories of which punctuate the film, recalled during quiet moments, or with sudden pain at a New York City rally for the children of Northern Uganda. "SOMAY KU," translated, means "bounce...hit" in Kumam, which is Patrick Olobo's native dialect, from the TESO Region of Northeastern Uganda.
Director: Rex Miller
Country: USA/Uganda
Language: English/Luganda
Genre: Documentary
Time: 95min
Year: 2008
The women of Sudan do not allow their men into the kitchen. The older women in particular, need to be convinced that it is a good idea for men to share the domestic duties. Ayen discovers that changing their opinion is as difficult as getting the men to attend her cooking school. While Alier, a young Sudanese refugee believes “cooking, cleaning, washing the dishes, it’s the duty of your sister”, he admits that his own efforts in the kitchen taste terrible. Alier is one of the lost boys of Sudan. Many of the young men have grown up in refugee camps and in some cases have never seen Sudan. They have come to Australia without fathers or mothers, and are now living in houses on their own and there are no women to cook for them. Ayen wants to help these men rebuild their lives.
At first, no one turns up to Ayen’s class. Ayen and her friends wait in the kitchen, cooking porridge and discussing what is going on in their community. The men are too proud to be found anywhere near a pot. They fear that their manhood will be diminished if they cross the threshold of Ayen’s kitchen and that they will never find a wife if they can cook. Ayen decides to visit the young men and argue her case.
Director: Sieh Mchawala
Country: Australia/Sudan
Language:English/Dinka
Genre: Documentary
Time: 52 min
Year: 2008
A similar thing is happening in cities all across America. AIDS, drugs, and violence are wiping out a generations of parents, leaving millions of children behind. Determined to keep these children out of foster care, their grandmothers are stepping in to raise them. Their task is made more difficult because many are poor women living in sub-standard housing and gang-ridden neighborhoods.
This film introduces two outstanding projects – one in the Bronx, one in Tanzania. The founders of these projects are finding simple and effective ways to support grandmothers who are raising grandchildren: Children who were “at risk” are now thriving. Grandmothers who felt hopeless are beginning to hope again.
Director: Anne Macksoud/ John Ankele
Country: USA/Tanzania
Language: English/Swahili
Genre: Documentary
Time: 56min
Year: 2006
Where Do I Stand? is a window into the lives of seven young people who are thinking deeply about their actions during and after the violence, their communities, and the state of their country. They include a Rwandan refugee, a girl wrestling with the reality of foreigners in her township, a boy facing calls of cowardice by friends for not looting, and a suburban girl whose family sheltered their Malawian gardener.
This violence was yet another challenge to a growing country still struggling with the legacy of apartheid — extended poverty, unemployment, and racial and economic divisions. Where Do I Stand? captures the optimistic voices of youth trying to make sense of what they experienced and how they carve out their own places in this complex and divided nation.
Director: Molly Blank
Country: USA/South Africa
Language: English/Zulu
Genre: Documentary
Time: 37min
Year: 2010
 |  |  |  |  |