Transcript
Emily: I've always considered myself pretty well educated, and I think the strongest feeling that I have coming out of [watching the film] is how much I don't know about the world. Everything that I've seen and heard has opened my eyes to a new part of the world.
Matt: They have a better understanding of the reality of what people in the world face every single day. Even though I've lived in other countries, I've never lived in one where suddenly I don't have electricity or running water. And I've never seen my father shot in front of me. I've never seen my family taken away from me.
Sharon: It made me want to get involved. We're always looking for our missions in life, what to do, and it made me decide that there's something I can do.
Alice: It really re-emphasized what I sensed from listening to a boy soldier from Sierra Leone; that the reaction to war is a common reaction. War drives people apart, it affects their emotional stability, their ability to cope.
Peter: This film was different in many ways. I identify a lot with them. I know the problem is complex with the civil war and the terror that is scaring everybody. The way things are in this world I wish people could get to the center of the problem. We could help heal these hurting people and this hurting nation.
Betsy: I think it's very challenging for people who have so much hope, so much desire, so much expectation for their future to struggle through all the things they have to struggle through in order to make it.
Kiana: I think that this film changes the way that I view immigrants and refugees. It puts a face, it puts a life, an emotion, a feeling and an identity on people who may [otherwise] be easy to view as statistics.
Becca: So it's a question of: What have I been given just by being born here. I've never had to deal with a real war-torn community or been afraid of a rebel army coming to take me in the middle of the night, so it definitely brings into question what choices I'm making in my life.
Kiana: Very often people take the individuals out of the topic and they forget to reflect on the people who are affected by policy, and forcing myself to confront these realities is what compels me to work with refugees and immigrants.
Becca: I think that's just an interesting perspective that you get when you watch something like this, because that's definitely a different mentality; I've been able to live in this security blanket, just living here and being born here.
Rachel: I think it makes me realize that there's a huge gap and I shouldn't presume to understand or even be able to speak about that experience. And yet I also think it makes me recognize our shared humanity.
Wendy: It makes me a little bit frightened to see how things can deteriorate in a society or a culture. It's easy to be overwhelmed by the enormity of problems and suffering and cruelty that people can impose on one another, but it also makes me hopeful to see how people can recover from that and help each other, [how people can] show each other the love that they have within themselves and within their families.
Melissa: I thought of it right away when I was watching the film. From the very first scene where I saw people together, I noticed something that they have that I don't, and that's a strong community.
Dennis: He talked about helping each other because they're all from Sierra Leone. Do we help each other because we're Americans, do we help each other because we're from the same state or the same city? It just seems like our priorities arebackwards or upside down at times.
Melissa: These people seemed to be so close to one another that I felt a sense of envy because of that. It made me sad and it made me think that having that closeness is more important than having all of the things and all the consumer goods and access to resources that we have here.
Dennis: For me personally, [I want] to think that there's something I can do, how I might even approach this differently the next time I see someone coming from this sort of background. Just being aware of what they may have gone through, what they may be feeling from me, how they may be perceiving me. I'm coming from a place of privilege, of never having lived through that kind of experience. They're amazing people and we have a lot to learn from them.
Melissa: From what I can see, of course I have alot of similarities with them as a person, but I noticed a strength in them that I feel I lack in myself. That one person, Reuben, had such an amazing impact on so many people's lives just through music. So it also occurred to me that music, and creativity, is such an important way to change the world, change the culture, change the community.
Special thanks to all the viewers who shared their points of view. Thanks for watching, and stay tuned for future Talking Back programs.
Director: Peggy Case. Editor: L. Wyatt. Producers: Peggy Case and Michael Gross. Associate Producer: Melissa Albin. Director of Photography: Joseph Hudson. Asst. to DP: Christian Hansen. Production Assistance: Carey Christie, Tom Gormally. Music by Thomas McGurk. Produced by Mad as Birds.
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