Enlightenment via TED

I searched all over TED.com for a video that I felt particularly passionate enough towards to write about it. I skimmed over some, started and then stopped others but, found exactly what I was looking for in a video entitled “The Story of Ezra”.  The film’s creator Newton Aduaka presented the video. 

Newton Aduaka

Born in Eastern Nigeria during the Baifran war, Aduaka was raised in Lagos.  He graduated from the London International Film School in 1990 and established his own production company, Granite Film Works, seven years later. During the span of 2006 and 2007, Aduaka co-wrote, directed and executive produced “Ezra” which was his first non-independent funded film.

“Ezra” depicts the life of a child soldier, from Sierra Leone, kidnapped during the country’s civil war.  Struggling to return to a sense of normalcy after the war has ended, Ezra must undergo rehabilitation in efforts to help him become the boy he once was, while facing accusations of murder.  His sister, along with the rest of his village community, has implicated him as the murderer of their parents and mutilator of others.  “Ezra” is the story of so many children who lost not only their family during this war but their innocence as well.  Drugged, brainwashed, beaten and threatened into submission in order to become the youngest, and most dangerous, army that the country had ever seen.

During his presentation, Aduaka appears nervous, yet passionate, about “Ezra”.  He said that it feels like “he’s coming home” to talk about his accomplishments over the years.  He describes his body of work as “a handful of films, two feature films and a handful of short films” but we are reminded that it is not the quantity, but the quality, that counts in the end.  Aduaka presents “Ezra” with all the sentiment that a small child would present a handcrafted masterpiece to his mother.  He hopes that, because he crafted it with all of his heart, we will like it. 

“Ezra” was released in 2007 to mixed reviews but, in my opinion, those are the best types of films to see.   Called hard “to follow” by the New York Times and “difficult to watch” on Indiewire.com, “Ezra” seems to be the kind of movie that people can’t watch because they don’t want to watch.  In this day and age most people would like to forget that these events ever happened.  If they happened in another country then, they don’t impact you.  If you can’t pronounce the names of the victims then, they become exotic, less of a human and more of an inanimate object. “Ezra” is precisely the movie everyone should watch so that they become aware of the world around them and the plights of other people.  Upon closing, Aduaka said “Africa should remember, so that we don’t go back here again.” I say, the world should know, so that we don’t repeat it.