Press Reviews

• Pan African Arts Culture Film Festival, Oct. 2008 | show/hide snippet

  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.

• Home Theater Info | show/hide snippet

  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.

  Posted 02/17/09

• Eye for Film | show/hide snippet

  Everybody remembers the wars in the Congo. No matter where you were, you'll have caught it on a TV screen, or seen a feature in a glossy magazine. But when wars end, they cease to be reported. The assumption in the affluent western hemisphere is that peace will mean everything is okay. Children Of The Congo challenges that notion by taking a long hard look at the realities of like in the Democratic Republic Of The Congo today.

  Today the Congo's people are tired of war. Old political and territorial conflicts no longer seem worth getting so excited about, especially when it's hard enough simply to scrape a living. Gradually, attempts are being made to rebuild the nation. But in the meantime Kinshasa, one of the Congo's biggest cities, is home to thousands of displaced children, most of whom sleep on the streets. There are far too many of them for begging to be a viable means of survival, so they steal or work as prostitutes. Some of them are as young as five.

  
  As if that weren't enough, many Congolese children are veterans of armed conflicts in which they were forced to take an active part. They've seen and done things that make it extremely difficult for them to reintegrate into normal society. Others lost everything to a massive volcanic eruption, and still others have been cast out by their own families following accusations of witchcraft. With their supposed wrongdoing confirmed by religious cults, many of these children were tortured and beaten. Now it is all they can do to stay alive.

  Given all this, you might expect a very bleak film, but Children Of The Congo is less interested in dwelling on suffering than on seeing what can be done to turn the situation around. We meet charity workers and churchmen who run shelters and schools, supply food and medicine and try to teach the older children trades so they can support themselves. Some have been successful at persuading families to take their stigmatised children back and care for them properly. Others have helped families to find the resources which can make it possible for them to stay together in the first place.

  There's a lot of suffering on display here, but there are also bright children with a real desire to reinvent their future. Often the camera descends to the children's height as an unselfconscious way of showing us the world from their point of view. It's a sobering thought, to realise that this harsh world is all they've ever known. Some shy away from the camera, curled up in a way that suggests deep trauma, but others are keen to assert themselves, to proclaim their identities, to reach out o the world.

  Like all documentaries of this sort, Children Of The Congo is in part a plea for aid, but it is also a fascinating look at a culture re-creating itself out of chaos, a society establishing its own identity in the face of international indifference. It illustrates the enormous difference a few dedicated individuals can make to the lives they touch, and it reminds us of the complex potential these children represent - if the Congo is to remain at peace, it cannot afford to let them down.