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Darfur Now (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:56
Fresh:38
Rotten:18
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: Although Darfur Now is not always engaging as cinema, the film succeeds in bringing attention to the crisis in Darfur.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Synopsis: Documentarian Ted Braun's first theatrical work examines the genocide in Darfur through the eyes of six distinct individuals who are doing what they can to combat the situation. Recent UCLA... Documentarian Ted Braun's first theatrical work examines the genocide in Darfur through the eyes of six distinct individuals who are doing what they can to combat the situation. Recent UCLA graduate Adam Sterling is the director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, which seeks to get states to divest funds in Sudan. Dr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo is an Argentine native serving as the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at The Hague, where he is investigating Sudanese leaders as war criminals. Ecuadorian Pablo Recalde is the head of the World Food Program in West Darfur, where he risks his life trying to get food to the sick and starving people in the region. Hejewa Adam has taken up arms in her homeland, joining a rebel group defending the Fur people and battling the Janjaweed and government forces. Ahmed Mohammed Abakar was forced to flee his village and is now the leader at a refugee camp in Hamadea, where some 50,000 displaced people live. And Oscar nominee Don Cheadle, after starring in HOTEL RWANDA, has written a book, NOT ON OUR WATCH, with John Prendergast, that helps people understand genocide--and gives them information on what they can do to stop it. Each of these people is making a difference in Darfur in a different way, through the legal system, legislation, the media, and even violence if necessary, in order to save and protect a people under siege. DARFUR NOW is not a partisan film; it demonstrates how men and women in all walks of life and with various religious and political beliefs can come together to effect change. The film was begun with a grant from Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation. [More]
Starring: Don Cheadle
Starring: Don Cheadle
Director: Ted Braun
Director: Ted Braun
Screenwriter: Ted Braun
Producer: Cathy Schulman, Don Cheadle, Mark Jonathan Harris
Composer: Graeme Revell
Studio: Warner Independent
Reviews for Darfur Now
Much of the film plays like a static lecture, and a repetitive one as well.
For all the good intentions on show here, Darfur Now is not much of a film.
Frankly, there's a way to get a message across and this sort of talking heads doc by numbers isn't it.
Despite honorable intent, docu is too ambitious for its own good, too burdened with celebs, and ultimately not insightful enough about its signficant issues.
This is a feel-good film for activists, which barely scratches the surface.
While its activist subjects are indeed laudable, the film squanders much of its running time on ephemera.
In movie making, as in life, it's not enough to mean well. The real challenge is in being meaningful.
Its 99 minutes could have easily been about 65 if you removed all of the celebrity do-gooder filler.
In the end, Darfur Now is a movie whose hopeful message is undermined by its seemingly hopeless reality.
The documentary Darfur Now proves that -- no matter how important the subject matter -- following various people around with a camera doesn't necessarily make a film.
If you evaluate Darfur Now against the goals it sets for itself -- as a stirring call to action -- it must be considered lacking.
The argument can be made that the subject's urgency excuses the need for artfulness; the opposite, of course, is true.
Darfur Now is effective pamphleteering, but only an occasionally compelling documentary film.
Though well-intentioned, Braun's documentary never captures the emotional heart of this enormous tragedy and fails to ignite the passion he so obviously wants us to feel.
Latest News for Darfur Now
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