Braun and his team manage to make this knotty situation lucid and palatable. Darfur Now could conceivably make a difference in enlisting people to the cause.
Darfur Now (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:56
Fresh:38
Rotten:18
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: Although Darfur Now is not always engaging as cinema, the film succeeds in bringing attention to the crisis in Darfur.
Rated: PG [See Full Rating] for thematic material involving crimes against humanity.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Theatrical Release:Nov 2, 2007 Limited
Box Office: $63,862
Synopsis: Documentarian Ted Braun's first theatrical work examines the genocide in Darfur through the eyes of six distinct individuals who are doing what they can to combat the situation. Recent UCLA... Documentarian Ted Braun's first theatrical work examines the genocide in Darfur through the eyes of six distinct individuals who are doing what they can to combat the situation. Recent UCLA graduate Adam Sterling is the director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, which seeks to get states to divest funds in Sudan. Dr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo is an Argentine native serving as the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at The Hague, where he is investigating Sudanese leaders as war criminals. Ecuadorian Pablo Recalde is the head of the World Food Program in West Darfur, where he risks his life trying to get food to the sick and starving people in the region. Hejewa Adam has taken up arms in her homeland, joining a rebel group defending the Fur people and battling the Janjaweed and government forces. Ahmed Mohammed Abakar was forced to flee his village and is now the leader at a refugee camp in Hamadea, where some 50,000 displaced people live. And Oscar nominee Don Cheadle, after starring in HOTEL RWANDA, has written a book, NOT ON OUR WATCH, with John Prendergast, that helps people understand genocide--and gives them information on what they can do to stop it. Each of these people is making a difference in Darfur in a different way, through the legal system, legislation, the media, and even violence if necessary, in order to save and protect a people under siege. DARFUR NOW is not a partisan film; it demonstrates how men and women in all walks of life and with various religious and political beliefs can come together to effect change. The film was begun with a grant from Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation. [More]
Starring: Don Cheadle
Starring: Don Cheadle
Director: Ted Braun
Director: Ted Braun
Screenwriter: Ted Braun
Producer: Cathy Schulman, Don Cheadle, Mark Jonathan Harris
Composer: Graeme Revell
Studio: Warner Independent
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Reviews for Darfur Now
By concentrating on good people dedicated to relieving the crisis, it's almost upbeat.
For all the good intentions on show here, Darfur Now is not much of a film.
The title says Darfur Now -- not Darfur Then, not Darfur Sometime. But the question it asks emphatically is, Darfur Now What?
An inspiring documentary about six very different courageous and creative activists who are doing what they can to help the suffering people of Darfur.
Almost conclusively portrays the Darfur problem as no longer a problem. But even if so, Darfur Now is not really a film about the Darfur problem, anyway.
This is the kind of film that doesn't end after the credits roll, and it's a gold-star example for what a documentary should do: inspire.
Its 99 minutes could have easily been about 65 if you removed all of the celebrity do-gooder filler.
Darfur Now is effective pamphleteering, but only an occasionally compelling documentary film.
Hopefully, well-crafted and moving films such as Darfur Now will inspire more people to take that small but significant first step toward ending these atrocities.
Frankly, there's a way to get a message across and this sort of talking heads doc by numbers isn't it.
If it accomplishes nothing else, Darfur Now locates Sudan on the map -- More than that, the film provides faces for the people of Darfur.
The depressing subtext is that even with detailed proof of ongoing genocide, it takes movie stars to get to the movers and shakers, and to get worthy movies like this one into theaters.
'Inspiring' is a word often used to describe human-rights-oriented documentaries, but Theodore Braun's film about efforts to ease the ongoing genocide in Sudan's Darfur region really earns that epithet.
If its explanation of Sudan's politics and history is rudimentary, Darfur Now maintains an effectively intense focus on the necessary work to save actual people in Darfur.
There are wounding tales of rape and murder, of parents watching their children massacred, in this clear-eyed documentary account of the genocide in Darfur.
Though well-intentioned, Braun's documentary never captures the emotional heart of this enormous tragedy and fails to ignite the passion he so obviously wants us to feel.
Latest News for Darfur Now
November 07, 2007:
Interview: Darfur Now Producer Cathy Schulman On Getting Involved
Rotten Tomatoes spoke with Oscar-winning producer Cathy Schulman -- one of the producers of the new humanitarian doc, Darfur Now -- about the difficulties in making the film,... More...
November 04, 2007:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: American Gangster Crushes Competition at #1
The North American box office exploded thanks to the scorching debuts of the Denzel Washington-Russell Crowe crime drama American Gangster and Jerry Seinfeld's animated comedy... More...
November 01, 2007:
Critical Consensus: American Gangster is Certified Fresh, Bee's a B-, Martian Alienates
This week at the movies, we've got crime lords (American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe), busy bees (Bee Movie, starring Jerry Seinfeld), and kids from... More...
October 26, 2007:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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