There are a lot of powerful moments in this film. A particularly memorable one is when activist Adam Sterling asks if people are going to act on the terrible things they see happening in Africa or simply stand by and let nothing get done. Truth be told, that determined young man and the five other brave souls chronicled in this documentary about the travesties in Sudan are acting like heroes we should all stand beside. Darfur Now isn’t a preachy PBS-style documentary, simply timelining the blood-stained history between the government-sponsored Arabs and land-defending Africans; instead, it’s a sort of call-for-arms for today. Of course, uniting the troops and finding answers to the carnage aren’t easy. The stench of bureaucracy stretches from the Motherland to the U.N. to the boardrooms of Chinese oil companies financing the genocide. Still, people from all walks of life –Sterling, a World Food Program employee, an International Criminal Court official, a Sudanese tribal head, a female rebel fighter and actor Don Cheadle in Darfur Now- aren’t giving up the fight. If this movie was meant to be frustrating, mission accomplished. If this project was meant to further question Washington D.C. practices, consider it done. If this movement was meant to stir some sort of grassrooted anger in the local cineplex, organizers are going to need a much bigger petition to sign. -DW
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