Child Soldiers Documentary - Global

This film features personal portraits in an effort to raise awareness and challenge apathy. Through a series of intimate encounters with children who have experienced, or are currently participating in, soldiering in Uganda, Sudan, Burma, Colombia, and Sierra Leone, this documentary examines the issue of recruitment, the hazardous and often brutal life of child soldiers, and for those who survive the fighting - the post-conflict challenges they face. These portraits are provided in the context of narration explaining what is (and what is not) being done about the situation and asking how prepared we are to do anything at all. Interviews are conducted with adults, too - including escapees from rebel groups as well as representatives of UN agencies and governments worldwide. Many of these interviews focus on the role that international bodies can and do play in ameliorating or perpetuating the use of children as soldiers.

To produce the film, 5 location directors/camera operators from Australia, Hong Kong, and the USA equipped with lightweight digital cameras traveled to conflict zones across 4 continents. Organisers say that all of them faced considerable challenges and danger in their attempts to find and talk with child soldiers and those who recruit them. For example, over a period of 4 weeks, photojournalist Meredith Davenport worked to earn the trust of a group of children who had escaped the FARC, a former Colombian socialist army now operating as a rebel, dealing in cocaine, kidnapping, and extortion. In the film, these children describe - sometimes using very graphic words - how they have been used as terrorists, and the effect this has had on their lives. During filming, Davenport was held up at knifepoint by street kids in Bogota, but she managed to escape with her camera to continue filming.

In addition to using very particular, personal portraits, the documentary also repeats some stories to suggest a sense of cycle. That is, the documentary team are with former child soldiers after they've escaped, filming and talking to the children as they re-connect with family and community. However, the film then shows that, even when reunited, the children are not necessarily safe. They are already part of a cycle: after being kidnapped to be soldiers, they may escape to their villages, only to be kidnapped again and again. A child soldier in Myanmar portrayed in the film says, "I feel sorry. Why do I feel sorry? Because by the time I could go to school, I am already too old for the beginner's class. I can't dream of going to school any more because it is too late. I will stay in the army until I die."

The film was produced for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), and Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK). First televised in Australia in 2002, the film was most recently screened across the United States on Home Box Office (HBO) in the autumn of 2003. Click here to read about the location directors and to read selected quotations from the film.

Children, Conflict, Rights.

Thousands of children in more than 40 countries worldwide are being forced and tricked into becoming soldiers. Organisers observe that many people seem to be aware of this situation (we see child soldiers on the TV news; governments and NGOs hold child soldier conventions; and the United Nations declares the sending of children into battle an 'international war crime'). Nonetheless, they say that the practice is increasing.

Producer Andrew Ogilvie established Electric Pictures, an independent production company, in 1992. Ogilvie says, "'Child Soldiers' is the most difficult project I have been responsible for. We were asking film crew to go to remote and very dangerous places, most often alone and with little backup if something went wrong..." Reflecting on the film, writer/director Alan Lindsay says, "I don't know if the film will make a difference to a child soldier's life. I sure hope it does - something has to challenge the apathy and greed that keeps kids in armies and rebel groups. There is no justification for using kids to fight wars and absolutely no justification for the inertia of the international community in addressing this abomination. There are far too many people in power prepared to waste the lives of children for political or economic advantage."

This film was winner of the 2003 Child Rights Award at Osnabrueck Independent Film Festival in Germany, winner of the 2002 ABU/CASBBA/UNICEF award for best programme about the child's rights produced in the Asia/Pacific region; and winner of the Silver World Medal in the 2002 New York Film Festival's National/International Affairs category and Bronze World Medal in the 2002 UNESCO Awards.