Invisible inspiration
Thrice spreads truth about Uganda’s lost children

By Sarah Conway
sconway6@mscd.edu

   Imagine a country in which rebel armies abduct children who have been orphaned by an AIDS epidemic and force them to kill their siblings, parents and friends, where girls as young as eight years old are forced to become the wives of their abductors, raped, tortured and forced to kill.    Sound like something out of a movie? It is. Unfortunately, the film is a documentary on the very real horrors of a violent rebellion, which Ugandan children face each day.
   In the spring of 2003, three filmmakers from San Diego took a trip to Africa in search of a story.    What they discovered was a war that has been raging in northern Uganda for almost 20 years and is being fought by abducted children between the ages of five and 14, who constitute 80 percent of the soldiers. An estimated 40,000 orphans walk up to 12 miles each night to avoid abduction. These children are known as “night commuters.”
   The footage has been made into an hour-long documentary, which has been aptly titled “Invisible Children,” in honor of the children whose stories have long been ignored.
   After learning of the crisis firsthand, the filmmakers returned to the U.S. and launched a fund-raising campaign. They started showing screenings of “Invisible Children” to their friends and the message spread through word-of-mouth.
   Last fall, Thrice was given a copy of the film at a moment in the band’s career singer Dustin Kensrue described as “full circle.”
   “ I believe in a purpose behind all things, though what it is I definitely cannot always see,”    Kensrue said. “In this case, things seemed to unfold in front of my eyes.”
   The band just finished the video for “Image of the Invisible” which dealt with children being kidnapped, and a resistance group trying to get them back, when less than a week later, “Invisible Children” was shown to them by a friend.
   “ We were floored by what we saw and heard, and not only because it was so terrible and heart wrenching, but because it so closely mirrored the plot of our video,” Kensrue said. “The song itself was dealing with the worth and value of human life, and the video loosely followed that theme, but other than that, (the video) was nothing more than a story that it seemed would emotionally connect with the song and work with its dynamic movements.”
   The night after the band watched “Invisible Children,” Kensrue met filmmaker Laren Poole outside of a club in San Diego. Poole told Kensrue about how he had contracted malaria in Africa and was in and out of consciousness for two weeks in the hospital, during which Thrice’s music inspired him.
   “ He told me that in this time he began to question what he was doing even thinking about trying to make this film,” Kensrue said. “But then he told me that listening to our song, “The Artist in the Ambulance,” in the hospital made him believe that he could do more with his art and that it could really mean something and change people.”
   The band immediately thought of ways it could get involved. They recorded a video segment to promote the Invisible Children campaign accompanying their online music video and hosted a benefit show last fall at the House of Blues in Hollywood.
   “ As a band we have taken seriously our position to affect a positive change in the world since we signed to Sub City. We had a choice to sign with Hopeless—the non-charity associated half of the label—or Sub City, which gives a percentage of each album’s sale to a charity. We chose Sub City and have continued down that path even when switching labels to Island,” Kensrue said.
   The Invisible Children campaign started a Winnebago tour in which they hold screenings of the film on high school and college campuses across the country, encouraging students to host creative, fund-raising events and to pass the film on to others.
   These events provide necessary funds for the children to go to boarding schools. In addition to providing an education, regular meals and uniforms, the schools offer shelter, eliminating the need for night commuting. Invisible Children has raised enough money to put 250 Ugandan children through school.
   “ Our education program is a little different than others because we have a mentor program as well,” said Katie Bradel, assistant to the filmmakers at Invisible Children. “So over each group of kids who (Invisible Children) puts through school, there’s also a mentor who takes care of them, helps them with their homework, making sure that there’s nothing going on in their lives that’s keeping them from going to school.”
   Ross Evans, a senior at Bishop Machebeuf High School, said going to a Thrice show was the first time he ever heard about the Invisible Children campaign.
   “ I found out about ‘Invisible Children’ at the Thrice show when they toured with Underoath, The Bled and Veda. They talked a little about it on stage and were handing out flyers about it and I threw it away because I thought it was just some lame advertisement, but I remembered it saying something about Invisible Children on it.” Evans said. “But then my art teacher told me about it again and showed me the DVD and I saw that I could actually lend a hand and be a part of the solution. I went to their official Web site and I signed up for the Global Night Commute right after that.”
   After Mullen High School seniors Brad Sheehan, Ashley Hancock and Katie Schneebeck watched the documentary; they started an Invisible Children club at their school. They hosted the “Invisible Children” screening on their campus and teachers have since shown the video to their classes, urging more students to get involved.
   According to Hancock, they were able to get food donated from Sam Taylor’s Bar-B-Q and TCBY to feed the more than 120 students who turned out for the event.
   Senior Sara Heinle immediately jumped into action after watching the film at Mullen.
   “ I’ve already written two letters to representatives of Colorado, Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard, and one to President Bush,” she said. “There are sample letters available online that you can personalize a little bit if people want to write to them.”
   On April 29, the Invisible Children campaign is launching the Global Night Commute in which citizens from more than 130 cities across the world will commute by foot to sleep outside, demanding that our government get involved and put and end to the war.
   There are more than 27,385 people signed up across America. Invisible Children’s goal for the night commute is 30,000.
   “ The Global Night Commute is just an idea we had to really bring all the people who care about this issue together on one night and to really show the government numbers on how many people know and care about this issue and want the war to end,” Bradel said. “If senators and congressmen in Washington D.C., know that that many people care, then they can do more work towards ending it.”
   Two senators, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., plan to participate in the Global Night Commute.
   “ Part of how our government is constructed, which is crazy, is that they’re only allowed to do what their constituents really care about,” Bradel said. “And so they’ve seen that a lot of people have written letters and are worried about what’s going on in Sudan, but not as much about what’s going on in northern Uganda. We want everyone who attends the Global Night Commute to write a letter to their senator and to their local congressman, so if they have that many letters coming in to their office all at the same time, then they can do a lot more work. They can’t ignore it.”
   Denver’s Night Commute will take place at the capitol building, and participants are asked to arrive around 7 p.m. They will be filmed standing in front of one sign that will have a couple of words on it, which will complete a phrase or sentence when combined with similar signs in other cities.    These signs will be shown together in a final film that will show the completed message.
   Commuters are asked to bring a sleeping bag, pillow, flashlight and supplies to be used to write letters to America’s leaders. These letters, along with photos from the event, will be compiled into a book to be sold at a later date. The books will also be sent to President Bush, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and to the children of northern Uganda. There will be filming and photography throughout the event.
   “ Hopefully, the Night Commute will raise awareness and put pressure on Congress to get some diplomatic help to the region,” Kensrue said. “As far as our involvement, I think we will just take opportunities (to help) as they come. Some of the proceeds from this tour are going to Invisible Children because we were able to have input on (where the money goes).”