''Invisible Children'' is a 2006 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

that depicts the human rights abuses by the

Lord's Resistance Army The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), also known as the Lord's Resistance Movement, is a rebel group and heterodox Christian group which operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Co ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

Synopsis

In the spring of 2003,

Jason Russell Jason Russell (born October 12, 1978) is an American film and theater director, choreographer, and activist who co-founded Invisible Children, Inc. He is the director of ''Kony 2012'', a short documentary film that went viral in the beginning of ...

, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole traveled to Africa to document the

War in Darfur The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, is a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups beg ...

. Instead, they changed their focus to the conflict in northern Uganda, Africa's second longest-running conflict after the

Eritrean War of Independence The Eritrean War of Independence was a war for independence which Eritrean independence fighters waged against successive Ethiopian governments from 1 September 1961 to 24 May 1991. Eritrea was an Italian colony from the 1880s until the d ...

. The documentary depicts the abduction of children who are used as child soldiers by

Joseph Kony Joseph Rao Kony (likely born 1961) is a Ugandan militant who founded the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Christian fundamentalist organization, designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Peacekeepers, the European Union and variou ...

and his

(LRA). This film centers around a group of Ugandan children who walk miles every night to places of refuge in order to avoid abduction by the LRA.

Exhibition

The film was first screened on June 22, 2004, at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego. Since then,

Invisible Children, Inc. Invisible Children, Inc., founded in 2004, is an organization to increase awareness of the activities of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Central Africa, and its leader, Joseph Kony. Specifically, the group seeks to put an end to the practices ...

has hosted more than 10,000 screenings at colleges, high schools, churches, concerts and other venues. As of June 2009, it is estimated that more than 5 million people have seen ''Invisible Children: The Rough Cut.''

Social activism

The story of children depicted in the film was the basis for a grassroots movement mobilizing thousands of American teens into action to raise money to rebuild war-torn schools in northern

and provide scholarships to African youth. In 2005, a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

non-profit, Invisible Children, Inc., was created, giving individuals a way to respond to the situation in Uganda.Take Part
web site, 2010. An employee of the organization, Nate Henn, was killed in the

July 2010 Kampala attacks On 11 July 2010, suicide bombings were carried out against crowds watching a screening of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final at two locations in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. The attacks left 74 dead and 85 injured. Al-Shabaab, an Islamis ...

DVD

The film is roughly 55 minutes long, and the DVD includes a shorter 35-minute version for different screening options. The DVD also includes special features; deleted scenes, extras, filmmaker commentary, update on the war, and trailers from Invisible Children, Inc.

References

External links

Joseph Kony 2012: growing outrage in Uganda over film

Invisible Children Homepage
*
''Invisible Children''
images from film
''Mourning Nate Henn''
the Nate Henn memorial website
''Kony 2012''
Kony 2012 Homepage {{Invisible Children Inc. 2006 films 2006 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about Uganda Films set in 2003 Documentary films about child soldiers 2000s English-language films 2000s American films