Case Study Proposal

The film I will be studying is Invisible Children: Rough Cut. The film was made in 2003 when a group of recent film school graduates traveled to Africa and discovered the plight of the child soldiers.

A brief synopsis of the film from invisiblechildren.com:

“In the spring of 2003, three young filmmakers traveled to Africa in search of a story. What started out as a filmmaking adventure transformed into much more when these boys from Southern California discovered a tragedy that disgusted and inspired them, a tragedy where children are both the weapons and the victims. After returning to the States, they created the documentary “Invisible Children: Rough Cut,” a film that exposes the tragic realities of northern Uganda’s night commuters and child soldiers.”

A brief history of the longest-running war in Africa:

Basically, a man named Joseph Kony took over the resistance movement against the Government of Uganda, but he did not have much support from the rest of the country. In order to gain the numbers that he needed to keep up the resistance, he began abducting children and forcing them to become soldiers in his war.

(This is the bare-bones synopsis of the war. To read a more in-depth explanation, click here.)

I am very passionate about this cause and the more I learn about it, the more appalled I am that the world has allowed this to happen. Since Invisible Children: Rough Cut was released, Invisible Children has produced multiple other films, which they screen in different venues—mostly schools—as they tour across the country. People have dedicated their lives to this organization; some have even given their lives for it (Nate Henn).

Many steps have been taken to see Joseph Kony’s reign brought to an end, all as a result of a story three young men stumbled upon. I want to use this case study as an opportunity to educate the others in the class about this cause; I know a lot of people have heard about the organization, but not a lot of people realize the full depth of the war in Uganda and what Invisible Children is really all about.