It’s Thursday night and there’s a myriad of event options in the city. Lots of friends, old and new, are vying for your attention so where do you go?
You catch wind that the world’s worst director is in town. It’s Uwe Boll the German independent film director, producer and screenwriter and he’s putting on a special screening of his newest film, DARFUR.
DARFUR is a cinematic account of the recent genocidal massacres that are occurring in that part of the world. The Sudanese Janjaweed, with the blessing of Sudan’s President Omer Al-Bashir, are raping, pillaging, looting, murdering and decapitating their way through the country’s landscape.
Imagine a baby, young, defenseless and beautiful. Now imagine this child being smashed against a wall and stomped on and then seeing a couple bullets course through its head. Yeah, I’m pretty much still traumatized from seeing the account on screen and it’s been a week. This type of stuff goes on regularly in the Sudan, I’ve been told.
UN reports state that the killing has decreased but that’s only because there is no longer an abundance of people to kill or villages to burn.
“How did this happen?”, I’m thinking to myself. The event started off innocuously. Food catered by Axum Restaurant on Clark and Hastings, a couple headlocks were exchanged with Boll who is known for laying the smackdown on his critics. Toshio Rahman, Senator Mobina Jaffer’s aide on human rights issues, and Don Wright from Amnesty International all gathered for photos.
Boll introduces the film to the attendees – “the movie is a realistic depiction of what’s gone on there,” the African actors are played by Sudanese refugees who were displaced due to the same genocide and in their viewing of the movie none said the depiction was inaccurate. Boll continues to say that documentaries are can’t show the reality but his film can. In conclusion, before the film started rolling, Boll warned the crowd – he said that the second part of the film is really violent but you should sit through it because the people of Darfur have to live through it.
With this film, I hope he can change the world. The accounts of Boll’s abilities (or lack thereof) have been greatly exaggerated.
There will be an additional screening of the film at Silver City in Richmond on February 11th, 2009. Other Canadian screenings will occur on the 4th, 8th and 14th of February.
So, what can you do to make change? With the Canadian Government not currently engaged on the topic, you can rally your local ministers. China supplies the Sudanese government with weapons and money in exchange for access to Sudanese Oil. There’s also 1-800-GENOCIDE or you can check out their website, HERE.
Tags: Amnesty International, Burrard Street, Darfur, Sudan