Lost Boys of Sudan

This follows two Sudanese boys who immigrated to the United States from a refugee camp. I have always had an interest in other cultures and the way in which the U.S. culture is perceived by those abroad.

This movie held some special interest for me. Peter moved to Olathe, KS where I have lived for 19 years and went to Olathe East High School where my oldest son attended school a grade behind Peter.

It is interesting how the perception of the U.S. changed from one of wild idealism to the realism of hard work. As may kids were going up, I kept telling my kids they don't live in the real world, they live in Olathe. This is an exceptionally affluent area and it was interesting when Peter remarked about being a poor person in the midst of rich people's kids.

My oldest son is a few month in the real world now. He is living, ironically, Houston, TX where the other principal character, Santino lived. It was also interesting to see the contrasts in the lifestyles in Olathe and Houston.

As a documentary, I found it interesting, but honestly, I don't think it would have had the same impact had it not had hit so close to home. It was indeed interesting, but I didn't find it as profound as I had expected. If you are interested in how the U.S. fits in the scheme of our global neighborhood, this is still worth a look.

this movie described an ordeal experienced by these boys and men that is difficult to comprehend. It's impossible not to sympathize with their plight but the fate of the girls (who merit token mention but no attempt at solution) remains an even greater unresolved tragedy.

Why aren't women and girls being offered these types of massive resettlement? While the Lost Boys have had a horrific experience, is what they have suffered worse than what the girls have experienced?

At any given time there are at least 20 wars raging on the African continent, these wars are being fought over control of the vast resources of Africa. The primary casualties of the conflicts are women and children. Calling the conflicts "wars" is probably a misnomer, a more accurate word would be genocide. Women are the strength and power keeping tribal social structure and self sufficiency alive, this form of life has has been disrupted and fractured by the West's exploitation of Africa, it now has no place in the modern world, so the women must be eliminated. Along with murder women also bear the brunt of sexual torture that is one of the primary weapons used by the agents of Western corporate interests. How many millions of women and children would welcome genuine help or resettlement to America to escape this?

Why are we focused on only the male suffering in this one atrocity?

The US government and mainstream media wouldn't be investing so much time, attention and money in an issue like this if there weren't some strategic interest involved, there's may not be much in Sudan that has value to the US but the regions proximity to key energy resources has kept the US very interested in the area. OK, that's fine but if the US wants to cultivate closer ties with the Sudan by exporting thousands of males to America, why are women not being included in the deal? The media information makes it sound like it's not possible to rescue any girls, it that really true? Reading between the lines indicates that it would have been more difficult to rescue girls, but not impossible. How much of the money used for resettlement of boys could have been used rescue some of the girls? Perhaps only a few hundred could have been saved but if even that many could have been saved maybe it would have been worth it. If the choice had been offered to the men and boys that if some of their sisters and mothers could be saved even if it cost them their own chance to go to America, would they take it? Was that a choice ever offered? If there was a choice of saving 3,000 boys or 500 girls I guess we take the 3,000 boys. More bang for the buck I guess. Boys have more value anyways, right? Perhaps we should ask 11 year old girls in forced marriages with older men, suffering early pregnancies, venereal diseases and sexual abuse. I'm sure they would agree with the choice. Taking a look at some actual reports posted on the internet it appears that more girls could have been resettled than the media reported, but very few were. Why? Is there something more intrinsically appealing about boys? Are they just plain "cuter" on camera? Are girls somehow unclean and dirty? I wonder if the specter of sexual violence makes females somehow poor candidates for public sympathy, much easier to describe the trials and tribulations experienced by the boys than the trials, tribulations AND sexual violence perpetrated on girls. Perhaps this is just a manifestation of a male centric culture that values men more than women.

Millions of men, women and children worldwide have suffered atrocities as bad or worse than what the Lost Boys have experienced. In many places of the world young girls are a commodity to be bought and sold, indigenous women and girls in the last remaining rainforests are routinely raped by government soldiers, many thousands of female babies languish in orphanages in China, women are burned alive and aborted during pregnancy in India, thousands of children of both genders roam the streets in major cities with no families or homes. Many of these children are boys but it is girls that bear the brunt of sexual violence. Where is the public outpouring of sympathy for these girls? Where are the demands they be brought to America to escape the horrors being perpetrated on them? Where are the celebrities championing their cause? Have any books or movies been made about these girls ever received the attention the Lost Boys have received? Are the US based churches, immigrant rights organization, and resettlement agencies planning on resettling female victims of violence on the same scale as males? Is this planned for the future? If not, why? If so, when? Tomorrow? Next Year? Never?

The following excerpts are from GBV (Gender Based Violence Report): "In the late 1980s, thousands of boys and girls fled their homes in Sudan because of armed fighting. They wandered around East Africa for years, with many dying on the way and the rest surviving as best as they could until, in the early 1990s, they eventually reached the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya. The ordeal of the so-called 'lost boys of Sudan' received quite a lot of media attention. After several more years languishing in the camp, 4,000 of the boys, whose parents had either died or were missing, were offered resettlement in the United States. By contrast, no one highlighted the plight of the 'lost girls'. Among those who made it to Kenya there were several thousands girls aged 8–10. Most of them were absorbed by foster families in the camp, with many becoming little more than unpaid servants. No one offered them resettlement. In the refugee camp, the girls suffered from rape, early pregnancies, kidnapping, and forced marriage."

I've heard about this documentary for so long I knew I needed to take the time to watch it. As a documentary it's very well done, in that it takes a neutral observant view of their experience. There are no voice-overs, or interviewing. It is honest. It is true. It is also humbling. Two comments really stayed with me after the film was done. One was how the boys are told to not to become like the American boys who wear the baggy pants, and how in Africa there is time but no money, but in America there is money but no time. The biggest impact was how the boys hungered for education, and how one of the boys totally relocated himself so he could go to school. I watched this film with a high school sophomore who said it upset him to see how the boys were brought to their new life without any real orientation to America. He also said he knew so many American teens who simply cannot appreciate howblessed their lives are in America. I would agree with him on both accounts. A strong film that will leave a person thinking about many things.

In Sudan, the Arabs rule and are constantly at war with the Christians and Animists who inhabit the southern portion of this East African country. This film follows a group of of Dinka boys, a tribe of cattle herders, whom were left orphaned after their village was destroyed and their families killed in a brutal attack carried out by the Arab forces. Most of these boys are now teenagers and have been dubbed "The Lost Boys".

The filmmaker follows a group of the "Lost Boys" on their journey, as they have been accepted as refugees in the US, where they will land in Houston. Those who've been accepted as refugees gain celebrity status, as they feel (from what they've heard) that America is amazing. Making a trip from Sudan to America is like "making a trip to heaven" says the one young man. A huge party is thrown for their departure, and they are told to do Sudan well, and once they have been educated, to return to Sudan so that they can contribute to Dinka society. They are also warned not to be like "those with the baggy pants" whom are responsible for the negative stereotype of Black men, and also, no matter what happens, not to forget the Dinka culture.

You watch as the boys come from a third world country into America and how they attempt to integrate into American society, as they have gone from a place with practically nothing to this plentiful world where everything is massively overproduced and overconsumed. They are taught about cleanliness and how to use all the utilities that we take for granted on a daily basis. It is humorous at times, humbling at others.

Listening to the comments they make about Black Americans and American society/culture are quite interesting. As the film progresses you see how American culture begins to corrupt their previously humble ways of thinking.

One of the boys, Peter, is not content with working and making just enough to survive, so he up and moves from Houston to Kansas City so that he can pursue an education. When the other boys visit him, they talk about how they cannot get into any schools. The main reason they came to America was to get an education and the media is saying that the boys have been brought from Sudan for an education. This is occurring because the boys were given arbitrary ages, making them older than they actually are, preventing them from being able to enroll in high school.

The film juxtaposes images from Houston to Kansas. We watch as Peter enrolls in school, where he befriends a group of Christian conservative kids, and as Santiago attempts driving school(even though he drives without his license anyways), and works at Walmart. We see Peter struggle with high school life as he strives to make his schools basketball team, and as Santiago has trouble keeping up with work, the rent, appeasing tensions back home in Sudan, and most of all, coping with loneliness.

It comes to the point where the boys want to return to Sudan, and tell them that everything they are taught about America there is lies. "You must make it alone here, do everything alone" one of the boys says. A damning message to a Liberal Capitalist lifestyle, showing how it causes people to become radical individualists (a trend which led to the creation of both the neo-conservative and radical islamist movements). Their biggest beef with America though, is that there is no time; time is money and we don't waste a second!

Despite all this, the boys never lose their sense of Dinka culture. They celebrate Southern Sudan Liberation Day, which marks the day which the SPLA began to fight in Sudan, a fight which continues today. They also meet with other "Lost Boys" on the anniversary of their arrival in America, where they discuss their experience in America as compared to back in Sudan. When asked, one boy says that if he were able to make a living he would much prefer to live in Sudan. It is much too lonely in America he adds. They never lose their sense of community, which has been conditioned into them as part of their culture!

This film makes us question the way we live, makes us question the artificial happiness that materialism and the nature of our societies has created within us. It will also change the way I look at refugees, I will never again take for granted how hard they must work and what immigrants mean for a country such as my own, Canada. This is a wonderful film. I laughed, I cried..a very emotional journey, and a very well made documentary. 10 out of 10.

This documentary is not only one of the best documentaries I've seen, but also one of the most moving and quietly beautiful movies I've seen period. It follows the lives of two Sudanese young men, Peter and Santino, as they try to make their way into the American culture. Peter and Santino are friends at first, but they gradually drift more and more apart, as Peter goes to Kansas City, and Santino stays in Houston ("a land called Houston"). Santino's beauty is in his eyes. He takes people onto his back, he supports an apartment full of other Sudanese, paying the rent, doing everything for other people. He is a quiet sufferer. Peter looks out for himself, getting a high school education while playing basketball and making Christian friends. It seems that director Megan Mylan did not know what she was getting herself into with the beauty of this tale. Peter and Santino are amazing characters that move you. But the real strength in this movie lies in its commentary on American society. It is not judging. It shows the strengths and weaknesses of our world, and how difficult it can be to outside people. I suggest you find this film, and look at America through the lives of these two fascinating and beautiful people.

My grade: 10/10