God Grew Tired Of Us

The film is apparently opening around the country this weekend, but as is typical of matters of a serious note related to Black people, it's hard to figure out where to find it.

It will open in New York City today at the Sunshine Cinema, 143 E. Houston St. between 1st and 2d Avenues (777-FILM, #687).

There's a screening in Washington on Jan. 17; see information below about that and for a further description of the film. One of my earlier postings also deals with this film.

Let's talk.
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God Grew Tired of Us -
Special Preview Screening
Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. (in Washington)

In 2001, John Bul Dau arrived in the United States, ending one incredible journey and beginning another. One of Sudan's "Lost Boys," displaced by a civil war that made refugees of thousands of children, Dau had walked over a thousand miles at the age of 14 to reach a refugee camp in Kenya, dodging ambushes, massacres, and attacks by wild animals along the way. "I have seen the hyenas come at dusk to feed on the bodies of my friends," Dau has written. "I have crossed a crocodile-infested river while being shelled and shot at. I have walked until I thought I could walk no more...Those were the times I thought God had grown tired of us."

In the refugee camp, Dau began his first formal schooling at the age of 18, eventually earning a secondary education degree and becoming a leader in the camp, mentoring and teaching younger refugee children and instilling in them the values of his Dinka culture. He was selected along with a group of Lost Boys to emigrate to the United States, where he began a whole new cultural journey, encountering such things as telephones, appliances, snow, and grocery stores for the first time. Meeting difficulties with the same refusal to despair that had enabled him to survive his escape from war, Dau worked his way through community college, became a human rights activist on behalf of Sudanese refugees, and has established foundations to help other Lost Boys pay for education and other necessities in America. In recognition of his efforts as an aspiring adventurer and visionary, Dau has been selected as a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and has recently been named Director of the Sudan Project at Direct Change.

The experiences of Dau and his fellow Lost Boys, Panther Bior and Daniel Abul Pach, in Sudan, and their later immigration to the United States are recounted in an inspiring new film. God Grew Tired of Us, directed by Christopher Quinn and co-directed by Tommy Walker, is a Newmarket Films presentation of a National Geographic Films and Lost Boys of Sudan Inc. production. Dau has also told his story in a new National Geographic book of the same name. In this special event to mark the release of the book and film, National Geographic Live! will present a screening of the film, followed by a discussion with John Dau and Christopher Quinn. In addition, copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing. Don't miss this chance to meet a truly inspiring hero for our time, and see a powerful cinematic meditation on the durability of the human spirit.

A profile of Dau appears in the January 2007 issue of National Geographic magazine.
Location Tickets
The Grosvenor Auditorium
National Geographic Society Headquarters
1600 M Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
+1 202 857 7700
order tickets

Pricing: (See Ticket Info)
All Tickets $5