Writer and Director: Ben Newman
Mentor: Aoife McArdle
Music: Shy Child and Chipmunk
I came across this film when reading this article. The film takes on a similar role to that I spoke of in a previous post about “Five Steps to Tyranny”. The film brings home the global issue of child soldiers by putting recognisable faces on victims that are too detached from us. It tackles the issue in a way that I respect by inadvertently saying, if this was happing in our country it would be stopped immediately, so why is it allowed to continue globally. Not only does the film educate the school children and their immediate family, it lingers in the hearts of those who see it, it certainly did in mine. While watching however my community arts heart strings were twitching over the ethical issues around putting such young children in such deep contact with an overwhelming global issue. Besides all that it is beautifully filmed, and won the Ctrl.Alt.Shift film competition. Ctrl.Alt.Shift is a movement for a new generation fighting social and global injustice. They select films made by members of the community to raise awareness of issues they care about.
Hear from four child soldiers from Darfur. About 10,000 children are involved in combat in Sudan after being abducted from refugee camps in Chad to join the rebel forces, watch the clip here
