Invisible Children, a movement seeking to end the conflict in Uganda, has created a film it hopes will accelerate the arrest of Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony, who has been kidnapping and abducting Uganda's youth for nearly three decades.
Filmmaker Jason Russell says that it's obvious Kony should be stopped, but the problem is "99% of the world doesn't know who he is." To spread knowledge of Kony and his abductions, Invisible Children is targeting 20 culture makers and 12 policymakers who it believes have the influence to spread word of Kony to the rest of the planet.
"I'd like indicted war criminals to enjoy the same level of celebrity as me," actor and humanitarian
George Clooney says in the film.
Of the 20 culture makers Invisible Children is targeting, Rihanna, Oprah, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift have used Twitter to spread the word about Kony so far.
Since its launch Monday afternoon, the film has been viewed 5.4 million times in 150 countries, with some 9,000 comments left on Vimeo. It has been viewed an additional 1.8 million times on YouTube with over 99,000 comments left. The film will stay online until Dec. 31, 2012.
Invisible Children told Mashable that it has gained 200,000 Facebook fans since the film went up. Action Kit, #stopkony, #kony2012, #makehimfamous, Invisible Children, Uganda and LRA have trended on Twitter due to the film and the surrounding social media campaign.
Russell began his mission to stop Kony a decade ago, when he promised a Ugandan boy Jacob that he would stop the LRA leader.
"It is better that you kill us, because we don't want to stay on earth," Jacob tells Russell early in the film.
Russel frames the 30-minute documentary through a conversation with his young son, Gavin. He tells his son he is working to stop "bad guy" Joseph Kony, who gives young boys like Jacob guns and makes them shoot other people. What he could not tell Gavin was that Kony kidnaps and abducts children, turning the girls into sex slaves and turning the boys into LRA child soldiers.
So far, over 30,000 children have been captured by Kony and his army. The LRA leader has stated that he is "not fighting for any cause, but only to maintain his power."
When Russell first returned from Africa, he met with members of Congress to explain what he'd seen on the ground in Uganda. The problem, he was told, was that the U.S. government would not get involved in a conflict that didn't threaten U.S. national security.
In October 2011, however, the U.S. Government sent 100 American advisers to central Africa to aid the Ugandan Army in their fight against the LRA. Russel claims that this was the first time in history that the U.S. took a military action that was demanded by the people, rather than self defense. The Ugandan military still needs the technology and training to find Kony, according to Russel.
Watch the video above and let us know why you think this campaign has been so successful. Was it Invisible Children's decision to target influential figures? Or is it the powerful film itself?
This story originally published on Mashable here.
