Toronto – “TIA – This is Africa” says Leonardo Di Caprio’s character in Blood Diamond, a movie about the insidious diamond trade industry in Africa, where normal rules don’t necessarily apply. There have been many movies recently (Last king of Scotland, Blood Diamond, Hotel Rwanda, err.. 24:Redemption) about the plight of this continent and while the glossed up pretty people version is nice, Hot Docs now presents you with a riveting documentary about the same subject that Hollywood has been trying to educate you about.
Grace, Milly, Lucy..Child Soldiers is a NFB documentary about female child soldiers who were abducted from their families at a young age and forced to become killers, wives and mothers to those in the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebellion force in the conflict in Uganda. All three ladies have left the army and now have formed a support group for other women who have left the rebels as well.
Through a series of interviews, we learn of the hardships that all these women faced in their lives, from their abductions, to their training, to initiations (which involves killing) and to forced marriages with other soldiers. The stories that the women tell are honest and brutal, and to my surprise, the woman’s hardship continues after leaving the rebels as they have to deal with the stigma of having ‘lived in the bush’ from the rest of the people in town.
As a documentary, Grace, Milly, Lucy..Child Soldiers is captivating and informative. Raymonde Provencher brings a new twist to the whole African debacle and it’s definitely worth watching.
Grace, Milly, Lucy… Child Soldiers is playing as a part of Canadian Spectrum for Hot Docs
Wed, May 05 7:30 pm @ The Royal Cinema
Sat, May 08 4:00 pm @ The Royal Cinema
