MTV and MTV-U will air a student-filmed documentary on the Darfur crisis March 12 featuring Nate Wright (COL ’06), who helped found a campus advocacy group to aid those affected by the humanitarian disaster and traveled to the Darfur region last year to witness the destruction.
The film, entitled “Translating Genocide: Three Students Journey to Sudan,” documents the experiences of victims, aid workers and college-age Sudanese through interviews with Wright and two other students.
Wright was joined on the trip by Stephanie Nyombayire, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide and junior at Swarthmore College, and Andrew Karlsruher, a filmmaker and sophomore at Boston University. Two ex-British Special Forces members also traveled with the students.
“I am very privileged to have had the opportunity to create this documentary, but unfortunately the opportunity came from a situation that should have never existed,” Wright said.
Ross Martin, the film’s executive producer and head of programming at MTV-U said he hopes that the documentary and related programs will cause students to “make noise and spread awareness.”
“Write a letter, donate to any number of relief organizations or simply tell everyone you know,” Martin said. “Whatever you do, you can do something and you can’t do nothing.”
Alongside the documentary’s debut, MTV-U will feature a full day of programming related to the Sudan crisis. Public service announcements and special CBS News reports will be interspersed with profiles of student activists, socially-conscious music videos, and programming from MTV Base Africa.
Wright, who formed the advocacy group Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, said he was inspired by Bishop Macram Gassis of Southern Sudan and Darfur, who visited Georgetown in the summer of 2004. The following fall, Wright organized a group of students to raise awareness and relief funds and to pressure for a political response to the Darfur crisis.
The three students traveled with green “SAVE DARFUR” bracelets, which they gave to refugees as a symbol of their commitment to ending the Darfur crisis.
Wright said that since his visit to Eastern Chad in 2004, the situation has worsened. The Janjaweed have begun targeting many of the camps he walked through, further displacing many of the refugees, he said.
“When people watch the documentary, I hope they realize that the lives of the people they see hang in the balance,” Wright said.
Since its creation, STAND has partnered with the Holocaust Museum to initiate STAND chapters at other schools. Nearly 400 students from almost 100 schools attended the February 2005 STAND conference.
MTV is scheduled to air the documentary at 11 a.m. on March 12.