KONY 2012: Terrible or Terrific?

The film “Kony 2012” is the biggest piece of trash I’ve ever seen.

What?? The filmmakers behind Kony 2012 are an inspiration. They are shedding a light on a neglected conflict, spurring people to action and saving lives.

For those who aren’t among the nearly 60 million people, and rapidly growing, who have watched Kony 2012 online, the film is about Joseph Kony, a notorious Ugandan warlord who heads the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA. His group is said to have abducted 60,000 children over the years, turning boys into brainwashed soldiers and girls into sex slaves.

I reported a 4-minute radio story about the 30-minute film yesterday, its incredible popularity and success in bringing light to an important topic. I also reported on the controversy surrounding the film – it’s inaccurate, it’s simplistic, it’s self-indulgent, it focuses on the hero filmmakers first and victims of Uganda’s civil war second.

Add to the list of controversies, a photo and a photographer.

Freelance reporter Glenna Gordon, whom I met and worked with in Liberia in 2010, snapped a photo of the filmmakers holding guns, big guns, in Uganda in April 2008. Her photo, like the video, has gone viral.

Invisible Children founders and filmmakers pose with soldiers from the Sudan People's Liberation Army near the Congo-Sudan border in April 2008. (Photo: Glenna Gordon)

Gordon did an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday. She’s not a fan of Invisible Children, the group that made the film.

Gordon: “Most Ugandans also think they (Invisible Children) are ridiculous… I can’t bring myself to watch the video. I found all of their previous efforts to be emotionally manipulative, and all the things I try as a journalist not to be. After the peace talks in 2008, they put out another video, and I saw the footage used in these videos blending archival footage with LRA and SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) and videos of them goofing off. It was the most irresponsible act of image-making that I’d seen in a long time.”

San Diego-based Invisible Children fought back, posting a response to the Washington Post interview. It’s written by film director Jon Turteltaub, director of National Treasure and Cool Runnings.

Turteltaub: “Really? Three young men who fly half way around the world to stop violence against children is something you feel the need to criticize?

“If Invisible Children raises one less dollar, gets one less supporter, gets one more opponent because of your blog then you have to ask yourself what good you are doing in this world…. I’m sure you and Glenna remember when you were filled with optimism and enthusiasm at the thought of using your journalistic voice to make the world a better place. That’s where Invisible Children and its supporters live.”

Ouch.

Glenna was not pleased. This is a young woman who has spent the past five years working and living in Africa as a photojournalist. We spoke this morning on the phone.

She said, “When I first read this, for a minute, I actually felt so emotionally manipulated, that I thought to myself, ‘Oh my goodness. Am I depriving livelihoods to Ugandan children?’ ”

Glenna said she finally watched the 30-minute video this morning.

“The filmmakers did a great job, but the bottomline is that the video is horribly inaccurate, both in terms of how it casts the conflict and how it casts the creation of a solution,” Glenna said. “I don’t think that these guys tell you what it means to be a Ugandan child today. I think these guys tell you what it means to be a really cool kid from San Diego who is really motivated to do something.”

But hold on, Glenna, the video IS bringing attention – lots and lots and lots of attention – to a part of the world you’ve devoted the past five years of your life trying to get us to care about. Isn’t that a good thing?

“Sure, I wish more people knew about northern Uganda,” said Glenna. “And while advocacy and knowledge and caring about people across the planet are all very well and good, and important goals, there has to be some accountability to information. We’re creating this false expectation for: How do you create change or what does it mean to advocate for people in these places? They’re setting a precedent of exaggeration and of misinformation and of manipulating young people into giving them money because they’re doing something important.”

We could go back and forth on this for awhile. In fact, here’s a defense from the filmmakers.

In my opinion, Glenna’s photojournalism is remarkable, moving, and stark. I am blown away by her photos. But on a good day, her Web site gets a hundred hits. Our collaboration in Liberia, reporting on how a nation recovers from Civil War, got 13,000 views on You Tube. The filmmakers at Invisible Children are getting that every few seconds. So is it bad to throw in a little spice to shed some light on an important story?

As a journalist, I stand first and foremost for factual, accurate reporting. If we lose our credibility, we have nothing. But if the people at Invisible Children are in fact, advocates, then I grapple with how I feel. I’ll let my show producer, Jeb Sharp, sum up the feelings I find myself struggling to articulate.