Most Americans who pay even cursory attention to the news have probably heard of Darfur. But the name remains largely an abstraction, its people collective victims rather than individuals. Jen Marlowe has been striving for three years to introduce the people of Darfur to the world, and her efforts continue tonight in Lakeland with a screening of the documentary “Darfur Diaries: Message From Home” at Harrison Arts Center.

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Wingate University
Wingate, NC
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
7:00pm
Book Signing to Follow
Contact: Christine Workman
Phone: 704-233-8482
Email: cworkman@wingate.edu

Docusur Market is the most important international forum of documentary film professionals in southern Europe with focus in Southern Documentaries.

It is directed to producers and filmmakers who are developing projects seeking for funding or ready made programmes that need distribution. Projects which are produced in the rest of the world and talk about these regions or about North- South relations also can be included in this section.

The breathtaking landscape of Guía de Isora, with an average annual spring time temperature of 24º, the modern communications and infrastructures of the Island, and the prestige of its lodging structures, make this location from the south of Tenerife the ideal space as meeting point for producers and documentary filmmakers and representatives from television channels.

Continent American Independent Film Festival
Cinéma Le Latina

The second edition of the Continent American Independent Film Festival will take place in Paris in 2008. This event has become an important showcase for independent American cinema in France, screening films that are too often overshadowed by larger-budget productions.

The objective is to create a place where film-lovers and professionals can meet in a convivial and festive atmosphere to discover and celebrate the best films produced independently from the American Continent.

Twenty four or so films are to be presented in 2008. Those twenty four films have never been released in France and will be in official competition. One prize will be awarded by a public jury.

Another film, out of competition, dedicated to a director, a writer, a producer or an actor particularly representative of the American independent movies production will be presented in “second”.

Where: The National Liberty Museum, 321 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA.
Event Description:
A day after the International Day of Peace, YPIC will screen “Darfur Diaries” at the National Liberty Museum. We will hold a free-flowing debate after the showing of the movie, highlighting the historical and political complexities behind the human drama and provide updates on the latest developments. A number of local regional organizations committed to saving Darfur are invited to come and speak about their projects and ways that younger professionals in the Greater Philadelphia area can get involved.
Organizer: Young Professionals for International Cooperation (YPIC) Program of the United Nations Association of Greater Philadelphia
For more information please contact ypic.unagp@gmail.com or Diana Melnichenko at diana.melnichenko@gmail.com

Clips and discussion with filmmaker Jen Marlowe
Goodrich Chapel
Contact: Mr. Tracey Howard
Office: 517-629-0433

Marywood University
Scranton, PA
Book signing to follow
Multimedia Room – Learning Resource Center 160
Contact: Ms. Laurie Cassidy, PhD
Office: 508-348-6211 x.2504

Listen to the program or download it here.

Angelo Manger Maker, a Sudanese
orphan, speaks at Ashburn Library
June 14 about his experiences in
Sudan. [Times-Mirror Staff Photo/
AJ Maclean]

About 40 10-year-olds lined up behind a podium to read their poems about the genocide in Darfur at Ashburn Library June 14. As their words began to flow, the line ratcheted forward in front of a projector, and the profile of each student’s face was cast upon a screen, upon which read, “A voice of hope for Sudan’s future.”

The silhouettes of the boys and girls were in stark contrast to the savage topic of genocide. The innocent voices that projected words such as “hope,” “fear,” “death” and “courage,” reaffirmed the seemingly contradictory image.

The students were reading their poems, which have been published in a book of poetry, “We Hear You: American Kids’ Reflections on Darfur.” The reading was one of three events the library hosted to inform local citizens about Darfur. The poetry was so compelling it drew the ear of poet Maya Angelou, who wrote the forward for the book.

“The courageous person knows that all children are our children as we belong to the world and the world belongs to us,” Angelou wrote.

Altogether there are 149 poems in the book, one written by each fifth-grader at Mill Run Elementary School in Ashburn.

The students had been learning various forms of poetry and began thinking about Darfur after reading “Number the Stars,” a book by Lois Lowry about the Holocaust.

The language arts teachers at Mill Run – Logan Williams, Rebecca Williams and Ann Rovang-Wolff – asked the kids if they thought something like the Holocaust could happen today.

“The kids said, ‘No, there’s no way this could ever happen in modern times – the reason it happened in the past was because people didn’t know about it,’” Logan Williams said, recounting the students’ answer.

The teachers tactfully told them about how the Sudanese government sponsored militias to raid villages, burn houses and kill innocent people.

“They were absolutely shocked when I told them what was going on in present day,” Williams said.

Several students who were planning to read their poems to the graduating class discussed their thoughts on the book and the situation in Darfur.

“I was surprised it was still going on,” Kyle Albers said, and the group agreed.

Since learning about Darfur, Jordyn Gates said he realized he doesn’t need things such as toys or video games.

Adam Lewis said he hears about crime and poverty in the United States but didn’t know what was happening in other nations. “It doesn’t just happen here,” he said. “Bad stuff happens all over.”

“I found it really hard to imagine,” Emily O’Brien said. “I didn’t know that something like this was happening; I just found it scary.”

The thoughts running through the children’s minds have occurred to many people familiar with the crisis in Darfur. The kids, however, wanted to do something about it and unlike many, they actually did.

“I wanted to do anything I could to help them,” Malik Piersol said. “It’s very upsetting that people don’t have the time to raise money to help build houses and things.”

“They really wanted to do more,” said Williams, who recently was inspired to help Darfurians after reading “Darfur Diaries,” by Aisha Bain, Jen Marlowe and Adam Shapiro.

Williams said, “In ‘Darfur Diaries,’ [the authors] asked one of the little boys, ‘What would you say to American kids if you could tell them anything?’ and the little boy said, ‘If you help us now, then I’ll help you when we’re liberated’ – so I was really moved by a lot of the stories that were in ‘Darfur Diaries.’”

What had started in a few classrooms at the Ashburn school eventually swelled to a school-wide effort.

“The poetry started first and then the kids were the ones that really wanted to raise extra money and get other kids in the school involved,” Logan said.

Large glass jars labeled “Darfur Education Fund” began appearing around the school and were filled up with pocket change and an occasional bill. Williams said the school has raised more than $2,500 through bake sales and the jars.

“The biggest thing to me,” Logan said, “is that even when everything is finished and done with in Darfur – and hopefully it will end soon – some of these kids have missed three years of school and they will have no say in the future government if all these kids are illiterate.”

That is why proceeds from the book will go to the Darfur Peace and Development Organization Darfur Schools Project.

“I really felt that the poetry should be shared with other people,” Logan said. “The kids were so passionate about it that I really wanted their poems to be published. I got some interest from some publishing companies, but I really wanted it published before they left the elementary school.”

The kids’ passion, Logan said, drove her to empty her savings account, start Open Doors Publishing and print the book of poems.

And so, “Number the Stars” prompted discussion, “Darfur Diaries” sparked action, and it is the wish of the authors of “We Hear You: American Kids’ Reflections on Darfur” that their book will spawn something greater still – hope.

Angelo Maker Manger, a Sudanese orphan who also spoke at the Ashburn Library June 14, said, “If the world could see what the kids did today, it would be a major step. Thank you will not be enough to you,” he told the teachers.

“I never cry since I lost my mother, but today, I almost cried.”

For more information on the students’ book, visit opendoorspublishing.com.

UNITED NATIONS, April 25 (OneWorld) – The news that a major investment firm has drastically reduced its business interests with those close to the Sudanese government has emboldened pressure groups involved in the global campaign to stop attacks in Darfur.

Last week, Fidelity Investments, the world’s leading mutual funds company, announced it had sold 91 percent of its American Depository Receipts in PetroChina, which amounts to nearly half the investment firm’s total holdings in the state-owned oil company that operates in Sudan.

Fidelity did not explain why it made the move to sell its PetroChina shares, but observers say it was clear the decision came amid increasing pressure from the Darfur campaign.

“The Fidelity divestment is a good first step,” Howard Salter of Washington, DC-based Citizens for Global Solutions, an advocacy group, told OneWorld. “It reflects how individual voices can come together and make a difference.”

The group, along with many others, has long been calling for U.S. investors, including Fidelity, to withdraw their money from projects that help the Sudanese government to aid militias involved in genocidal attacks against the indigenous population of Darfur.

The campaign targeting investors in Sudan say there is a well-established link between the oil industry in that country and the government funding of genocide of the people of Darfur.

Fidelity’s decision “also sends a strong signal to the Bashir government that the global community is watching,” said Salter, referring to Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir, who has been accused of supporting the actions of militia fighters wreaking havoc throughout the villages of Darfur.

China National Petroleum Corporation, PetroChina’s parent company and the country’s largest energy enterprise, owns the largest single share in the consortium that dominates the Sudanese oil business, in partnership with other foreign firms.

In the past months, time and again the U.S. government has tried hard to win international support for tough sanctions against Khartoum, but failed to build the required consensus in the 15-member United Nations Security Council.

Though dismissive of the Sudanese government’s stance on Darfur, both China and Russia, which enjoy veto powers, continue to oppose Western proposals for strict economic sanctions against Sudan.

Neither nation, however, raised opposition to last year’s Security Council resolution calling for the deployment of 20,000 UN troops in Darfur, a move that Sudan has never fully accepted.

In rejecting the UN resolution, Sudan argued that it could address the issue of civilian protection in Darfur by using its own military might. The Sudanese government did agree last month to accept a 3,000-strong UN force.

In Darfur, more than 200,000 people — and by some estimates over 400,000 — have been killed and at least 2 million others forced from their homes since 2003 when the armed conflict began between rebel groups representing the interests of ethnic African tribes and the Khartoum-backed Janjaweed militia.

With no immediate end to the violence in Darfur in sight, the armed conflict has now spilled over to neighboring countries of Chad and the Central African Republic.

Emboldened by Fidelity’s decision, activists in the United States say they will step up the campaign to force other investors to do the same, hoping that the Chinese might also learn a lesson from this move.

Joining the campaign to end genocide in Darfur, some leading U.S. politicians have also divested their money from what activists brand “problematic companies” in Sudan.

While such tactics, according to Salter, could add momentum to the international pressure on Sudan, he believes Washington could do more.

“We implore the Bush administration to use all its diplomatic tools to convince Bashir to allow UN peacekeepers into the region in order to save the lives of the people of Darfur,” he said.