I love documentaries. I love checking Netflix’s documentary section weekly, hoping some new exposé on an important issue has been visualized. Documentaries have taught me many things, about the corruption of Wal-Mart, about killer whales, about McDonalds, and now today, about how a select few of the Lost Boys of Sudan have resettled to the United States and what they face being in a new country, with new responsibilities, but as they reiterate throughout the film, the same priorities.
I liked God Grew Tired of Us. I enjoyed the humor of Daniel, John and Panther, their goals, their opinions. I cried when John was reunited with his mother as 17 years of separation. I was excited for Panther to return to Kakuma to marry his girlfriend. I was so happy that these boys were making way in what they wanted: finding their families, helping their friends, preparing themselves for a return to Sudan when the war was over.
What I absolutely did not like was Nicole Kidman’s obnoxious voice narrating what I wrote down was ” a racist/exotifying presentation” of a sociopolitical situation utterly irrelevant to her privileged life as an Australian movie star. And then I remembered that all the people behind the camera were not Sudanese. I do not want to assume, but the producers’ names in the credits seemed awfully Western, awfully white. And now that I think about it, who is supposed to be watching this documentary? It chronicles the lives of three Sudanese boys in particular from the Kenyan refugee camp in Kakuma to various cities in the United States. Why would a Lost Boy watch a documentary about what he may already be familiar with? This documentary was made for Americans, and that’s what is problematic and infuriating.
Americans, and other white Western countries have a habit of acting on our “white savior complex.” If you’re not familiar with what it entails, the short version is that white people feel guilty for their privilege and attempt to compensate by looking to other, less fortunate countries and attempt to fix their problems. Remember Kony 2012? I do. I remember watching the video (linked!) and thinking “Oh no! Poor Ugandan children being forced into the army! I’m so glad I didn’t scroll past this video! I feel so enlightened!” I fell for it. I believed that Invisible Children, the for-profit charity that was supposed to free all these children, was a good investment. I never did contribute money, but I lied and said I would when it was brought up in class, which is probably worse. Facebook blew up with it. Everyone wanted to stop Kony, because apparently the Ugandan government and army were incapable, so who better than middle class American teenagers pouring their money into this great charity?
Well as it turns out, Kony hadn’t been in Uganda for years. And he was probably dead already. But why give the people and forces of Uganda their deserved credit when we can give it to some white guys who care sooo much? Invisible Children didn’t “get” Kony, because he wasn’t there to “get” in the first place. In fact, the funds supposedly raised to help the child soldiers actually went to the heads of the charity, and the money given to Uganda was given to the army to arm them. Cool.
Oh, and the head of the charity was caught masturbating naked on the highway because he was so “stressed” about all the attention his inane video got him. Come on.
So God Grew Tired of Us has wonderful subjects in John, Daniel and Panther, and horrible producers. Remember Whitlock’s “Word Made Flesh” introduction, and her advisement to read “peri-text” carefully? Watch this documentary carefully. These men can easily be perceived as victims, as refugees, without agency, hope or a future. These men are far from the emaciated shots of children overlaid Nicole Kidman’s idiotic narration of the trek across Sudan to Ethiopia and Kenya. These men are not in America because they are helpless, nor because their lifelong dreams of becoming Americans are coming true. They are Sudanese, they are proud of it. They are hardworking and lonely, and like Valentino, they are aching to go home. That is what I took away from the film, that they can’t go home, they can’t be where they desire to be most. America is not their solution. America is a stepping stone so they may train in skills to bring home, to Sudan, to their families, to their friends.
I cried on a couple occasions throughout the film, but it doesn’t matter. The producers want your tears. I will not pretend an 80 minute film taught me exactly what John, Daniel and Panther want.
I agree with your point about how we, middle class westerners, are so accustomed to a privileged lifestyle in which we almost look down upon the lifestyles of the underprivileged and think that we can easily make a difference in their lives. Although it is true that we have access to more knowledge and skills, this thought had gone to our heads and thus it had become only natural to us to assume that we are living how we should be and everyone else should work to be like us. But I do not necessarily find the fact that the documentary to be targeted at Americans troublesome. Moreover, I find the fact that it fed our immediate emotional responses (I cried a bit too, not gonna lie). It also concluded the film with one of the boys returning to Sudan. I feel as though the film suggested that this is the lifestyle of these boys, that they were to face adversity, overcome it, and return to contribute to society. This cycle did not give me an opening for a person like myself to think about my role in watching this. I felt as though it needed some thought provoking element to it. I believe it needed a “tangent” of thought I could think of the problem of the Lost Boys in relations to myself personally. Thank you for the post, it got myself thinking about the abnormality in the normality of our lifestyle being the norm and people are required to work towards achieving our lives.
This is a very interesting critical analysis of the film. My interpretation of what you are saying is that you enjoyed the context and characters, however you were appalled by the presentation of it all. Documentaries are in interesting conundrum as they are meant to be as realistic as possible, yet at the same time must appeal to audiences. As a viewer we have to keep in mind the financial side of the film business and understand that accuracy and authenticity are often sacrificed for the sake of creating a film that will be profitable. I also find it interesting how the documentary uses the “star power” of well known actors such as Nicole Kidman to draw audiences in.