Sudan, Remember Us gives a ground-level view of youth uprising, at VIFF Centre to August 22
Street cameras capture the hope and art of young protesters in Khartoum in a revolution the world forgot
Still from Sudan, Remember Us.
Sudan, Remember Us is at the VIFF Centre on August 8, 12, 13, and 22
SUDAN, REMEMBER US OFFERS a rare, ground-level look at the 2019 uprising in Khartoum against the 30-year dictatorship of president Omar al-Bashir.
Never heard of it? You’re not alone: the event barely registered on international news channels.
The new documentary is the result of French-Tunisian-Moroccan filmmaker Hind Meddeb taking her cameras to the streets, where students and other young people are camping out, expressing hope and dreams for democracy, and—most strikingly—engaging in art of every kind as protest: painted works, graffiti, poetry, and endless music, rapping, and singing. The film is a powerful testament to creativity’s role in revolution—and in this rousing second wave of the Arab Spring.
Shooting with her handheld camera, and sometimes even her iPhone, Meddeb continues to film the activists over four years—particularly a strong, articulate group of women who criticize the hypocrisy and corruption of the country’s Islamic fundamentalists. In the most moving scene, one young woman enlists Khartoum’s street children to help paint signs, and swears to care for and feed them long after the revolution.
Of course, anyone even briefly familiar with the recent history of Sudan knows that revolution has not materialized. Amid a complex web of conflict, it now sits in ruins, strangled by civil war. The sit-in itself eventually saw 127 people slaughtered by militias; Sudanese refugees have scattered across the globe, and the world turns its back. And so Meddeb’s documentary ends up capturing a sort of collective loss of innocence, and yet it’s impossible to watch the film and not feel inspired. 
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