Posted: 04/04/07

Invisible Children not invisible
Acclaimed documentary returns to St. Michael's

Redmond Deck | contributing writer
rdeck@smcvt.edu

Last year, the response to Invisible Children, a documentary investigating how the quality of life for children was affected in war-torn areas of Africa, was extremely positive on St. Michael’s College campus and across around the country. Students began organizing funds and various other ways to help the children of northern Uganda. The national tour stopped by St. Michael’s once again this year.

A youthful movement

The presentation of Invisible Children was held in McCarthy Recital Hall, Wednesday March 28, at 7 p.m. Roughly 200 people attended the presentation.

Chris Zwakenberg, spokesperson for the Invisible Children tour adresses the crowd at McCarthy Arts Center on March 28. (Izabela Socha, photo)

Adrie Kusserow, chair of the sociology and anthropology department, has seen the movie four times.

“I had never seen anything like it,” Kusserow says about her first time seeing it. “I could see why it was so powerful.”

She says that the film is made for youth by youth, which makes it a very powerful movie.

“They don’t pretend to be anything that
they’re not,” Kusserow says. “Most of my students when I ask them ‘why do you find this film so moving,’ they say ‘because it’s people just like us,’ and if they can do it so can they.”

Chris Zwakenberg is a spokesperson of the Invisible Children Northeast/New England road crew.

“This is the second year we have been touring,” Zwakenberg says. “The organization started in 2004.”

Zwakenberg says the Invisible Children organization has been around for almost three years and has been an official non-profit organization for a year and four months. The tour has traveled to every region of the United States. Some of the money that the organization gets goes directly to Uganda, and some of it goes to fund the movies and tours.

“There’s 50 roadies right now and we broke up all 48 by region and there’s 13 groups,” he says.

A scene from the Invisible Children documentary when a teenager from Uganda asks to come to America. (Izabela Socha, photo)

Zwakenberg says that last year there were 28 roadies so the size of the tour has nearly doubled this year. The roadies of Invisible Children do not get paid; they only receive money for living expenses (gas and food) and do not get paid for lodging. He stays with friends he meets at the venues, which he thinks is more fun.

“If we stayed at hotels every night, it would be nice but we wouldn’t meet as many cool people,” he says.

Sophomore Julianne Dickerson says she watched the film for the first time on Wednesday night and she says she felt very depressed about the children's situation in northern Uganda.

“I was just really sad for them,” Dickerson says. “I couldn’t believe that people would do that to innocent little children.”

After the showing of the movie, bracelets were sold in the lobby to benefit the children of Uganda. Every bracelet came with a DVD of one child’s story. T-shirts and DVDs of the movie were also sold in the lobby.

On-campus action

Senior Arly Scully, president of the student association (S.A.), says the Peace and Justice Club deals with topics such as civil justice and human rights, and they would be the most closely united with Uganda awareness.

Though Green-Up is an environmental group, it overlaps with human justice. The S.A. funds Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts (M.O.V.E.) that also deals with human justice issues.

Kusserow says that a group on campus is also making an effort to spread awareness of Uganda, led by Allison Morse and Alyssa Dawson.

“The first year when the movie came out [the S.A.] worked really closely with [the groups] because [the slumber event on the observatory lawn] was happening during P-Day,” she says.

Chris Zwakenberg sells Invisible Children shirts and documentaries along with bracelets made by the displaced, Ugandan people. (Izabela Socha, photo)

Scully says the Invisible Children organization didn’t come to the S.A. this year for support. Scully says she has seen the Invisible Children film three times.

“The first time I watched it I really had a really kind of guttural reaction to it,” she says. “It was one of outrage and disbelief.”

At that point the filmmakers had a different spin on the film, according to Scully; Invisible Children was partnering with other organizations. She says she also had a journalistic reaction to it.

“As someone who really enjoys film and making film, I have seen a lot of different stuff” she says. “I can’t help but separate those two.

Scully says it’s important to view the film, but it’s

also important not too look at the Invisible Children as the “end all be all resource for information about what’s happening in Uganda.”

There’s tons of information out there, such as the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, Scully says. It's important to get the whole picture, according to Scully.