The 13th Annual DocuWeeks Theatrical Documentary Showcase is ongoing now at the Arclight Theater, and there are quite a few notables and strong showings. Topics range from North Korean defectors to the music of the Civil Rights Movement to rock photographer Robert Knight, but this 40-minute documentary about two refugees and close friends from the Congo brings us closer to the plight and resilience of a people far-removed from our society. Far From Gone, filmed and produced by British documentarian Barney Broomfield, will screen until Aug. 6.

The synopsis is as follows:

The civil war in Congo has claimed the lives of five million people. Far from Gone is an intimate portrayal of two Congolese refugees from that war, Stephen and Boniface, who found themselves in a desolate refugee camp in Zambia after narrowly escaping from their war-torn country. For three years they were neighbors and radical preachers at their local church until Stephen was offered a new life in Europe. Far from Gone is not only a story about the breakup of a profound friendship but a rare insight into the reality facing modern-day refugees.

Broomfield’s last foray into filmmaking was last year’s Battle for Haditha, his dramatization of the tragic events in Haditha in which 24 innocent Iraqis were killed by four U.S. Marines as retribution against the death of one of their own.

Dir. Barney Broomfield, 40 min., 2009, United Kingdom/Zambia

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Buy tickets here.

http://docuweeksla.bside.com/

via EM Staff, 4 August 2009 10:06am | 1 |