The road to Rome is not my road, so I'll take you along to a place called --

Uganda. Where Joseph Kony was born in1961. Today, unless you've been living in a cave it would of been hard to ignore the small docu-film that was posted on youtube yesterday about Kony.

This film has informed millions of people about the campaign work that Invisible children has been doing since 2003 but it also has sparked an overwhelming amount of criticism. An opposing blog called Visible children strongly disagrees with the campaign, stating: 

"Military intervention may or may not be the right idea, but people supporting KONY 2012 probably don’t realise they’re supporting the Ugandan military who are themselves raping and looting away. If people know this and still support Invisible Children because they feel it’s the best solution based on their knowledge and research, I have no issue with that. But I don’t think most people are in that position, and that’s a problem."

I must admit when I watched the film and saw that the activists in some scenes in the video I thought they were represented as extremely aggressive and 'war' like.  I too, have my doubts on whether or not military intervention is the best method. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. However this film, as a documentary, does exactly what it sets out to do: document, inform and persuade. The millions of views and shares on facebook and twitter proves that the Invisible children organisation has got their message across. Any other organisation fighting for the same issue and who opposes the use of military intervention should make a video and propose another way to 'fight' the problem.

On defining the documentary Bill Nichols cites that "the heart and soul of any definition arises within a specific social and historical context and it varies with time and place...(this) means that no single, timeless definition can capture what documentary film has been or might yet be." ( Bill Nichols, "At the edges of Hollywood: Documentary" in The cinema book, pp. 81-83, third edition, ed Cook, P., 2007, Palgrave MacMillan, London) The documentary film is always evolving and this short film complements Nichols' statement perfectly as this film highlights the availability of technology in the 21st century in contrast to the soviet Cinéma vérité style: described by Dziga Vertov in the 1940s were there were no actors, no decors, no script and no acting as can been seen in my first post about the Nuremberg trials made in 1947. Overtime the meaning of the term use Cinéma vérité has evolved and is now also used when describing Reality television (or Cinema direct) which is more of a sociological investigative study where the director intervenes in the staging of the shots and put the footage through the editing process. 

The film drama is the Opium of the people…down with Bourgeois fairy-tale scenarios…long live life as it is!

—Dziga Vertov

In the same way KONY 2012 is also a sociological study with the main point of focus being Jacob, a young boy who managed to escape Kony's group the LRA (Lord's Resistance Arny). He is interviewed by the director and we also see his development from a boy to a young adult. The film, as a whole puts forward a politicised and at times radical militant view of the subject. Jason Russell, the director, does not conceal the amount of work that went into the making of the short 30 min film. He provides a long list of names who contributed to the production of the film and the use of animation, 3D modelling, visual effects, narration (script), and Cinematography. Therefore the use of technological advances has helped make this film clear and concise; whilst the montage shots of people marching, chanting, holding up banners omits a strong sense of collective unity along with the viewer which then gives them a sense of urgency and making them ask "what can I do about this?" Showing the scrolling of a facebook time line page (which the viewer recognises) and the zooming in and out of the impressive 3D globe and digitalised maps puts the spectator literally 'on the map' helping them identify with a specific time and place highlighting that 'this is happening now, at this immediate moment in time' which is empowering and reminds the viewer that this is not an historical documentary.

What affected me most however was the use of cinematography and, as it were the mise-en-scene, with the repeated use of guns, army uniforms and the the use of a hand salute (pictured in the screen shot below) which is an extended upright arm with the peace sign. This frame provides so many contrasting views: peace but with the slogan 'fight war', the collective masses all following one cause, in the same uniform with a strong upright arm. The image of the salute is such a powerful one and is associated primarily with the military. Although salutes are still used today, the powerful, aggressive images of salutes shown throughout radical periods in history are the ones which leave a lasting impression (second photograph of a Pro-National front march in 1979). 

"We've seen these kids, we've heard their cries, this war must end, we will not stop, we will not fear, we will fight war"

Pro-National Front marchers give the Nazi salute as they interrupt an anti-fascist rally in London’s East End in April 1979. 

Documentaries make us question a lot about the world. Primarily, they makes us question the truth. I did share KONY 2012 on my facebook because I felt strongly against Kony and the LRA but I do not agree with military intervention. Among other things, military intervention prevents these men from being put on trial for their crimes agaisnt humanity like in the case of Bin Laden, killed by the US Military and Gaddaffi, killed by the militant Rebel group. Although some people think there is no need for a trial, it is still more democratic. More importantly, however, the film resolved with a sense of "happy ever after" for the victims of the LRA showing them reunited with their families but the the LRA has been operating for many years, taking over 30,000 children and so even if the charity does not abandon these victims after Kony and (possibly) the LRA are gone, the process of the aftermath is going to be even more laborious.