“Sand and Sorrow” a Documentary Narrated by George Clooney Presented at the Monaco Film Festival
reported by Anne Howard for Rush PR News

Monaco, (rushprnews) May 12, 2007 -Offered exclusive and unparalleled access to the situation on the ground inside Darfur, Peabody award-winning filmmaker, Paul Freedman (“Rwanda – Do Scars Ever Fade?”), joins a contingent of African Union peacekeeping forces in Darfur while a tragic and disturbing chapter in human history unfolds.
 

SCREENINGS AT MONACO FILM FESTIVAL
May 15, 2007
Monte Carlo. Closing night of IETFF. Panel with John Prendergast and Major Colince Ondoua (both featured in Sand and Sorrow) precedes screening. 8pm Grimaldi Forum.

Cannes Market Screenings:

May 17, 2007
Cannes 10.00am STAR 2 Cinema

May 19, 2007
Cannes 6.00pm STAR 2 Cinema

While the heroic men and women of this undermanned and under-funded mission brave harsh conditions and unfettered violence, as many as 2.5 million displaced persons have no choice but to settle inside squalid camps to wait and hope. (An estimated four-hundred thousand civilians have perished so far.)

The Documentary
While analyzing the historical events that have given rise to an Arab-dominated government’s willingness to kill and displace its own indigenous African people, “Sand and Sorrow” also examines the international community’s “legacy of failure” to respond to such profound crimes against humanity in the past. But while immersed in the despairing crisis of our time, Freedman manages to give voice to the ever-growing and inspiring movement of those who wish to make “Never Again” finally mean something.

John Prendergast, Samantha Power, and New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, lead the viewer 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. This impassioned trio inspires a growing and vocal advocacy movement that extends from rural high schools to big time college campuses, all the way to the halls of power in the US and beyond. Freedman’s camera is there to capture the heroic struggle between politics and humanity.

Addis Ababa, Khartoum, New York, London—Freedman’s subjects are as varied as his stunning locations. 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, provide powerful and touching insight into the conflict. Exclusive, 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.

As Freedman ventures deep inside the vast and violent Internally Displaced Persons camps of Darfur, he comes face to face with the collective sorrow of a people devastated by others’ political unwillingness and shameful indifference. These people have joined the growing spectral chorus of others who waited for help in genocides past—help that we know may never come.

Total running time: 93 minutes
Format: Digital BetaCam

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Anne Howard www.annehowardpublicist.com writer and publicist