Award-winning director speaks on Sudan’s ‘Lost Boys’ documentary

About 300 students filled the Whittenberger Auditorium Monday night to see award-winning director Christopher Quinn’s documentary “God Grew Tired of Us.” \nThe documentary chronicled the lives of three of Sudan’s Lost Boys, a group of 10- to 25-year-olds who fled war-torn Sudan as the government killed its own people. The film began with their escape from a civil war in Sudan and ended with their arrival in America.\nQuinn followed the boys for over four years, documenting every step along the way, including their time in Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp as well as their assimilation into American culture.\nRuth Droppo, a graphic designer for the IU Department of Geology, has experience with the Sudanese refugees firsthand.\nA few times a month, Droppo makes the two-hour trek to Louisville, Ky., where she works with a group of Sudanese refugees.\nDroppo said she had seen clips of the movie before Monday night and heard it was an accurate portrayal of the refugees’ stories.\n“The Sudanese refugees I know say it does in fact read very well and speaks to their experiences,” Droppo said. “And they really want the story told correctly.”\nThe refugees began their story in Sudan after 27,000 of the Lost Boys fled for safety because of a civil war. More than 1,000 miles later, 12,000 of them landed in a refugee camp in Kenya. \nAt one point in the movie the boys had to eat mud and drink their urine to survive.\nFor the next 10 years, Kenya would become the boys’ home as the Sudanese government continued to slaughter their own people in their homeland.\nEventually thousands of the Lost Boys came to America, where they found a world completely different than the one they had known all their lives.\n“It’s just amazing they have such a sense of community and then they come here,” said IU senior Meg Minkner. “The culture shock must have been terrifying.”\nSponsored by the student group Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, the event was followed by a lecture and question-and-answer session. Rebecca Burns, STAND co-president, hoped the students who saw the movie would become more aware of the continuing struggles of people in African countries.\nDuring the question and answer, Quinn said the changing culture was the most interesting aspect of the documentary.\n“That was one of their biggest battles, that they gave up so much culturally,” Quinn said.\nDespite the movie’s heavy scenes, the audience was able to find a few places to laugh.\nUnable to grasp the concept of things such as showers, apartments, and electricity, the boys had a hard time adjusting to American life.\nWhen the refugees finally arrived in America and got off the plane, they were greeted by a confusing contraption: an escalator. Not sure what to do, the refugees stumbled and staggered down the oddly moving staircase.\nIn one scene of the movie, one of the refugees takes a box of Ritz Crackers and dumps them into a large container and then crushes them with a hammer before adding milk.\nIU senior Mo Jeffy said she was glad the movie was about more than the refugees’ sad history.\n“Their life isn’t just about depression,” Jeffy said. “In the end there’s so much hope and laughter,” “A depressing movie wouldn’t have done justice to them. They would have said, ‘That’s not my life. That’s not who I am.’ ”