Post by Ace on Oct 11, 2006 9:20:59 GMT -5
The Province: Ugandan version of country's turmoil
Filmmakers add context to footage of civil-war atrocities
Glen Schaefer,
Published: Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Every night, as many as 40,000 children in northern Uganda walk, often for hours, from their villages into bigger towns so they can sleep without fear of being killed or kidnapped by a rebel army. By dawn's light, the children retrace the paths back to their homes, in time for school and chores.
The heart-wrenching routine, which developed over the course of some two decades of civil strife in the country, is one aspect of life in Uganda explored in the B.C.-made documentary Uganda Rising (7 p.m., the Ridge), from producer Alison Lawton and co-directors Jesse James Miller and Pete McCormack.
Producer Lawton came to Miller and McCormack with footage shot by a crew in Uganda, including interviews with teens who had been kidnapped and forced to join in atrocities by rebels led by a self-proclaimed prophet, and with surviving victims of those atrocities. As well, the crew captured the hardship of life in huge displaced-persons camps, where tens of thousands of people rely on international handouts after being forced by the government out of their own villages.
It's the Ugandan version -- largely untold outside the country's borders -- of an oft-repeated tragedy, as the complexities of ethnic rivalry flares in a country whose borders were drawn years ago by departing colonial powers.
"We thought, 'What is the story?'" says McCormack. "The story got wider -- it went from northern Uganda, then Rwanda and Congo were involved. Then the World bank, what happened on 9/11, and, of course, colonialism."
Miller and McCormack tried to bring context to their story through input from Uganda's Betty Bigombe, who mediates negotiations between the government and the rebels. As well, they drew on global experts including Noam Chomsky, anthropologist Mahmood Mamdami and Lloyd Axworthy.
As the movie finishes a year-long festival run, the makers are continuing to delve into what remains an unfinished story.
McCormack and Tim Hardy, who was part of the crew that got the original Uganda footage, have completed a 25-minute documentary on AIDS in Africa, titled Hope in the Time of AIDS and narrated by Pierce Brosnan. They spent a day with the actor while he was in Vancouver filming another project.
McCormack and producer Lawton are heading to Africa at month's end to spend two weeks touring four African countries, gathering further footage with a camera crew to see where that leads.
For McCormack, the past two years of documentary work involves a switch from an earlier career as novelist (Understanding Ken), songwriter and screenwriter-director (See Grace Fly).
"I don't find them to be particularly different," says McCormack, who is still pursuing the fictional work. "One seeks to find roots, cause, intentions and fire behind human nature."
The non-fiction work helps to add perspective on the small frustrations of the creative life.
"There are probably a billion people in this world who work harder than I do and live in abject poverty. It requires a constant development of humility."
Filmmakers add context to footage of civil-war atrocities
Glen Schaefer,
Published: Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Every night, as many as 40,000 children in northern Uganda walk, often for hours, from their villages into bigger towns so they can sleep without fear of being killed or kidnapped by a rebel army. By dawn's light, the children retrace the paths back to their homes, in time for school and chores.
The heart-wrenching routine, which developed over the course of some two decades of civil strife in the country, is one aspect of life in Uganda explored in the B.C.-made documentary Uganda Rising (7 p.m., the Ridge), from producer Alison Lawton and co-directors Jesse James Miller and Pete McCormack.
Producer Lawton came to Miller and McCormack with footage shot by a crew in Uganda, including interviews with teens who had been kidnapped and forced to join in atrocities by rebels led by a self-proclaimed prophet, and with surviving victims of those atrocities. As well, the crew captured the hardship of life in huge displaced-persons camps, where tens of thousands of people rely on international handouts after being forced by the government out of their own villages.
It's the Ugandan version -- largely untold outside the country's borders -- of an oft-repeated tragedy, as the complexities of ethnic rivalry flares in a country whose borders were drawn years ago by departing colonial powers.
"We thought, 'What is the story?'" says McCormack. "The story got wider -- it went from northern Uganda, then Rwanda and Congo were involved. Then the World bank, what happened on 9/11, and, of course, colonialism."
Miller and McCormack tried to bring context to their story through input from Uganda's Betty Bigombe, who mediates negotiations between the government and the rebels. As well, they drew on global experts including Noam Chomsky, anthropologist Mahmood Mamdami and Lloyd Axworthy.
As the movie finishes a year-long festival run, the makers are continuing to delve into what remains an unfinished story.
McCormack and Tim Hardy, who was part of the crew that got the original Uganda footage, have completed a 25-minute documentary on AIDS in Africa, titled Hope in the Time of AIDS and narrated by Pierce Brosnan. They spent a day with the actor while he was in Vancouver filming another project.
McCormack and producer Lawton are heading to Africa at month's end to spend two weeks touring four African countries, gathering further footage with a camera crew to see where that leads.
For McCormack, the past two years of documentary work involves a switch from an earlier career as novelist (Understanding Ken), songwriter and screenwriter-director (See Grace Fly).
"I don't find them to be particularly different," says McCormack, who is still pursuing the fictional work. "One seeks to find roots, cause, intentions and fire behind human nature."
The non-fiction work helps to add perspective on the small frustrations of the creative life.
"There are probably a billion people in this world who work harder than I do and live in abject poverty. It requires a constant development of humility."
