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  Videos for The Long Way Gone - Common Book

Armed & Innocent. Dir. Ruya Hakkakiyan. Harrington Park, NJ: Janson Media, 2002. 26 May 2008
Documents the stories and personal experiences of children forced to be direct participants in wars around the world and narrated by Robert DeNiro and Ishmael, Isha and Bernard. (Streaming video, 17 min.)

Also available @ <http://www.un.org/children/conflict/english/videos.htm>.

Bling: A Planet Rock. Dir. Raquel Cepeda. Prod. Filippo Bozotti and Rebecca Chaiklin. Chatsworth, CA: Image Entertainment, 2007.
Reserves HD9677.S5 B55 2007
Ishmael Beah travelled to Sierra Leone in 2006 with hip-hop celebrities who meet the victims of the civil war, and learn the connection between hip-hop and the victims of the blood diamond industry. (DVD, 87 min.)

Blood Diamond. Dir. Edward Zwick. Burbank: Warner Home Video, 2007.
Reserves PN1997 .B578 2007
Danny Archer (Matt Damon) is an ex-mercenary turned smuggler. Solomon Vandy (Hounsou) is a local Mende fisherman, and Jennifer Connelly is a journalist. During the 1999 explosive civil war Sierra Leone, these men join together for two dangerous missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son. The son was conscriptedas a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swathof torture and bloodshed across the alternately beautiful and ravaged countryside.
(DVD, 143 min.)

Children and Armed Conflict.Children and Armed Conflict. Prod. Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. UNICEF, 2007. 26 May 2008
Ishmael Beah narrates this video to mark the 10th anniversary of the landmark United Nations report by Graça Machel, Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. (Streaming Video, 6:39).

Also available @ <http://www.un.org/children/conflict/english/videos.htm>.

Cry Freetown. Dir. Sorious Samura. London: Insight News Television, 2000. Reserves DT516.9.F73 C7 2000
Award-winning cameraman Sorious Samura returns to Sierra Leone toexpose the horror of his country's civil war. In January 1999, the rebel forces attacked Freetown, the capital, killing thousands of civilians. (VHS, 28 min.).

Diamonds of War: Africa's Blood Diamonds. Prod.Michael Rosenfeld. Washington: Partisan Pictures and National Geographic, 2007.
Reserves HD9677.S52 D533 2007
Examines the black market diamond trade in Sierra Leone, which for years has funded armed civil insurrection. (DVD 56 min.)

Ezra. Dir. Newton I. Aduaka. San Francisco: California Newsreel, 2007.
Reserves PN1997 .E98 2007
SUMMARY: Tells the story of Ezra, a young boy kidnapped and forced to become a soldier with a rebel faction in the Sierra Leone Civil War. Ten years later, he is brought before a truth and reconciliation commission and made to revisit and understand his crimes so as to begin the process of psychological healing. (DVD 105 min.)

Family Across the Sea. Dir. Domino Boulware. San Francisco: California Newsreel, 1991. Reserves E185.93.S7 F35 1991
A delegation of Gullah people travels from the United States to Sierra Leone to trace the roots of their heritage. (VHS, 56 min.)

God Grew Tired of Us. Dir. Quinn, Christopher. Culver City: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2007. Reserves DT157.673 .G63 2007
Follows three of the "Lost Boys" from the Sudan who were forced to leave their homeland due to a tumultuous civil war. The film chronicles their triumph over seemingly insurmountable adversities and a relocation to the United States, where the Lost Boys build active and fulfilling new lives but remain deeply committed to helping friends and family they have left behind. (DVD, 90 min.)

Invisible Children. Dir. Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole. El Cajon, CA: Invisible Children and People Like You, 2006. Reserves DT433.223 .I58 2006
In Uganda's long-lasting civil war, many children have been abducted to be trained as child soldiers. This film documents the children's life and general social conditions in Uganda in 2003. (DVD, 55 min.)

Ishmael Beah on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Comedy Central. 15 Feb. 2007. 2 July 2008 <http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=82274>.

Lord’s Children, Wide Angle. Dir. Oliver Stoltz and Ali Samadi Ahadi. Perf. Aaron Brown. PBS, 2008. 4 Aug. 2008 <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/
episodes/lords-children/video-full-episode/2188/
>.

Lost Boys of Sudan. Dir. Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk. Alexandria, VA: POV: PBS, 2004. Reserves E184.S77 L6 2004
Follows two Sudanese refugees on a journey from Africa to America. Orphaned as young boys in one of Africa's cruelest civil wars, Peter Dut and Santino Chuor survived lion attacks and militia gunfire to reach a refugee camp in Kenya along with thousands of other children. From there, they were chosen to come to America. Safe at last from physical danger and hunger, a world away from home, they find themselves confronted with the abundance and alienation of contemporary American suburbia. (2 DVDs, 87 & 55 min.)

Sierra Leone's Refugee all Stars. Dir. Zach Niles and Banker White. New York:
Docurama, 2007. Reserves M1630.18 .S54 2007
Uplifting and courageous, this dramatic seven-time award-winning film by Zach Niles and Banker White tracks the journey of a group of six musicians who formed a band after being displaced from their home during a brutal decade long civil war. (DVD, 80 min.)

War Dance. Dir. Fine, Sean, and Andrea Nix Fine. New York: Thinkfilm, 2008. Reserves GV1799 .W37 2008
Dominic, Rose, and Nancy are three children whose families have been torn apart, their homes destroyed, their innocence lost, and who currently reside in a displaced persons camp in Patongo, Uganda. These children attend a school where they can momentarily forget the brutal realities of their lives, as they participate in music, song and dance. When they are invited to compete in an annual music and dance festival in their nation's capitol, their historic journey is also an opportunity to regain a part of their childhood and to taste victory for the first time. (DVD, 107 min.).

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