STUDIO: Warner Home Video
RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2008
STARRING: Don Cheadle, Hejewa Adam, Pablo Recalde, Ahmed Mohammed Abakar, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Adam Sterling and George Clooney
WRITTEN BY: Theodore Braun
DIRECTED BY: Theodore Braun
FEATURES: Introduction and Audio Commentary by Writer/Director Theodore Braun
Additional Scenes

In 2004, for the first time in our country’s history, the U.S. government used the word “genocide” to describe a situation as it was happening… more specifically, the crisis in Darfur. In the past, such events haven’t usually received the necessary attention until it was far too late, long after the dust had already settled. The documentary Darfur Now takes advantage of this unique situation and attempts to motivate viewers into action here and now, by presenting a highly complicated problem in digestible terms and making it seem surmountable. As actor Don Cheadle, one of the film’s subjects, puts it, “We’re trying to speak in a loud voice now, so that people cannot say, ‘I was unaware.’ They can only say, ‘I either acted or I stood by.’”

Darfur is a region in western Sudan, the largest country in Africa. The country has long been home to both Arabic-speaking nomads and non-Arabic-speaking farmers and in 2003, non-Arab rebel forces attacked the country’s central government, citing ongoing marginalization. The Sudanese government and its president, Omar al-Bashir, responded by funding and arming an Arab militia, called the Janjaweed, to systematically eradicate the communities from which the rebels hailed. To date, it is estimated that 400,000 have bee killed and another 2.5 million have been displaced as refugees, with millions more in peril due to a shortage of resources and a growing humanitarian crisis.

Darfur Now covers the human cost of the catastrophe from the perspectives of six different individuals, on three separate continents. In Darfur, itself, we follow the lives of three: Ahmed Mohammed Abakar, the “Sheik of Sheiks” in charge of maintaining order in a refugee camp, Pablo Recalde, a U.N. humanitarian working to deliver food and supplies to those in need and Hejewa Adam, a displaced Darfurian woman left with no choice but to take up arms and joining the rebel forces. Meanwhile, in California, the film trails the aforementioned Cheadle, as he uses his celebrity status to spread the word and UCLA grad Adam Sterling, an activist looking to pass legislation that would force U.S. businesses to divest from Sudanese interests. Finally, in The Hague, we follow Luis Moreno-Ocampo, a Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, as he assembles the mounting evidence and prepares his case against those responsible for the atrocities.

Many humanitarian leaders have labeled the situation in Darfur as the most complicated of any they’ve seen. The conflict seems to be a tangled mess of race, politics, economics, resources and land ownership. Therefore, it seems that the film’s number one goal is to simplify things a bit - at least just enough to give those of us far outside of the situation enough understanding to be moved and upset, without going so in depth as to overwhelm us with details. And in this sense, the film largely succeeds. I knew very little about the conflict going into this viewing, but will most definitely be investigating ways to help in the coming days. So as an educational and motivational piece, this short documentary is inspiring and can be easily absorbed. But as both art and entertainment, Darfur Now takes some missteps.

My main complaint is that the project feels a bit too slick, too glossed-over. Darfur is an unquestionably beautiful place and the cinematography by Kirsten Johnson - which highlights the vibrant colors of the Sudanese clothing against a backdrop of drab deserts, burned out huts and makeshift refugee tents - certainly captures this. But at times, it feels as though the film is attempting to be more “cinematic” than it needs to be. The stories and images should speak for themselves, without the need for any additional, “epic” ornamentation, such as an overuse of slow motion and a syrupy score by Graeme Revell, whose orchestral trip-hop once felt timely, but now feels manipulative and dated. Some of the film’s more naturally dramatic moments come from handheld footage, most of which is unfortunately saved for the storylines taking place outside of Africa. My second complaint is the flipside to the first, which is that the film feels as though it’s playing things a bit safe, emotionally. The movie is rated PG, perhaps in an effort to reach the largest number of people possible. But there are a few scenes in which the refugees tell of things that are definitely saddening, but fall just short of enraging. I don’t mean to suggest that I’d have preferred more visual violence or gore; that sort of thing can easily devolve into exploitation. But one can’t help but feel as though we’re being spared, through editing, some of the more heart-wrenching details in the descriptions of what’s been taking place.

The DVD’s bonus features, while fairly standard and limited in number, do a nice job of providing some more in-depth information on the conflict, for those interested in learning more. Writer/Director Theodore Braun started this film merely as a concerned individual, but grew to become somewhat of an expert on the subject. So his knowledge, as featured in the accompanying commentary, is quite informative, if you’ve got the time. The deleted scenes also draw attention to a few other aspects of the situation that are simply to numerous and complex to cover in the main documentary. For example, some of the extra footage details the lives of the civilians in the Arabic-speaking, nomadic communities, who are neither facing these atrocities, nor responsible for them. They provide an entirely different piece of the puzzle, yet are mostly absent from the film. So while Darfur Now does cover the story from a number of varying viewpoints, it intentionally skips or short changes a few others. But this is excusable, as it’s clearly ensuring that its central, admirable message isn’t obscured: these atrocities are happening in the present and now that we know about them, do we have any choice but to act?