Rough Cut

Tomorrow the five of us will be making our final Visible People presentation in-class, and concluding what has been a remarkable journey into the depths of Invisible Children's media.

As part of Visible People's "feature" film (***to be released tomorrow***), I've been working on putting together Take 3 of my Invisible Children movie-making analysis. In advance of this conclusion, please take a look at Invisible Children's first movie, "Invisible Children: Rough Cut," posted via Google Video by Laren, Bobby and Jason, Invisible Children's co-founders and this movie's creators.

The story that started it all, this movie has been the focal point of my analysis throughout our living project.

In all honesty, I've struggled with putting together this analysis as I began our project convinced that Invisible Children's movies had to be biased, and had to perpetuate the saviour mentality evident in other aspects of this organization's media.

What I came to grasp over the course of this analysis is that Invisible Children's movie-making does, in fact, place significant emphasis on the faces and voices of the people of northern Uganda. In letting the children and practitioners from the country speak for themselves, Invisible Children's movie-making makes visible important parts of these people's experiences, knowledge, and wishes.

"Invisible Children: Rough Cut" is a prime example of this visibility. The film begins with Laren, Bobby and Jason's story but quickly shifts to an exploration of the conflict, Joseph Kony, and the people of northern Uganda, told through first-hand accounts or by researchers or officials who are part of the northern Ugandan community. What's shown are representations of hope, not only suffering.

Limited to fifty minutes, Invisible Children simple CANNOT tell the whole story, whether that story is that of the decades-long conflict, Joseph Kony, the thousands of night-commuting children, the Global Night Commutes in America, or a single boy named Tony.

A movie is a select form of media - an art form - who's utility is bounded by its makers, technology, and the experiences, knowledge, and wishes that viewers themselves bring to the theater.

As a viewer yourself, who's voice do you hear?

What emotions do you feel?

And what does a movie like "Invisible Children: Rough Cut" make you want to do after shutting off the screen?