War/Dance

A spate of new documentaries has been shining a spotlight on the atrocities in Africa. October gave us The Devil Came on Horseback, and last week was Darfur Now. Both films focus on the genocide in Sudan, mainly through the eyes of activists chipping away at the huge, complicated problems. Now War/Dance turns the lens on Uganda, where for the past 20 years the Lord's Resistance Army has waged war on innocent tribes people. Unfortunately, the children have been the greatest victims, forced into sexual slavery, to become child soldiers, or to witness their parents being tortured to death in front of their eyes.

Children find joy and healing in the dancing

Instead of the redemptive power of activists seen in earlier documentaries, War/Dance focuses on the redemptive power of art. The students at Patongo Primary School, situated in a Northern Uganda refugee camp, have earned an unprecedented chance to compete in "The National Music Competition." This annual event, held in the capital city of Kampala, draws tens of thousands of students from around the nation to compete with instruments, dance, and song. The Patongo students have to travel 200 miles over two days through rebel territory to even get to Kampala, a place full of sights and attractions—such as airplanes and skyscrapers, electricity and running water—they've never beheld before. As one of the students says before the trip, "I can't wait to see what peace looks like."

At first blush, War/Dance looks like the Ugandan version of Mad Hot Ballroom, the 2005 documentary highlighting an after-school dance program for New York's inner-city middle schoolers. There are certainly similar themes of ravaged young lives finding new hope and joy through dance. In both movies, it's delightful to see bright smiles play across faces that just scenes before hold tears, as these children speak of hardships no one should know, let alone ones so young. But War/Dance features a more artistic flair than Ballroom, offering stunning landscape shots and interesting camera angles, including many just inches from the children's faces as they tell audiences directly of the horrors they've known.

The dance competition is a blazing array of color

The film also focuses much more on the children's lives than on the competition, which only comprises the final quarter of the movie. The rest of the time, we meet Dominic, Rose, and Nancy, three students at Patongo—a representation of the estimated 200,000 children in Uganda who have lost parents in the war. 

Rose, a soft-spoken 13-year-old choirgirl, witnessed the grisly remains of her parents' murder. She now lives with a bossy aunt who forces her to cook, clean, and watch after her young cousins. Dominic, a 14-year-old escaped child soldier, is alternately haunted by the violence he was forced to perform and driven by his desire to be known at the best xylophone player in Uganda. Nancy, a 13-year-old dancer, hid with her three infant siblings in the bush for days after the rebels killed her father and abducted her mother. Though her mother returned, she works in another displacement camp, leaving Nancy to raise her young siblings alone.

Hearing these children tell their horrific stories directly into the cameras—directly to us—is both moving and disturbing. Their flashbacks are often told on the location where these unspeakable events happened, with stormy skies, desolate landscapes, and the dark of night. The filmmakers, husband-wife team Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, were clearly trying to set a certain mood—which mostly works, but is sometimes distracting.

Dancers put their all into the festival

As for the close face shots, Sean explains, "The kids actually felt the most comfortable telling their stories this way. It was easier for them to look in the lens because it has an almost confessional feel." He's right about the powerful confessional tone, but at times I wonder if we the audience are the right ones to be hearing these confessions. When Dominic speaks of atrocities he was forced to perform when serving with the Lord's Resistance Army—acts he's not yet told his own mother—his confession feels misplaced. We the receivers of this confession have no power to comfort or absolve this young boy. And watching Nancy completely break down during her first visit to her father's gravesite feels almost intrusive. This is such a private moment of pain; I don't feel quite right watching it.  

Certainly it's important for audiences to know what's happening in Uganda, so we can be informed and so we can be moved to act. But when it's children reliving the horrors they've known, it almost feels exploitive. We as a distant audience can't comfort and hold and cry with these young victims, as any human being should do upon hearing such things; we can only hope the filmmakers did so. And are they really the most qualified? It's certainly important to tell the children's perspectives on world tragedies, but hopefully capturing their stories is done with great care and concern for their long-term health and well-being.

Filmmakers Andrea and Sean Fine

That said, the children do seem to have an adult grasp of the need for their stories to be told. Dominic says, "It is difficult to believe our story. But if we don't tell you, you won't know." Rose says it's important for the rest of the world to know that, despite living in a war zone, "the kids from Patongo can do good things." It is delightful to watch them do these good things at their competition, especially knowing the evil they've experienced. And it's moving to hear them speak of the freedom and joy they find in music. Their bright smiles are a true testament to the resiliency of the human spirit.

War/Dance was produced by Shine Global, a non-profit production company formed by Albie Hecht (of Nickelodeon movies) and his wife Susan MacLaury (whose background is in education and social work) to raise awareness of the abuse and exploitation of children and to inspire social and political change. War/Dance is their first project. For information on how you can get involved in helping the children of Uganda, go to www.wardancethemovie.com.

Talk About It

1. Which of the three children struck you most? What about their story moved or resonated with you?
2. Rose, Dominic, and Nancy find hope and healing through art. When you experience tough times, what offers you healing? Has art ever brought you healing and comfort? What role does your faith play in such seasons?
3. How did you feel about hearing horrific details from these children? Do you think such public "confession" from ones so young is appropriate? Where's the balance between raising awareness about world events and respecting the privacy and dignity of those involved?
4. What steps can you take to help hurting children—either in your neighborhood or in other parts of the world?

The Family Corner

War/Dance is rated PG-13 for some thematic material involving descriptions of war atrocities. That these descriptions come from children makes then all the more disturbing. One student talks about seeing her mother's decapitated head, another talks about the fact that her father was chopped into pieces with a machete by rebel soldiers, another shares about being forced to beat a farmer to death with his hoe. Obviously this isn't a film for children, and it might be disturbing even for some teens since the horrors described affected their peers. That said, the fact that the movie centers on children's perspectives of war could make this even more impactful for mature older teens. And the film—and the websites noted in the review above—gives families an important topic to discuss, perhaps prompting some viewers to take action.

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