Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation supplied some early funding to this documentary saluting six individuals working to save Darfur. Perhaps they qualify as “righteous persons.” Perhaps their stories will prompt audiences to act too. “Right now the black people are dying,” observes an armed member of the Sudan Liberation Movement. “The white people will help us,” responds another. “We must be patient until the white people come.” One of those hawaga (“white people”) is writer-director Ted Braun, who teaches screenwriting at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. “Darfur Now” is like “Facing Darfur” by Bruce David and “The Devil Came on Horseback” by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg. They all show evidence of genocide in Sudan and U.S. efforts to stop it. One of Braun’s subjects is Adam Sterling, a waiter who led an effort to stop the State of California from investing in Sudan-linked corporations. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, warns: “If this court is not working well, in twenty-five years the world will be like Darfur.” Other segments show actors Don Cheadle and George Clooney trotting the globe (and ironing their own shirts in hotel suites before photo ops) to deploy their celebrity on behalf of Darfurians. The film takes no stylistic chances in packaging its humanitarian message. One lackluster audio montage recreates a raid by blending the thump of an accelerating heartbeat, the thwack of helicopter blades, automatic weapons fire and then a decelerating heartbeat, as still photos inventory corpses. Graeme Revell’s overdone score is no better. But the agenda of recruiting more activists, whether armed with petitions or AK-47s, is laudable. 99m. (Bill Stamets)
Related Stories
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Uncanny Ally: A Review Of M3GAN "M3GAN" sells itself in its first handful of seconds in how it introduces the handiwork of roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams, "Get Out") and her present product, PurrPetual Petz from Funki.
