Last night, my partner-in-crime Liz and I got the chance to check out an advance screening of the new film Darfur Now.  Check out the trailer here:

I've seen several movies now highlighting the crisis in Darfur, and each one seems to leave me feeling more helpless, more frustrated and heartbroken.  This one is not shy on the heartbreak -- the tragedies going on in Sudan are inexplicably atrocious -- but it had a message of action, of hope, that was inspiring and uplifting.  It didn't make action seem unatainable, either.  Next to actors and diplomats were "normal" people who refused to sit by and do nothing.

24-year old Adam Sterling, for example, talked about how learning more about genocide completely changed his attitude about taking aciton:  In college, I had perfected the art of walking there without taking a single flyer . . . then for my last two years in school, I was the guy passing out flyers every day.

Two scenes in particular struck me, sending chills up my spine.  First, the filmmakers had the chance to speak with His Excellency Abladlmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, Sudan's Ambassador to the UN in NY, who emphatically declares that there is no genocide and that the international community and media are overreacting.  It's pretty creepy.  Here is an short article indicating the Sudanese resistance to global peace efforts. 

The other was a scene in which beautiful Sudanese women, mothers in bright fabrics, serve as rebel fighters and line the mountainside with automatic weapons.  They dream aloud of what life will be like once the international troops come to rescue them and change their lives.  As Liz said, it is striking to see how much faith they have in the world.

Don Cheadle was inspired to get involved after working on the film Hotel Rwanda.  Here's the trailer, in case you haven't seen it.  Pretty scary how many times we have said "Never again" . . .

Related Cause:     Genocide in Darfur