Darfur Now

Los Angeles Times
"[The film] attempts to both explain the situation to audiences and offer some reason to hope for the future..." 11/02/2007

The Flick Filosopher 9 of 10
The tragedy still unfolding in the Sudanese region of Darfur has been officially designated a genocide, but global action to stop it has been limited. This powerful film, from documentarian Theodore Braun, aims to raise awareness of the situation and motivate all of us to do something about it. And as frustratingly overwhelming as the whole thing may seem, what Braun shows us here is that, yes, ordinary people can do extraordinary things. The anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has." That's what Darfur Now is all about...Braun wants his film to embarrass us, here in relatively comfortable America -- how can even our tettering, precarious economy compare to mass rapes, ethnic slaughter, the destruction of entire ways of life? Braun introduces us, too, to more than one survivor of the nightmare; this is emphatically not a film about how privileged Westerners are "affected" by a catastrophe to the exclusion of those actually living it...This is one of those movies that's more important for the action it may inspire than anything else. What can we do? Go to Participate.net for suggestions. It may seem like whatever little things we little people can do may be tilting at windmills, but as Cheadle says, "It's better than doing nothing." - MaryAnn Johanson
 
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
We all know, having absorbed it from the mediasphere, that genocide is taking place in Darfur, but we do not all know where Darfur is. Africa, yes, vaguely, we realize. Something to do with Sudan. But where or what is Sudan? If it accomplishes nothing else, "Darfur Now" locates Sudan on the map...The region is landlocked in central Africa, bordered by Libya, Chad and the Central African Republic. More than that, the film provides faces for the people of Darfur...Cut to California, where the admirable Don Cheadle, joined by George Clooney, leads a movement to inspire American and European intervention. He learned about genocide firsthand while making "Hotel Rwanda." And we meet Adam Sterling, a student who begins a movement to divest California of its investments in Sudan. It is successful, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gladly signs such a bill into law, although its impact may be more symbolic than economic. Washington remains aloof from the issue, apart from the speeches of involved senators...All of this you will learn and see in "Darfur Now." It is not a compelling documentary (too much exposition, not enough on-the-spot reality), but it is instructive and disturbing. Darfurians like Hejewa Adam await the arrival of "the Americans" to save her land. Perhaps she should announce she is building a nuclear program. - Roger Ebert