Jason Russell, the young filmmaker behind the “Kony 2012” documentary which has garnered over 14 million views on YouTube since it premiered a few days ago, told NBC’s Today Show Friday that he makes no apologies for trying to put a human face on a complex and decades-old conflict.
STORY: The 411 On The #StopKony Movement!
Russell told the Today Show‘s Ann Curry, “We can all agree we can stop him this year and we’re not going to wait,” referring to guerrilla leader Joseph Kony, head of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Russell defended the film from criticism that it hypes and oversimplifies the guerrilla conflict, which has subsided considerably from its height in 2003-2004.
Russell told Curry:
“If that happened in San Diego, California, if that happened in New York City — 200 children abducted and forced to kill their parents … it would be all over the news.”
According to Russell, young people of America turned to the “Stop Kony” movement because they are eager to have a moral cause:
“These are children and young people 25 and younger are saying, ‘Mom, dad, we want you to pay attention to this right now.”
Asked why people should care about Kony in 2012, Russell said:
“I think it’s because it’s a human story. We’re all human beings, and for some reason we forgot about our humanity because of politics and because all these things we’re talking about have paralyzed us.”
Russell’s right, it is a human story and we should all have concern for those who continue to live in places where civil war destroys and separates families.
