Film Critique of "Invisible Children"

“Invisible Children” is an absolutely captivating documentary of the treacheries of the practice of child soldiering in Sudan. Its extremely raw, unedited, almost “amateur” footage makes you feel like you are really there, witnessing the horrible acts committed against children living in the central Sudan area. I found this movie especially moving. It is just amazing that these three college students (the same age as me), had the heart and drive to put themselves in the middle of such a dangerous area, just to let the world know of the horrible act of child soldiering. I have to admit that before watching this documentary I was quite unaware of how serious the situation in Sudan is. I really had no idea of how horrible these children have to live, both before and after they are placed under the reign of dictating officers to be a child soldier. These kids somehow are able to laugh, and live their lives, as if it is normal, and that is the way it should be. Even thinking about it now makes me cringe. This movie inspires me to make a difference. These college kids just went on this adventure on a whim, with no prior experience, just a gigantic heart. I want to do something like this. I want to change. I want the world to be a better place because I somehow helped someone somewhere. Knowledge is the key to change, and these three students did this on such a large, and very effective, scale.

For my other two film reviews I talked about both the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust. I feel as if “Invisible Children” is a great way to end my conclusion on genocide with respect to human rights. These children are being forced to kill their own families, own friends, their own people. This horrible situation is still occurring, and the world is just standing by and watching. Yes, of course, “Invisible Children” has done and is still doing an outstanding job on bringing knowledge about Sudan and effectively using different methods of aid to alleviate the atrocities of this terrible situation. However, I still feel as if not enough is being done. The biggest human rights violation in this situation is ignorance. If higher powers just set aside the fact that they don’t get anything out of this, and help these poor Sudanese children, this atrocity would have never gotten to the extent that it is now. So I will end with this: the biggest human rights violation a nation-state can make is ignorance, both inside and outside of its own nation-state.