Invisible Touch

There is nothing better than a great movie.

A movie that captures every emotion in your food chain.

Blazing Saddles made me laugh like I had never laughed before.

I cried when Goose died in Top Gun.

The twists and turns of No Way Out shocked me.

And Silence of the Lambs.

It still scares the fava beans out of me.

The key to a great movie is seeing a good movie before you know anything about it.

Exhibit A -- The Crying Game.

I saw it the day AFTER someone told me about the big, well no so big, surprise.

Needless to say, I was not surprised.

There really is nothing better than watching a movie that grabs you.

And shakes you.

And brings out an emotion in you.

Any emotion.

That’s what happened to me last week.

It was a film I had never seen before.

In fact, I had never heard of it.

And knew nothing about it.

But it was a film I will never forget.

It’s called Tony.

It was produced by a group called Invisible Children.

A group, I am ashamed to admit, I had never heard of until I sat down in that chair.

It’s more documentary than movie.

And it was more real than any reality show.

It left me speechless.

And that says a lot.

I’ve been trying to write this blog for four days, but I couldn’t find the words.

The right words.

But here goes.

Long story short, it’s the story, the true story, of a group of college-age boys from the United States.

Looking for a direction in life.

So they headed to Africa about ten years ago.

On a whim.

To see how the other half lives.

They visited a village in Northern Uganda where they learned about life.

And death.

We’ve all seen the pictures before.

But there was something different about this.

At least for me.

Maybe it was how normal these American kids appeared.

Or maybe it was how normal these African kids appeared.

But for about 45 minutes I was in a coma.

I didn’t move.

I just stared at the screen.

I’m not even sure I was breathing.

The basic story was about how a terrorist group called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) swept through Uganda killing anything in its way.

As it was explained in the film, the LRA consists of a group of soldiers who are abducted and brainwashed into becoming soldiers.

Only these soldiers are no soldiers.

They are children.

Young children.

Tony was one of the lucky ones.

If you call his life lucky.

The heartbreak he has endured during his short time on this earth is enough to break anybody’s heart.

And spirit.

But not his.

Somehow he avoided the LRA during their sweep through his country.

As did Angwech Collines.

Thankfully she stayed out of harm’s way as well.

Her cousin was not as fortunate.

Collines told the story of how her cousin was taken away.

And turned into a killer.

Fortunately, her cousin was eventually able to escape from the LRA.

But not before damage had been done.

Collines story was one of many that made this film a must see.

For me.

And for the children.

The not so Invisible 100 or so Middle School children I watched the film with.

Invisible Children makes these films and takes these films to schools around the United States.

Exposing our kids to a life they couldn’t even comprehend.

A life I couldn’t comprehend.

The film had all the drama you would ever want from a movie.

The only difference is that this was all true.

No Hollywood ending here.

No riding off into the sunset.

No sunset.

By the end of the film, life had been sucked out of me.

I was literally in tears.

But this experience was far from over.

In fact, when the film ended, a young girl picked up a microphone and stepped to the front of the room.

This young girl was Collines.

The girl we had just seen in the film.

She was in the U.S. for the first time, here to talk about the work of the Invisible Children.

Here to talk about how this group has changed her life.

And has changed her country.

For 20 minutes, she fielded questions from the audience.

An audience of children.

They asked about her cousin.

About her country.

About her dreams.

They asked her why.

And who.

And what.

And where.

And she answered every question.

And when she was done, several kids went up to her.

And gave her a hug.

A moment that can only happen in the movies.