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Kony 2012

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Kony 2012
Promotional poster
Directed byJason Russell[1]
Written byJason Russell
Jedidiah Jenkins
Kathryn Lang
Danica Russell
Ben Keesey
Azy Groth[1]
Produced byKimmy Vandivort
Heather Longerbeam
Chad Clendinen
Noelle Jouglet[1]
Narrated byJason Russell[1]
CinematographyJason Russell
Bobby Bailey
Laren Poole
Gavin Kelly
Chad Clendinen
Kevin Trout
Jay Salbert
Shannon Lynch[1]
Edited byKevin Trout
Jay Salbert
Jesse Eslinger[1]
Distributed byInvisible Children Inc.
Release date
  • March 5, 2012 (2012-03-05) (internet)
Running time
29 minutes 59 seconds
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish

Kony 2012 is a film created by Invisible Children, Inc.[2][3][4][5] The film's purpose is to promote the charity's 'Stop Kony' movement to make indicted Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony internationally known in order to arrest him in 2012.[6]

The film has spread virally.[7][8][9] As of 17 March 2012, the film had over 80 million views on video-sharing website YouTube,[10] and over 16.6 million views on Vimeo,[11] with other viewing emanating from a central "Kony2012" website operated by Invisible Children. The intense exposure of the video caused the "Kony 2012" website to crash shortly after it began gaining widespread popularity.[12] A number of celebrities have endorsed the campaign, including Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Christina Milian, Nicki Minaj, Bill Gates and Kim Kardashian.[8][13][14][15][16] On April 20, 2012, as part of the campaign, supporters will put up posters promoting Kony 2012 in their hometowns. Invisible Children offers posters from an online shop in an attempt to gain wider recognition. They have also created action kits to help spread awareness that include campaign buttons, posters, bracelets, and stickers.[12]

Synopsis

The film documents Invisible Children Inc's plans and efforts to arrest Kony. It describes Kony's guerrilla warfare tactics with his Lord's Resistance Army and the regions (northern Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan) in which they have been employed.[17] One of the main people featured in the film is a Ugandan named Jacob, whose brother was killed by the Lord's Resistance Army. In response, director and founder of Invisible Children, Jason Russell, "promises Jacob that he will help stop Kony."[18] The film advocates curtailing compelled and coerced youth military service and the restoration of social order.[4] The video also has clips of Jason Russell's young son, Gavin, reacting to the information about Kony.

"Culture and policy makers"

The Invisible Children charity has focused on obtaining the support of a select group of individuals in order to "help bring awareness to the horrific abuse and killing of children in the East and Central African countries at the hands of Kony and his leadership". This list included 20 "celebrity culture makers", such as George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Taylor Swift, and Ryan Seacrest.[19]

The list also featured 12 "policy makers" that have "the power to keep U.S. government officials in Africa" in order to work toward the capture of Kony. This list includes former U.S. President George W. Bush and his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry.[20]

Criticism and responses

In November of 2011, while Kony 2012 was in production, Foreign Affairs magazine published an article stating that several organizations, including Invisible Children, had "manipulated facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders" and was "portraying Kony – a brutal man, to be sure – as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil".[21] Resolve, one of Invisible Children's partner organizations, responded that the accusation was a "serious charge ... published with no accompanying substantiation."[21] These criticisms of Invisible Children's intentions and the statements that were made in the film resurfaced when Kony 2012 was released.

Since the video's release, the campaign has come under criticism for oversimplification of events in the region.[22] While the campaign promotes global activism, it has been criticized for providing a black-and-white picture rather than encouraging the viewers to learn about the situation.[23] One criticism is that the film gives a misleading impression of the whereabouts and magnitude of Kony's remaining LRA forces. Kony's followers are now thought to number only in the hundreds, and Kony himself is believed to be in the Central African Republic rather than Uganda--a fact that receives only a passing mention in the video.[24] This problem has raised questions about the plausibility of Ugandan army intervention, which the video advocates. Since Kony and most of the LRA forces are not in Uganda, the Ugandan army would need to coordinate with the militaries of the other countries where the LRA is located: South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Military cooperation between the countries has historically not worked well and efforts by the African Union to facilitate cooperation have stalled.[25] In addition, the Ugandan army and the South Sudanese army have themselves been accused of human rights violations such as attacks against civilians, use of child soldiers and looting of civilian homes and businesses.[26]

Criticisms of U.S. military assistance

In October 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that he would send 100 American military advisors to Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help the regional forces remove Joseph Kony "from the battlefield". However, they were not authorized to fight unless they were fired upon.[27] Human rights advocates have reported that both the Ugandan army and the former Sudan People’s Liberation Army, which forms the core of the new South Sudanese army, have exploited children as soldiers. They criticized the U.S. decision to provide military assistance for armies accused of using child soldiers: "Countries that keep using child soldiers aren’t going to get serious about ending the practice until they see the US is serious about withholding the money,” said Jo Becker, child rights advocate at Human Rights Watch.[28] Further criticism has come from the campaign's lack of accountability towards the Ugandan government in the conflict.[22] There has also been a more realist analysis of President Obama's decision to send military advisers to the region, with some suggesting that the assistance was a reward for Ugandan assistance in Somalia.[26] Some have argued that U.S. interest in Africa is mainly due to Uganda's recent discovery of oil.[29] Author and human rights advocate, Adam Branch asks, 'How are we, as US citizens, allowing our government to militarise Africa in the name of the "War on Terror" and its effort to secure oil resources?'[30][31]Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).[32] Critics argue Kony and his diminishing troops, many of them kidnapped child soldiers, fled northern Uganda six years ago and are now spread across the jungles of neighbouring countries. Rosebell Kagumire, a Ugandan journalist specializing in peace and conflict reporting, said: “This paints a picture of Uganda six or seven years ago, that is totally not how it is today. It’s highly irresponsible”.[33]

A March 2012 showing of the film in Lira, a town in northern Uganda, was met with jeering and thrown objects. An estimated 35,000 people jeered at the showing, and some threw rocks at the screen and at the group African Youth Initiative Network, which screened the film and provided translations. The screening prompted angry calls to local radio stations. Ugandans were upset that the film devoted so much attention to the filmmakers and Kony while spending relatively little time on the conflict's victims, prompting complaints that the film was "more about whites than Ugandans." Others objected to being reminded of the horrors Kony brought to Uganda. Despite the negative response, the organization still plans on showing the film in other towns, hoping to avoid this response by providing context for the film and its message of advocacy.[34]

The Daily Telegraph interviewed local residents over the video in Gulu, Uganda, a former rebel center. Dr Beatrice Mpora, director of the community health organization Kairos commented: "What that video says is totally wrong, and it can cause us more problems than help us (... ) There has not been a single soul from the LRA here since 2006. Now we have peace, people are back in their homes, they are planting their fields, they are starting their businesses. That is what people should help us with.[35]” Ugandan online commentators have also criticized the video's for its aim of making Kony "famous", and for its advocacy of foreign military intervention to stop him.[35]

Ugandan prime minister Amama Mbabazi launched an online response on Youtube. On video he seeks to correct the false impression that Uganda is in conflict, and invites everyone to come and see the country. He assures that people would find it a very different place to that portrayed by Invisible Children.[36]

Invisible Children's response

On March 8, 2012, Invisible Children released an official response addressing the criticisms directed at Kony 2012. As an explanation for the simplicity of the movie, they stated that "in [their] quest to garner wide public support of nuanced policy, [they] sought to explain the conflict in an easily understandable format". Jedediah Jenkins, the director of idea development for Invisible Children, responded to the new criticisms by saying that they were "myopic" and that the video itself was a "tipping point" that "got young people to care about an issue on the other side of the planet that doesn’t affect them."[21] In response to concerns about working with the Ugandan government, Invisible Children explained that they "do not defend any of the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Ugandan government or the Ugandan army" and the reason why they are working with the Ugandan army even though Kony is no longer in Uganda is because the army is "more organized and better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries (DRC, South Sudan, CAR) to track down Joseph Kony" and that they want all of the governments in the region to work together to arrest Kony.[37] Jenkins stated that "There is a huge problem with political corruption in Africa. If we had the purity to say we will not partner with anyone corrupt, we couldn’t partner with anyone."[21]

On March 15, 2012, two weeks after the Kony 2012 film had gone viral on the internet, Invisible Children, Inc. co-founder, Jason Russell was held by San Diego police after they received reports that he was running through the streets unclothed.[38][39] The police said he was not arrested but detained and hospitalized for dehydration, exhaustion and malnutrition.[39][40] His wife explained that he was adversely affected by criticism of the film, "because of how personal the film is, many of the attacks against it were also very personal, and Jason took them very hard."[39][40]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f KONY 2012 (Motion picture). Invisible Children. 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  2. ^ "News Hour – Trending Now: Kony 2012". Global TV. 2012-03-06. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  3. ^ Lees, Philippa; Zavan, Martin (March 7 20). "Kony 2012 sheds light on Uganda conflict". Ninemsn. Retrieved 2012-03-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ a b "Jackson Center To Show KONY2012". The Post-Journal. February 14, 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  5. ^ "Uganda rebel Joseph Kony target of viral campaign video". BBC News. March 8 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Myers, Julia (March 7, 2012). "A call for justice". Kentucky Kernel.
  7. ^ Neylon, Stephanie (2012-03-07). "Kony fever hits York!". The Yorker. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  8. ^ a b Molloy, Mark (2012-03-07). "Kony 2012: Campaign Shedding light on Uganda Conflict a Huge Online Success". Metro. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  9. ^ Nelson, Sara C. (2012-03-07). "Kony 2012: Invisible Children Documentary Sheds Light On Uganda Conflict". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  10. ^ "Kony 2012". YouTube. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  11. ^ "Kony 2012". Vimeo. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessed= ignored (help)
  12. ^ a b Lees, Philippa (2012-03-07). "Australian support amasses for Kony 2012". ninemsn. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  13. ^ "Taylor Swift – Stars Join Uganda Campaign". Contactmusic.com. 2012-03-07. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  14. ^ "Kony 2012". The Voice. 2012-03-07. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  15. ^ Michelle Profis (March 7, 2012). "Celebs tweet opposition to African strongman Joseph Kony". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  16. ^ Gates, Bill (2012-03-08). "@BillGates status". Twitter. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
  17. ^ "KONY 2012, an Invisible Children film, to show on campus March 12". Penn State Altoona. 2012-03-05. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  18. ^ Jenny McGrath (March 7, 2012). "Celebs Help "Stop Kony" Trend on Twitter: Who Is Kony?". Wetpaint. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  19. ^ Rebecca Macatee (March 7, 2012). "Kony 2012: George Clooney, Angelina Jolie and You Asked to Save Africa's Invisible Children From Torture". E!. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  20. ^ Devin Moss (March 7, 2012). "The Flash – Rocklin High School – KONY 2012". Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  21. ^ a b c d Elizabeth Flock (March 7, 2012). "Invisible Children responds to criticism about 'Stop Kony' campaign". Washington Post. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  22. ^ a b Okwonga, Musa (2012-03-07). "Stop Kony, yes. But don't stop asking questions". The Independent. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  23. ^ What trends does KONY 2012 represent? Hate & Relativism Blog, March 2012
  24. ^ Keating, Joshua (2012-03-07). "Guest post: Joseph Kony is not in Uganda (and other complicated things)". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
  25. ^ "Joseph Kony is Infamous - But will he be caught?". NPR. Retrieved March 09, 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  26. ^ a b Schomerus, Mareike; Allen, Tim; Vlassenroot, Koen (2012-03-07). "Obama Takes on the LRA". Foreignaffairs.com. Retrieved 2012-03-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  27. ^ "U.S. sending military advisors to Uganda". LA Times. 2011-10-15. Retrieved 2012-03-12.
  28. ^ Human Rights Watch (2011-10-04). "US: Don't Finance Child Soldiers Obama Administration Aid Waivers Undercut US Law". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 2012-03-12.
  29. ^ James Corbett (2012-15-03). Global Research TV http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2012/03/us-launches-pr-campaign-ugandan-oil-intervention. Retrieved 2012-03-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  30. ^ Adam Branch (2012-12-03). "US: Dangerous ignorance: The hysteria of Kony 2012". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
  31. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITC5oOoCvcQ
  32. ^ "Kony screening provokes anger in Uganda". YouTube. Retrieved March 15, 2012.
  33. ^ "My response to KONY2012". YouTube. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  34. ^ Nicholas Bariyo; Erica Orden (March 16, 2012). "'Kony' Screening Inflames Ugandans". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 16, 2012.
  35. ^ a b Pflanz, Mike (8 March 2012). "Joseph Kony 2012: growing outrage in Uganda over film". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  36. ^ "Uganda launches video to counter 'Kony 2012'". Al Jazeera. 17 March 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  37. ^ "Invisible Children Critiques". Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  38. ^ Shaw, Lucas. "'Kony 2012' Filmmaker Detained in San Diego for Alleged Public Masturbation (Updated)". Yahoo! News. Yahoo! Inc. Retrieved March 17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  39. ^ a b c Mackrael, Kim. "Kony2012 criticism brought on campaigner's naked meltdown, his wife says". Globe and Mail News. Globe and Mail Inc. Retrieved March 17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  40. ^ a b Spagat, Elliot. "Co-founder of 'Kony' video group detained in Calif". Yahoo! News. Associated Press. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
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