|
The Refugee All Stars review
:. Director: Zach Niles, Banker White
:. Genre: Documentary
:. Running Time: 1:18
:. Year: 2005
:. Country: USA
|
The crushing brutality of war and what its victims suffer is incomprehensible to those who have never experienced such tragedy. For those who survive and live as refugees, they see their families torn apart (either dead or missing) and their daily life destroyed as they move into refugee camps in sometimes hostile host countries, totally dependent on assistance for shelter, food and clothing. Daily life is a limbo of waiting to return home, or not wanting to return to the site of bloodshed yet having no where else to go.
In The Refugee All Stars, documentary filmmakers Zach Niles and Banker White show how artists, in this case musicians from Sierra Leone, keep culture alive and in the process begin to heal their own wounds as they bring moments of joy to their fellow refugee camp inhabitants and plan their return home.
Thousands of refugees from war torn Sierra Leone fled to Guinea in the 1990's, intending to stay for 6 months or so but finding themselves still at camp several years later. We meet 6 diverse musicians, who decide to form a band and sing songs of their plight, for themselves and for others in the camp. They range in age and style, from young Black Nature, an orphan with a talent for rapping in different languages, to Franco, the oldest member who plays a guitar and cuts to the chase with his humor and wisdom. Reuben is the band leader and his wife Grace is the spiritual mother of the band. Together they have formed a surrogate family of shared traumas and dreams.
The Refugee All Stars comprehensively and compellingly demonstrates how life as a refugee affects people in different ways. One musician is willing to forgive and forget and wants to return to build a life in Sierra Leone. He wants to go home. But Mohammed feels differently and refuses to go back. Why? Because he was forced to beat his child to death, and then his arm was amputated by rebels who also cut up his face. For him, returning is worse than staying at the camp and the psychological trauma has had a much harder toll on him than the physical torture he suffered.
It's impossible to remain indifferent as they tour other refugee camps and give concerts. Suddenly the camps are alive with music, with dancing, and problems seem far away for a few moments. Joy pervades the screen and the appreciation of what they are trying to accomplish transmits. Their music is a blend of the traditional, mixed with reggae and R&B, with lyrics that speak out against injustice. With the help of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, they organize a tour back to Sierra Leone, in hopes of recording a CD in the studio.
The last part of the documentary is the most poignant as it shows them moving towards a different reality: home is no longer what it once was. The shots of Sierra Leone are stunning and watching the musicians as they come home for the first time is a mixture of elation and sadness as they see the ruins of what was once familiar yet find so much reconstruction taking place. But old haunts and old friends still remain and they return to camp rejuvenated.
The possibilities are endless when making a documentary of human suffering. The filmmakers have transcended the genre by telling a story that shows the power of music and not only the will to the will to survive under unbearable conditions, but how hope for the future can only be fortified through definitive action.
Anji Milanovic
 Documentaries: 1998 - 2011 Reviews
Documentaries: 2012 - present Reviews
|
|
