|
|
|
| |
Festival Sponsors: |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
60,000 people inhabit a displacement camp in Northern Uganda. Its children, victims of a terrible war, deal with their trauma by competing in a visually striking and overwhelmingly powerful national contest of traditional cultures in Kampala.
A film we’ve been dying to show all year deservedly awaits Oscar glory. Patongo national primary school is located in a displacement camp in Northern Uganda. It educates children who have escaped abduction or have survived traumatic incidents. The war zone is dominated by a violent terror campaign under the Lord’s Resistance Army, infamous worldwide for their abduction of children for their armed forces.
What is special about this film is how it relates their stories amidst an entirely genuine study of education and art in their recovery. These resilient children prepare to compete for the first time, in the face of scepticism and prejudice, at a national music competition in Kampala against schools from more secure and developed towns. If ever there was a piece of work that vehemently proved the necessity of art as a form of education, therapy or cultural pride within a devastated people, this film is it. You will leave the cinema shocked by their experiences but ultimately moved and immensely elated.
Nominated Best Documentary Feature Oscars 2008
Documentary Director’s Prize Sundance Film Festival 2007
“It is difficult to believe our story, but if we don’t tell you, you won’t know.”
Dominic, Age 14, War Dance
Dir. Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine - 2007 - USA - 105 mins - Cert PG - Think Film / Capitol Films
|
 |
|
|
|
