Video
FEATURED VIDEO: Video Portrait #3 from Southern Sudan: Ruth Foni Okayo (18:31)
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This is a series of video portraits I put together using footage taken during interviews with Southern Sudanese NGO workers during a visit to Southern Sudan, and with Southern Sudan refugees from Sud Academy in Nairobi, Kenya. These video portraits were recorded during my March/April 2009 visit to the region. As a collection of videos, they offer a representation of Sudan’s recent history as it relates to the Southern Sudanese experience with the last civil war and since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005.
Each person was asked to respond to the same 4 topics:
1) to introduce themselves;
2) to tell their history from the day they were born to the present and related it to the history of Sudan;
3) to indicate their role in keeping peace in Sudan; and
4) to add anything else they have yet to say.
To avoid censorship and to honour each person’s life story, I have not edited out any information, unless it was particularly repetitive, so their stories remain intact. As each person tells their unique story. They reveal intimate pieces of Southern Sudan’s history through their own life experiences. They present current concerns and offer visions for the future of a place in rapid and fragile transition.
Video Portrait #1 from Southern Sudan: Rose Achan Beryl (14:23)
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Video Portrait #2 from Southern Sudan: Alberto Kuol Kuol Makuach (16:41)
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Video Portrait #3 from Southern Sudan: Ruth Foni Okayo (18:31)
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OTHER VIDEOS:
Bushfire near Juba, Southern Sudan (2:02)
On the way to Kabo village west of Juba, Southern Sudan, notice heavy plumes of black smoke rising from the horizon. “it’s probably charcoal manufacturers,” someone offers as an explanation from the back. We drive closer and can see the flames in the distance. This is no isolated, controlled fire. During the rainy season, elephant grass grows to a height of about two metres and covers the land. the grass is harvested and used to thatch the roofs of traditional houses. We are months into the dry season and it is common practice to burn excess grass before the rains come. In the video, there are hundreds of hawks weaving through the smoke ahead of the fire, swooping down to the ground and capturing the multitude of rodents escaping the flames.
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Wow, a tea party in Sudan (1:00)
With audio taken from a 1950s instructional video about organizing a tea party taken from the Prelinger Archive, this video shows how tea is served in the town of Wau, Southern Sudan with footage taken during a visit in March 2009.
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Needles in a Haystack (3:24)
On March 20, 2009, I joined a World Vision medical team to Lurcuk Village in Tonj North County, Warrap State, Southern Sudan. It is vaccination day under the large tree by the clinic and borehole well. In all, 276 children are vaccinated for measles, tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria and tetanus. 167 women of childbearing years receive tetanus vaccines.
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In His Own Words: Abousfian Abdelrazik (10:36)
The video below is a ten-minute condensation of his presentation, in his own words, of the lengthy ordeal at the hands of Canadian, American and Sudanese intelligence agencies that left him in forced exile in Sudan for six years.
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CIDA funding of IOM Project in Southern Sudan (4:07)
During a visit to Southern Sudan in March and April 2009, I visited multiple projects funded by the Canadian International Development Agency. This short video shows a project managed by the UN’s International Organization for Migration in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State to provide schools, women’s centres, and borehole wells for communities of returnees in the region.
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