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Since 2005, Light Beam Productions - Minnesota, has focused on making documentary films about problems and solutions
in africa. Minnesota documentary film producer, Dan Balluff has made documentaries about the food crises in Niger, children accused of witchcraft in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, and his most recent film, curently in post-production, explores the impacts of HIV/AIDS
on children in Zambia. The response to these documentaries has been overwhelmingly positive.
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"Street
Children of Zambia" (Pre-trailer, 2011)
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"Children
of Congo: From War to Witches" (trailer, 2008)
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This documentary explores the lives of children living on the streets in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.
The story is told though the eyes of young men who grew up on the streets
and were rescued by people working for humanitarian organizations in Lusaka. These young men have now dedicated their lives
to bringing children in off the streets. The documentary examines the major causes of orphans living in the streets of Lusaka, such as the devastating AIDS epidemic that
has gripped this Southern African nation. It is estimated that over one million orphans live in Zambia. Most of the orphans
are the result of the death of one or more parents after contracting
HIV/AIDS. The impacts of this disease has lead to widespread homelessness that threatens to overwhelm the efforts being made by organizations and individuals who work to help traumatized children get off the streets. This documentary is scheduled for release in October of 2011. If you would like to make a
tax deductible contribution toward the finishing of this documentary film, please go to this link: http://documentary.org/fsp/3701 |
Over five million
people have died during the past decade as a result of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Few people are aware
of the unimaginable scale of human suffering, death, and destruction that has occurred in this vast country deep in the heart
of Africa. In the aftermath of this brutal war, children have endured the brunt of the suffering. This 67 minute film documents
the plight of thousands of street children living in Kinshasa and confirms the wide-spread accusations of child witchcraft,
torture and child prostitution. The film also examines the efforts to reintegrate demobilized child soldiers, displaced refugees,
and orphaned children following the eruption of the massive Nyiragongo volcano, near the city of Goma in Eastern Congo. These
heroic efforts are finally bringing some measure of hope and stability to the lives of the Congolese people. Dan Balluff's "Children of Congo: From War to Witches" is a must see film, showing individuals
and organizations that are implementing positive change for the children and the people of the Democtatic Republic of Congo.
(Pan African Arts Culture Film Festival, Oct. 2008). 25% of the DVD sales from this website go to organizations
helping street children and orphans in DR Congo. |
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"Niger: Living on the Edge of Survival" (2006)
"Niger: Living on the Edge of Survival" is a 62 minute documentary about the Niger food crises
of 2005. Niger, West Africa is the poorest country in the world yet it possesses
a wide variety of beautiful landscapes, cultures, and wildlife. In 2004, low rainfall and a locus invasion combined to create wide-spread
hunger, malnutrition, and
starvation. This documentary examines the
reasons for the cyclical food shortages and explores the potential solutions proposed by development and relief experts living in Niger. This
film is being distributed by Chip Taylor Communications. www.chiptaylor.com
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Interviews from new unreleased documentary (2011)
This 2011 interview was videotaped by Light Beam Productions - Minnesota for a documentary film about Christians converting to Islam in Minnesota. It is scheduled for release in July 2011. |
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Over five million people have died during the past decade as a result of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Few people are aware of the unimaginable scale of human suffering, death, and destruction that has occurred in this vast country deep in the heart of Africa. In the aftermath of this brutal war, children have endured the brunt of the suffering. This 67 minute film documents the plight of thousands of street children living in Kinshasa and confirms the wide-spread accusations of child witchcraft, torture and child prostitution. The film also examines the efforts to reintegrate demobilized child soldiers, displaced refugees, and orphaned children following the eruption of the massive Nyiragongo volcano, near the city of Goma in Eastern Congo. These heroic efforts are finally bringing some measure of hope and stability to the lives of the Congolese people Cast for Children of Congo: From War to Witches Dan Balluff: Narrator, Sadia Kaenzig:International Committee of the Red Cross, Fr. Zbigniew Orlikowski:Director of ORPER, Tony Akundi:Teacher for ORPER, Annette Wanzio: Teacher for ORPER, Alphonse Kabwe: Director des Activities Educatives/Pedagogiques, ORPER, Fr. Bernard, llunga: Provincial Provinciat SVD, Fr. Hugo Tewes: Reverend of Notre Damee of Africa Paris, Paul Lukubu: Director of financier and Administratif, Jacques Mayeniki: Director of Habitat for Humanity, Congo, Bwami JM Vianney: Secretary of Centre Des Jeunes, Don Bosco Ngangi, Zebe Kitabingo: Director Congolese Red Cross. Produced, Directed, Written, Camera, sound, and Edited by Dan Balluff Music by Tony Akundi/ORPER and Kevin MacLeod Film Festival Official Selections: Strasburg Film Festival, Sept. 2008, Commffest Film Festival, Sept. 2008, Int'l Film Festival of South Africa, Oct. 2008, ARPA Int'l Film Festival, Oct 2008, Pan African Arts Culture Film Festival, Oct. 2008, Cape Winelands Film Festival, March, 2009, Int'l Film Festival Egypt, April 2009, British Film festival, May 2009
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Dan Balluff's "Children of Congo: From War to Witches" is a must see film, show ing individuals and organizations that are implementing positive change for the children and the people of the Democtatic Republic of Congo. (Pan African Arts Culture Film Festival, Oct. 2008).
One of the major forms of entertainment for most of us is the movies. We take for granted this powerful form of human expression to get a few laughs or thrills either at the local theater or in the comfort of our own living rooms. Most film buffs are aware of that segment of art of cinema known as the documentary but even with that format we expect to be more entertained than informed. Some film makers that concentrate on documentaries seem to feel the overwhelming need to insert themselves in the story with the frequent result of making them more important than the subject matter. They may contain a dissertation of a serious nature but the audience requires amusement and that is what is provided. Often the message is lost in the medium. This is certainly not the case with the documentary from Dan Balluff; ‘Children of Congo: From War to Witches’. This is an important film for everyone to see and more importantly move you to action. Here in the States we live in a country of great opportunity and the potential for wealth that is unimaginable in the majority of the world. Our economy may be worse than it has in many decades. The unemployment rate is higher than it has been in recent memory and people are scraping by to make ends meet. We are still far better off than what people around the globe are forced to endure.
Balluff brings an atrocity of monumental proportions to light with this film. The aftermath of a brutal war in the Republic of the Congo has resulted in much suffering but none is a inhuman as the treatment of children in the Kinshasa. These children are forced to live in the street and are openly accused of witchcraft. This gives the local adults license to force the children to suffer torture and be relegated to a heinous existence as prostitutes. Some may wonder how events so far off affect us. We are human beings and share a commonality that extends far beyond national borders and strikes out across cultural and ethnic differences. Children are the most innocent of our kind. In most societies they are afforded special protection under the law and through social convention. When children are systematically set apart for such terrible treatment it diminishes all of us on a very real level. This is admittedly not an easy film to watch. It depicts suffering on a level that most cannot begin to fathom. It is an important film to watch. Unless such horrible treatment is brought out to light of public awareness nothing will change and these atrocities will continue unabated.
This is the first film for Balluff. He deserves a lot of credit for taking on such a serious topic his first time making a film. Most new movie makers will look for a fast way to get themselves known to the public and will create some horror flick that panders to the current trend of blood and gore. They might go down a well established road for independent cinema and make an artsy film full of deep meaning and subtext. Balluff took on a brutally difficult topic and threw himself into the project. He wore most of the hats required to make this film a reality. He wrote, directed, edited it as well as acting as the producer, cinematographer and narrator. You do not take on so much without a deep seated commitment to film making and the subject of the project. It is easy to sit at a dinner party and talk about some troubles in Africa that you read about in a magazine. Balluff did much more than talk; he gathered funding and set out to bring this horrible treatment of children to the consciousness of the public.
The film begins with a shot of people near a river going about their daily lives. The sun is reflected bright red in the water as wee hear children singing on the soundtrack. This is a country where the Congo River cuts through the second largest rain forest in the world. The nation has rich resources of gold, diamonds and other minerals. It is home to many species of wild life. The 56 million people who live there predominately speak French but over two hundred native languages are represented. This is a place of beauty and home to proud cultures. It was also ravaged by war. The suffering did not stop after the cessation of the conflict with over five million dying in the last decade alone. The war officially ended in 2003 but repercussions from it has dominated the country since. As is all too often the case the part of the population that felt the brunt of the violence were the children; over half the casualties have been under the age of five. The war did more that bring violence into their young lives; many die from starvation or disease. This is a nation that has experienced dictatorships and ethnic conflict since it gained independence in 1960. Few alive there today can remember any time when there was peace. The children are not treated as the victims that they are. Instead they are denounced as witches and detained in religious buildings where they are frequently tortured. Many have been accused of crimes by the military and most are living in wretched conditions in the streets. There they are subjected to violent treatment that includes beatings and torture frequently at the hands of the military. Currently the news in this country that the unemployment rate as hit seven percent caused turmoil; in the Congo that rate is over eighty percent. Most people live on less than thirty cents a day. In the cities children are hunted down in the streets. Many are pulled into the military and more still forced into prostitution.
This film does not focus on the gory details. Much of it is film of the conditions that have spawned this outrageous and unforgivable treatment of the children. Balluff calls on a few talking head interviews with people right in the middle of situation such as some workers with the United Nation’s relief organizations. Balluff shows the glimmer of hope that is beginning to gain a foothold in the country. Relief efforts are bringing civilized conditions back to these children but there is still so much work to do. We have problems here. Children are taken from their homes and abused and murdered. We have hunger right here within our own borders. Still, nothing that we have here can match the horror of the systematic abuse, torture and murder of so many children. Balluff has a stunning visual style that he uses with great efficiency in this documentary. He uses his camera as a virtual eye to bring us to this troubled nation. With all of the horror that exists there a little spark of beauty remains and with the help of others it will hopefully be fanned and nourished until this condition is only remembered in history books.
Douglas MacLean, Home Theater Info, Posted 02/17/09
http://www.hometheaterinfo.com/children_of_congo.htm
A former Peace Corps Volunteer, biologist and videographer for the Environmental Protection Agency, independent film maker Dan Balluff wrote, narrated, directed and edited Children of the Congo: From War to Witches. Balluff contrasts the natural beauty and riches of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with the extreme poverty, lack of health services and massive displacement of citizens as a result of ten years of war. Of the five million deaths that have occurred in the DRC in the last ten years half have been children under five years of age. These deaths have occurred as a result of malnutrition, disease, and the aftermath of war on families. It is the effect on children that is the main message of this film.The condition of the children is described through interviews with Oeuvre de Reclassement et de Protection des Enfants de le Rue (ORPER) workers who provide services to the homeless children. There are approximately 50,000 children living on the streets of Kinshasa alone. They have arrived at this state by the loss of family through social and political causes. Extreme poverty drives some to leave the family in order to survive. Other children are blamed for the family problems, accused of witchcraft and taken to one of the growing number of “revival churches” that charge parents to exorcise these children. Exorcism has killed children through torture and driven others away from home and parents. Children who live on the street are at risk of abuse at the hands of older children, disease, malnutrition, prostitution and HIV/AIDS.
Balluff documents the work of ORPER along with the International Committee of the Red Cross, a United Nations peace keeping agency, Habitat for Humanity, and the Don Bosco Orphanage who are providing food, medical care, and a safe place for children to receive help until they can be reunited with families or be placed in foster care. For those children who cannot return to families or foster care these agencies also provide education and job training so children can be productive members of society. The film stresses that the need far outweighs the resources when it comes to protecting the children. The message too, is that international aid must be sustained until a durable peace is achieved in the Congo and until the infrastructure is reestablished. Reviews have praised Don Balluff for his documentary style that does not highlight the producer or seek to entertain, but focuses on the straightforward presentation of the atrocities of war projected onto children. The technical elements of the production are of high quality, with smooth camera work, clear sound with narration and translation of French interviews that is seamless. A list of links to related information, agencies involved in social services in the Congo, and reviews of the film are available at the producer’s website http://www.danballuff.com
This film would support classes addressing how children are affected by post colonialism, war, living on the street, witchcraft and exorcism, and poverty.
Reviewed by Sue F. Phelps, Washington State University, Vancouver, WA
http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/emro/emroDetail.asp?Number=3578
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