Features: DVD
Winner of an Independent Spirit Award and named Best Documentary at the San Francisco International Film Festival, Lost Boys of Sudan follows two teenage Sudanese refugees on an extraordinary journey from Africa to America, offering a gripping and sobering peek into the myth of the American Dream.In the late Ô80s, Islamic fundamentalists in Sudan waged war on the country's separatists, leaving behind over 20,000 male orphans, otherwise known as "lost boys." For those who survived this traumatic ordeal and found their way to refugee camps, some were chosen to participate in a resettlement program in America--a distant place so presumably full of hope and opportunity that the Sudanese sometimes call it Heaven. But what if a free ticket to "Heaven" turned out to be anything but? Sidestepping conventional voice-over narration in favor of real-time, close-quarters poignancy, Lost Boys of Sudan focuses on Santino and Peter, members of the Dinka tribe, during their first life-altering year in the United States. Safe at last from physical danger--but a world away from home--the boys must grapple with extreme cultural differences as they come to understand both the abundance and alienation of contemporary American life.
Editor's Note
LOST BOYS OF SUDAN, directed by San Francisco-based documentary filmmakers Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk, observes the experiences and impressions of two boys from Sudan who were brought to the United States as part of a resettlement program that took place in 2001. Thousands of people were allowed to immigrate to the United States to escape from the civil war that had plagued Sudan for 20 years, driving many of that country's residents to refugee camps. Peter Dut and Santino Chuor met Mylan and Shank in a refugee camp in Kakuma Kenya, which is where they agreed to make LOST BOYS. The film tracks their passage to the United States, where they settle into lives and jobs in Houston, Texas, and Kansas City, Missouri. It is through their eyes that the film communicates both an idea of what Sudan is like in their memories of home, the differences between the lives they led in Africa and their new lives in the United States, and the simple homesickness and frustration that comes with being transplanted to a totally foreign country. In the end, what comes through is their determination to succeed, adapt, and build a strong foundation in their new country, while never forgetting the people they left behind.
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