‘African Soul, American Heart’
On Nov. 9, people crowded into the Fargo Theatre to see a new movie. But the flick wasn’t “High School Musical 3” or “Saw IV,” but rather a powerful story titled, “African Soul, American Heart,” a locally produced documentary.
The story follows Joseph Akol Makeer, a Lost Boy from Sudan, as he goes back to the Southern Sudan Village he was forced to leave when he was just 10.
It was 1987 and Sudan was in a civil war. The result was mass genocide with thousands of orphan children like Joseph being caught in the middle.
To escape the violence, they started walking. They walked first to Ethiopia, then to Kenya, their journey. Amid violence, treacherous terrain, and starvation, Joseph walked.
Then after years of walking, he was rescued and as part of the U.S. Lost Boys of Sudan Program, he was brought to Fargo in hopes of a better life.
Then in 2007, 20 years after his journey started, he decided he wanted to go back to his village of Duk Payuel to help the orphans who were not able to escape. The way he would get there would be through a documentary.
“The reason that I [wanted to make] this documentary is to spread the word. Many people do not know about the problems in Southern Sudan,” Makeer said. “The documentary is a message to many people.”
The project started when Debra Dawson, a local writer, heard Makeer’s story. Once she heard what circumstances he had come from, she knew she needed to tell his story. She assumed the title of executive producer, director and writer, and the rest of the production team was assembled.
Greg Carlson, assistant professor in the communication studies and theatre art department at Concordia, was part of the original team.
“Initially I thought I would just give them some suggestions, some tips on how they might want to do a project like this, but once I met Joseph, it became clear to me that I would like to be involved more directly in whatever the project was to become,” said Carlson who became the producer of the film.
“My role…was to help the team figure out how to tell this particular story in a visual way that doesn’t neglect to move people and neither does it neglect to share some important information,” he said.
From there, the team started planning the trip and raising funds for production, which wasn’t always an easy task.
“When we first decided to go to Africa, we didn’t know if we’d be able to raise the money. But at every step things have fallen into place. Just when we thought we had an obstacle that we thought we couldn’t get over, it’s melted away or somebody has come in and solved our challenges for us,” Dawson said.
After a large amount of planning, the group traveled to Africa in December of 2007 to shoot.
Then the thirty hours of footage that was taken in Africa was edited into what would become the 22-minute documentary shown at the theatre.
“We hope that people who see the documentary will be moved by what they see,” Carlson said.
The documentary team encouraged people at the end of the showing to donate to the “African Heart, American Foundation,” a non-profit organization the team established to help struggling orphans still in Sudan.
The non-profit’s long-term goal is to raise $250,000, which will be used to build grain-grinding mills, housing facilities and schools for the orphans in Duk Payuel.
“Everyone can do something,” Carlson said. “You don’t have to do everything, but you can do something.”
