Jim Kobayashi The film is about the lives of Lost Boys after they came to U.S.A.. The most of them struggled with the life style in the unfamiliar country, but they eventually got through a tough time and tried to find the way of helping their home country, Sudan. The movie is not only touching but funny, their reaction for the life in the developed country was absolutely worth to watch. and I learned a lot of things from their way of thinking.I assumed the film maker wanted to telll us the difficulities of the Lost Boys after they left their own country and how the situation of Sudan is bad. However the movie got me thinking the other topic, happiness. I vividly remember when one of the Lost Boys felt depressed for his life in U.S.A. and said "When I was in our country, I have a lot of time to talk to family, friends, and even stranger, and we were happy. But in here, U.S.A., everybody just work, work, work, and they don't have enough time of communication." What is the happiness is different among the people, but like he said, it is also true many people in developed country work too hard and forget why they work in the first place.

lastliberal Lost your job? House in foreclosure? Wife/husband left? None of these things can come close to what happened to thousands of young boys in Sudan after the Muslim North started to eliminate the Christian South.Darfur is not an imaginary place. It is where millions have been killed and raped and driven from their homes in the interests of oil and minerals.Children see their parents killed before them and their whole families wiped out. They are really too young to understand what is happening, but it will come back to haunt them later.Thousands of young boys from 5-13 marched a thousand miles, mostly without food and water to escape. The 13-year-olds had to lead and bury the dead. Imagine burying your friends at 13.12,000 finally settled in a camp where they were basically just awaiting death. After 10 years, some of the boys got a chance to go the the U.S. This is their story. Imagine Africans transported to New York and Pennsylvania and other places without the basic knowledge of how to turn a light on and off, or how to use a shower. Imagine their astonishment on their first trip to a supermarket.We follow three of these men as they settle in, get jobs to help their families and friends back in Africa and to repay the U.S. for their care until they got work visas. It is touching, funny at times, and a sad reminder that this war is still going on and nothing is being done.Anytime you feel sad about your life, just pop this in the DVD player.

Hollywood_Yoda In the 1950s, Britain abandons what was to be their last colonization, which left a split of Muslim and Christian faiths behind. A Muslim and Christian feud ignites, later causing a Civil War. The Sudanese Civil War began in the mid 80s, 1985 to be more precise. The Sudanese people were forced to leave the home they had loved for many generations. The living and some wounded bodies went north to Ethiopia during and after the Civil War.The journey for these people was long and treacherous, many of them died along the thousand mile trek. The news media, following the story in the late 1980s, dubbed the men and boys, "The Lost Boys," for they were without a country or a home. The group of Sudanese refugees stayed in Ethiopia until the government crumbled in 1991. Again, the "Lost Boys" had to make a decision, where to go next.This time, they would head back south through war ravaged country, when they finally ended up in Kenya. They were refugees according to many people, and the United Nations decided to step in and help the "Lost Boys." Beginning around the end of the twentieth century, many "Lost Boys" were being relocated to the states, New York, Pennsylvania, and some as far west as Arizona.This is when the "Lost Boys" grew up, and they became men. Learning to be more Americanized and civilized was harder for some of them than for others. The transition from a homeland culture to an adopted culture is sometimes traumatic, as seen in some of these men, one in particular that could not handle the pressure, ended up in a psychiatric ward. Some would say that the tax money is squandered on the likes of people like this, but I say, "Even if we only help one of them succeed, we are doing our job." If ethics is the study of right and wrong, were we right or wrong to change these people's complete existence on Earth? Or should that be in the hands of God? Maybe it is in the hands of God, and he is working through good people to make his will better for everyone on Earth. If to look at some of these men today, they are more successful and free than they could have ever have been before because of what they went through.Each of them personally struggled, leaving their families and life behind while they came to America to make things better for themselves. As many of them stated, they wanted to bring happiness and freedom to their families. They even sent money to their families back in Africa, but only some of what they sent made it. Did someone steal from these honest, hardworking men? They were unsuspecting and innocents."Life, liberty and the Pursuit of happiness" is guaranteed to all men and women residing in the United States. Why not to the rest of the world? As can be seen in this film, some of the people of Sudan wanted freedom. The entire world should want freedom, but maybe I am making an assumption. No one can truly want freedom until they have had a taste of what is like to be free.

Joseph Belanger How often do critics and audiences agree on something? I think we can all admit it's somewhat rare. So when I heard that documentary, GOD GREW TIRED OF US, had managed to win both the Audience Prize and the Grand Jury Prize at last year's Sundance festival, I was certainly intrigued. However, when I finally caught the trailer, skepticism settled in. The film appeared to be some sort of social experiment where young, African men were transplanted into America with an array of comedic mishaps to follow. What could be funnier than watching the unexposed baffled over how to use an escalator? Still, I was not deterred. I would see with my own eyes what movie had managed to appease the masses and the minutiae-oriented. Proving once again that you cannot judge a movie by its proverbial cover, GOD GREW TIRED OF US is a unique and rare experience that burrows its way into your mind and soul, forcing you to see your world and the world outside your world through the eyes of a wide-eyed stranger.In 1983, the second Sudanese Civil war began. Over 27,000 young boys and girls (many more boys than girls as girls were often snatched up by attackers to be raped and/or turned into slaves first) fled their villages and journeyed to refugee relief camps in bordering countries, Ethiopia and Kenya. The treks lasted a few years and only 12,000 managed to reach their destinations. These camps became their new homes, in some cases for fifteen years. In 2001, an aid program was put in place to bring 3800 young men over to the United States. The program was called The Lost Boys of Sudan. It was at this point that filmmakers Christopher Dillon Quinn and Tommy Walker made their way to the refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya. They would follow three lost boys as they traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to begin their new life. Using archival footage to demonstrate the horrendous experience endured by these young men in their boyhood, Quinn ensures that his audience understands where these men came from and what family and community means to them before he shows their worlds being turned upside down.Though the Lost Boys' coming face to face with electricity and the subtle differences between turning a light on at the source or by using the wall switch can be comedic, their introduction to Western society is more telling of the natives than anything else. Coming from a past that at one point included eating mud as a source of water while in the desert, must make the concept of testing the water coming from your shower head until it is just right before stepping underneath it seem downright extravagant. Excessive is a Western way of life for those who can afford it. Even those who can't live above their means to appear that they can. When the Lost Boys walk down the aisles of a large chain grocery store, awe beams from their eyes. The point is only further proved when they are offered a taste of a sugar doughnut smothered in sprinkles. They each take tiny bites as if unsure of what form of ridiculousness they're biting into. Everyone around them walks up and down the grocery store aisles as if they do it every day and think nothing of it. I would be doing the same and GOD GREW TIRED OF US, without being accusatory or judgmental, draws your attention to how much you take for granted on a daily basis. It'll get you thinking about your supposed needs the next time you bite into a doughnut of your own.What gives GOD GREW TIRED OF US its deeper, more substantial meaning is the decision to not just e xpose the culture shock the Lost Boys endure as if they were guinea pigs put on screen for our privileged perspectives to devour. The film goes further when it follows the Lost Boys as they cement their lives in the United States over a period of three years. The illusion wears off when you have to work three jobs to afford your basic needs while sending money to your family back in Africa that you haven't seen in over fifteen years. America the beautiful quickly becomes a very lonely place that feels very far from home. Despite having opportunity and an abundance of everything, the Lost Boys still miss the Sudan. GOD GREW TIRED OF US is respectful of both its subjects and its audience, always sure never to demean one for the sake of the other. Maybe this is why it has captured the attention of critics and audiences alike; its humbling, thought-provoking nature levels the distance between the two, where each group feels better than the other, allowing each to see that they are no different from each other when faced with the bigger picture of humanity and its arduous journey towards global compassion.