Archive for April, 2006
Adam Shapiro on Uprising Radio
In October 2004, a team of three independent filmmakers – Aisha Bain, Jen Marlowe and Adam Shapiro – went to Darfur, Sudan and eastern Chad. Darfur is the focus of an on-going genocide that the world has recognized but failed to do anything about. The film makers monitored the worsening political and humanitarian crisis for months and recognized that the mainstream media was not doing a very good job of covering the crisis. So they made a film to provide a platform for the people of Darfur to express themselves – it’s called Darfur Diaries.
Stream audio by clicking here (.m3u file).
Horror of Horrors
‘Darfur Diaries’ tackles the dirtiest deed of all
By Brett Ascarelli, bohemian.com
In February 2005, two Human Rights Watch researchers traveled to the troubled region of Darfur, Sudan, to gather information about the ongoing genocide. To keep the children occupied while interviewing their parents, the researchers gave the kids paper and crayons. But instead of flowers and smiley faces, the children drew violent scenes of their villages under the attack of Janjaweed gunfire and government air strikes–scenes to which they had become accustomed.
To give children like them and other persecuted Darfurians a voice, filmmakers Aisha Bain, Jen Marlowe and Adam Shapiro (About Baghdad) have recently finished Darfur Diaries: Message from Home, an independent documentary about the genocide in Darfur. They allege that the Sudanese government is sponsoring the killing under a smokescreen of ethnic tensions between Africans and Arabs. Since the violence plateaued in February 2003, the conflict has caused between 200,000 and 400,000 deaths and has displaced 2 million people from their homes.
“Darfur Diaries” Shares Stories of Victims of Genocide
by Lily March, Vermont Cynic
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.
