SAND AND SORROW details the historically tragic events in Dafur that have given rise to an Arab-dominated government's willingness to kill and displace its own indigenous African people, and examines the international community's "legacy of failure" to respond to such profound crimes against humanity in the past. To date, as many as 400,000 civilians in Darfur have perished from violence, starvation and disease.
The documentary offers an exclusive look at the situation on the ground inside Darfur, drawing on unprecedented access to a contingent of African Union peacekeeping forces. SAND AND SORROW follows human rights activist John Prendergast, Harvard University professor Samantha Power and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof as they journey through burgeoning refugee camps along the Chad-Sudan border, past mass graves inside Darfur itself, and into offices of the United States Senate to plead on behalf of the innocents of Darfur. They have helped fuel a growing and vocal international advocacy movement that is determined to make the phrase "never again" mean something.
From Khartoum to New York to London, experts interviewed in the film include such varied individuals as Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, U.S. Senators Barak Obama and Sam Brownback, Sudan scholars Alex de Waal and Gerard Prunier, and rebel leader Minni Minawi, each of whom provides a powerful argument for ending this conflict now, and finally learning the lessons of recent history. The behind-the-scenes coverage of the historic but failed Darfur peace signing in Abuja, Nigeria, and the inspiring rally on the Washington Mall confront the viewer with the power of hope and the face of evil.
In the U.S., efforts extend from rural high schools and big college campuses all the way to the halls of power. SAND AND SORROW follows a group of concerned Illinois students who organized a grass-roots campaign to draw attention to the tragedy. Such regional activities are echoed in larger demonstrations in places like Washington, D.C., where a huge crowd gathered in 2006 to demand action and raise awareness.
SAND AND SORROW exposes conditions in the vast, violence-ridden Internally Displaced Persons camps of Darfur, bringing viewers face-to-face with the collective sorrow of a people devastated by the indifference of others. These people have joined the growing spectral chorus of those who waited for help in genocides past - help that once again may never come.
Director Paul Freedman observes, "The tragic events taking place in Darfur unfortunately are a continuation of the lack of response from the international community in protecting millions of innocent lives from their own government. Without humanitarian aid and political resolve from the U.S. and other countries, these displaced people from Darfur could suffer the same fate as those innocents from Eastern Europe, Cambodia and Rwanda."
