The Lost Boys of Sudan
Pascarella, Matt
The Lost Boys of Sudan By Matt Pascarella Christopher Quinn, director of the new documentary God Grew Tired of Us, met three Sudanese men in the spring of 2001 while visiting the Kakuma refugee...
...John, Daniel, and Panther were eligible for the U.S...
...Quinn documents the young men's first encounters with strange utilities that they've never seen before...
...He repeats, "I left them in a very bad place, a very bad place...
...You can view his reports on BBC Newsnight TV, in Harper's Magazine, and at www.GregPalast.com...
...Matt Pascarella is a researcher, writer and producer for investigative journalist Greg Palast...
...Now we say this is mine, this is yours...
...After close to five years of this cruel journey they finally reached the safety of the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya...
...The U.S...
...John, Panther, and Daniel each work up to three jobs at a time to try and raise money to cover these debts and their own expenditures, as well as to send money back to their other "brothers" in Kakuma Camp...
...The three board a plane and wave goodbye as a massive crowd from the camp gathers to see them off...
...Escaping the Sudanese government's vicious ethnic cleansing crusade that targeted Christian males in the southern region of that nation, John, Daniel, and Panther fled for their lives...
...Soon enough, the boys themselves begin to rarely see each other...
...Their experiences with devices such as escalators, toilets, showers, refrigerators, and even wet-naps, jelly donuts, and helium balloons force you to reconsider your daily activities from an entirely new perspective...
...The film took home the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary...
...One of them comments, "It's lonely...
...Despite his own struggle to survive financially in America, he is determined to do as much as he can to help them...
...We miss our culture...
...After spending two weeks in the camp with them, Quinn decided to take his cameras and follow this group of three on their journey to America...
...The Lost Boys of Sudan By Matt Pascarella Christopher Quinn, director of the new documentary God Grew Tired of Us, met three Sudanese men in the spring of 2001 while visiting the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya...
...Both John and the film were well received...
...John, Daniel, and Panther also question whether anyone has the time to be friendly in America...
...John was in attendance for the premiere of God Grew Tired of Us at the Sundance Film Festival in late January...
...Like other Lost Boys, they trekked barefoot for more than 1,000 miles through barren deserts, struggling to stay alive and learning to bury those who died in mass graves...
...One scene shows one of the young men casually taking Ritz crackers, dumping them into an ice-tea pitcher, pulverizing them with the handle of a hammer and then pouring milk on top of them-while in the background women dressed in spandex vigorously perform aerobics on the television...
...At the end of the three months they find themselves desperately trying to figure out how to pay back the government for their living expenses and the cost of airfare to America...
...Nicole Kidman narrates the documentary and Brad Pitt is the executive producer, but the powerofthe movieiswhen Quinn stands back and lets John, Daniel, and Panther speak for themselves...
...government sponsors them for only the first three months following their arrival in America...
...They were among "The Lost Boys," nearly 25,000 in all, who had been forced to abandon their families more than a decade ago...
...Most people in America are too busy to see each other, too busy to be friendly...
...Following the screening at Sundance, a member of the audience handed John a check for $25,000 to help him with a clinic project for refugees back home...
...John constantly agonizes over his "brothers" left behind in Kakuma...
...He reluctantly explains, "I have to go, I have to go to school and get a job...
...government's relocation program of 3,600 Sudanese refugees...
...They inquire about peculiar concepts like why people don't stop and talk to each other, and how Jesus Christ could possibly be related to Santa Claus...
...John, Daniel, and Panther are currently working to develop initiatives back in Kakuma and even in Sudan to aid their fellow refugees...
...Aside from seeing how bizarre it is for a foreigner to make sense of your culture, what draws you into the film is that Quinn continues to follow them for four years...
...In the movie, John, Daniel, and Panther prepare to leave for America, and John feels guilty that he is leaving his "brothers" behind...
...The most poignant parts of the film are those that show their struggle to understand the daily experiences of living in the United States...
...In Kakuma camp, people were together every day," recalls one of the boys...
...The boys have a natural ability to effortlessly tell an audience their astonishing stories of unimaginable struggles...
Vol. 70 • April 2006 • No. 4
