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The full story of blood diamonds in pages
Essays on blood diamonds
Civil war in sierra leone
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Recommended: The full story of blood diamonds in pages
In 1991 there was a war that broke out in Sierra Leone. This war was known as the civil war. No one acted upon the blood diamond issue until sixteen years later when a Hollywood movie came to light called Blood Diamond. We all sat in a movie theatre and watched how we did nothing about the horrible disaster. We hung out in our seats and laid back to watch our visions and ethic be streamlined by dialogue, cinematography and the act of men and woman in addition, the ideal perfect clip edit or sound lead. A random person takes the action to create and orchestrate a certain exposure of Africa creating a piece of entertainment on an enormous issue in an ungodly manner. With no reason or purpose we see a film believing the accuracy it imposes …show more content…
The feature film is made in the time of 1999 in Sierra Leone in the course of the chaos of a civil war that was sustained by the competition in the period of the diamond trade. Solomon Vandy a vital character acted by Djimon Hounsou is a Mende fisherman who had been on a expedition to look for his son who had been kidnapped (Dia) and later the rebel army ravaged their village. Danny Archer, another vital character acted by award winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio, was created as a crooked diamond pirate who committed him self to help Solomon search for his son if he gave the pink diamond to him. The plan to find Dia as well as the diamond they both had to travel to and from many cities and forests while doing their best to get through the war that was going on with the government army and the rebels. In all, the feature Hollywood film Blood Diamond becomes a grotesque array of carnage and bloodshed as Danny Archer and Solomon Vandy pursue their most important …show more content…
Also the high publicity of the Hollywood film Blood Diamond and the influences it carries like the celebrity status and high value for advertisement. Though, the human disaster is over casted by spontaneous disturbances, and an underscore on impractical sub-plots and irregular cast development. The comparison to reality shows out in some form. The film Blood Diamond does not focus much on the reality of how miners are affected physically and psychologically. The audience views part real and part fiction of what really goes on in the diamond trade set in Sierra Leone. It is a sad fact that the Hollywood film received more publicity then the actual ongoing issues of the blood diamond trade (some personally
Congo was an astounding bestseller novel. It was a great fictional novel that took place in the depths of the Congo rainforest. The novel was later made into a movie. Both the novel and the movie were good, however, I prefer the novel. It just seemed like a more entertaining piece than the movie. This movie was based much upon the novel, but had many alternatives and a completely different ending than the novel.
Think about how your life was when you were ten. For most people, the only worries were whether you finished your homework and if you’ve been recently updated for new games. Unfortunately, in Sierra Leone, kids at the age of ten were worried about if that day was the only day they’d be able to breathe. The cause of one of this devastating outcome is Sierra Leone’s Civil War. This war was a long bloody fight that took many lives and hopes of children and families.
How does the documentary contradict, support, and clarify, etc. your understanding of contemporary African culture, history and politics?
In today's day and age, it's rare to see famous historical events and societal disasters not be picked apart by film directors and then transformed into a box office hit. What these films do is put a visual perspective on these events, sometimes leaving viewers speculating if whatever was depicted is in fact entirely true. I have never felt that feeling more than after I finished watching Oliver Stone’s JFK.
This documentary as nominated for the Best Feature Documentary Academy Award. It showed the world the actual crimes and events that were happening in society that otherwise would have been overlooked after the initial shock. The moral, values and importance of these events being spread by mass communication can lead to awareness and hopefully avoidance of familiar events in the
While Price does make a persuasive argument I cannot agree with the theme of his commentary. I have been a fervent viewer of television and films for years on end. Admittedly, much of what I watch on television qualifies as escapism or mere entertainment. I do not have a high degree of respect for the medium; however my love and admiration of film is intense. One could easily dismiss movies as superficial, unnecessarily violent spectacles, although such a viewpoint is distressingly pessimistic and myopic. In a given year, several films are released which have long-lasting effects on large numbers of individuals. These pictures speak to us as people and convey messages that are timely and timeless. Words are powerful, but visual images are overwhelming.
The Sierra Leone Civil War was a savage conflict that would rage for over a decade, claiming the lives of 300,000 and displacing 2.5 million civilians. The Bite of the Mango and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier are firsthand accounts of children affected by the war. Mariatu Kamara had her hands severed and was left for dead. Ishmael Beah was conscripted by the government army to fight the rebel forces. Ishmael and Mariatu were both victims of the bloody Sierra Leone civil war, however their journeys to safety were vastly different.
The controversial artist Kanye West has always attempted to make known what he thinks, no matter if he has to be disrespectful or graphic in his illustrations of said topic. So it wasn't a real surprise when he chose to focus his energy into reveling to the American public horrors happening that had a direct connection with the beloved diamond stone. West's 2005 music video “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” shows the corrupted underground diamond trade in the African country, Sierra Leone. From this groundbreaking video, West showed the devastated lives those who worked on the mining rivers live. However upon further investigation into the issue of diamond workers in Sierra Leone there emerged the true source of the situation, a violent conflict between the government and rebel leaders. Due to this conflict the entire country was thrown on a downward spiral. This downward spiral eventually resulted in the people longing for the conflict to stop and for the country to come together as one again. The people of Sierra Leone want to forget about the events that transpired during their civil war, however the more we look and attempt to learn from what happened, the better we set ourselves up for the future. West's video only depicts one side of a multifaceted struggle of the diamonds in Sierra Leone, however from this one side the public is encouraged to research more into the conflict themselves and uncover the truth behind the diamonds that we so desperately love.
There are certain groups of people that cause these events to happen. Because of them, there are people living in denial and people that are being ostracized every day. They do this because they are afraid that if they do not go along with what the majority does, their will be reprisal. Everyone wants to believe that people are basically good at nature. But with the events that occurred in the film, it is easy to see that people are easily influenced and would rather go along with the group than stand out and make a difference.
As a viewer, the documentary’s intention to inform is more completely fulfilled by research conducted beyond the scope of the camera lens. Had I never written this paper, for instance, the reason for all the violence embedded within the subject matter would remain as enigmatic as the documentary itself.
The importance of ethics when making a film is paramount. They exist in the filmmaking world to “govern the conduct [because] no hard and fast rules suffice, (Nichols, 2001). As Bill Nichols has argued, the essential question to consider when making a documentary is “How Should We Treat the People We Film (Nichols, 2001)?” The welfare of the people who participate in the film is vital to recognise because they are “cultural players rather than theatrical performers, (Nichols, 2001)”, they are conveying is real life according to them. Each of their movements and words are not scripted, and are real. A filmmaker is documenting their actual lives because they believe that the value lies in presenting something of interest to themselves and to its audience. It is because of this reality that the issue is much more important because it “adds a level of ethical consideration to documentary that is much less prominent in fiction filmmaking, (Nichols, 2001).” People are portraying their real selves and are not masked by a personality that has been asked of them to depict by a director. What must also be considered is how attending to the ethics of filmmaking is the benefits that it holds for the filmmakers and the audience. “Ethica...
The film marker is trying to raise awareness of the illicit conflict diamond trade and reinforcing the Kimberley process1 and showing how it will stem the flow of conflict diamonds. This is successful mainly due to the public outburst after the movie. The great impact of the movie has caused diamond companies like De Beers2 to start a pre-emptive PR (public relationship) campaign, even before the movie was released to inform people that their diamonds are conflict-free.
The Cold War is commonly viewed as a conflict involving the US and Soviet Union. However, the Unites States and Soviet Union were not the only two countries fighting this war. Among other countries, Congo was a very important proxy conflict during the Cold War between 1960 and 1965. The Congo is a vital place in the world to study, understand and pay attention to. “The Congo crisis was a proxy conflict in the Cold War due to the support of the Soviet Union and United States in opposing parties.”
Over a period from 1960-1965, the first Republic of the Congo experienced a period of serious crisis. There was a terrible war for power that displayed senseless violence and the desperation to rule. There were many internal conflicts among the people. The country eventually gained independence from Belgium. For many countries this would be a time for celebration. Unfortunately for the people of the Congo this became a time to forget. Almost immediately after independence and the general elections, the country went into civil war. Major developed cities like Katanga and Kasai wanted to be independent from the Lumumba government. Different factions started to fight the government and Katanga and Kasai tried to secede from the rest of the country out of fear of the mutinous army that was out of control looting and killing.
After Sierre Leone gained independence from Britain in 1961 and created their government, known as the All People’s Congress, a decade-long Civil War had followed immediately after. Due to the frustrations of a corrupt government the rebel group, Revolutionary United Front, was formed to overthrow the government resulting in a decade-long war that was not concluded until 1999. During the civil war, rape was used as a tool of war and many soldiers and authorities of higher power would rape women and even child. Mainly groups such as the RUF would violate human rights and perform personal abuse and sexual violence. Different forms of sexual assault includes rape, gang-rape, and the abduction of girls and women for forced labor and sexual slavery.