Acclaimed documentary director David Frankham discusses his HBO Documentary Films project “Witness: South Sudan”. The documentary film screened during Social Justice Sunday at the 3rd Annual BronzeLens Film Festival…another RCS exclusive!
WITNESS follows our current generation of photojournalists into the conflict zones in Mexico, Libya, Brazil and South Sudan. In the four-part series, war photographers carry us into the heart of the human drama of the people in the action on the ground. We see what compels the photojournalist and experience why, when everyone else seeks cover, the photojournalist stands and moves closer.
In South Sudan, thousands have been killed, abducted or displaced by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). WITNESS: SOUTH SUDAN, follows French photojournalist Veronique de Viguerie and her travels with the Arrow Boys, an unpaid militia of farmers who took up arms to protect their families from the LRA, in the conflict zones in South Sudan. By the way, de Viquerie is pregnant during the shooting of the documentary as she treks through wilderness with the Arrow Boys, as well as with the Ugandan Army.
For the last two decades, Kony has reportedly led a campaign of unfathomable brutality in an attempt to impose his command as the law of the land. His forces have kidnapped and forced into sexual or military slavery an estimated 60,000 children. However, unlike the viral “KONY 2012” film which created much controversy as many questioned the movie’s claims against Kony and its validity, this documentary (although it is yet another white person saving Africa film), doesn’t get into the politics per se. Rather, it gives a first-hand account from the very people who were victims of Kony.
The horrifying accounts of rape, brutalization, forced killings as told by mothers, young boys and girls, men — it would appear that almost anyone and everyone in South Sudan has been impacted by the LRA. It is difficult to watch and comprehend the countless stories of brutality.
As a journalist, de Viguerie grapples with trying to remain neutral. This proves too difficult a task during filming when a soldier is shot.. De Viguerie quickly moves to get medical attention for the downed soldier and comes to the realization that she is a human first and a journalist second!
WITNESS: SOUTH SUDAN debuts on HBO on Monday, Nov. 19 at 9pm ET/PT
