God Grew Tired of Us

God Grew Tired of Us is a documentary about the Lost Boys from Sudan, who are living in a refugee camp in Kenya. It follows three of the Lost Boy’s journeys from Sudan to Kenya and then to the US, where they try and adapt to life and the completely new culture. They find jobs and get an education and try and help those who weren't able to leave the refugee camp. It shows their struggles trying to earn money and then send that money to those friends who have next to nothing.

This documentary really made me think about my life and what I have and what I take for granted. One of the boys in the film talks about watching his father be killed. I can't even imagine what that would be like. When the Lost Boys come to America, they don't even know how to use a light switch, something I completely take for granted. Everything we have here was completely foreign to them. It’s amazing how small minded we can be. Nobody consciously assumes that every human being has a natural instinct for the function of a light switch, and yet the assumption is there in the back of our minds. But really, what use is a light switch in a refugee camp when there are periods of time when they don’t even have food? They’re not occupied with having light long enough to read the various textbooks we have for school. They’re worrying about surviving from day to day and whether their families’ which they were separated from are surviving. This film completely opened my mind to these new things.

There are many ways in which this film was persuasive. It uses pathos very strongly. There are images and sounds and experiences that are recounted that really call to your emotions. When you see how much the Lost Boys have become one family and their great love for one another and how much those who have come to America miss that connection, you have to feel something. When they talk about their families and how they have no idea whether they’re alive or dead, you just want to help them and comfort them. When you see the pictures of boys arriving in the refugee camp after their long trek without food and water and how they literally look like skeletons with skin, you just feel awful.

There is also a lot of ethos in this film. The Lost Boys who they are following experienced everything they’re talking about. It’s all first hand. They lived through the killing and destruction of their villages, they walked the long walk to the refugee camp and they felt the helplessness of living in a refugee camp. They have credibility and authority on the subject because the subject is their lives.

This film was eye opening. It was mind boggling. It was really an inspirational film. I would definitely recommend watching it and not just watching it, but thinking about it and remembering it.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/294405 Here is the link to the film. You can watch it free on hulu.