Salute; captivating documentary film recounting the 1968 olympics and the renowned Black Power Salute. The film discusses the aftermath- the death threats and abuse following the athletes return. Director, Matt Norman. 

(Released 13th July, 2012, review to come)

What happened to Kony 2012? Oh no. The $2.2 million Invisible Children viral campaign really failed. Kony wasn’t on the front of every national newspaper and he wasn’t the talk of every dinner table. It did little, other than bringing a name to the global north through a negative media constructed image of Africa. 

Aimed at the cynical youth (those who acknowledge viral videos), remaining uninformed and accepting only of the apparent backwards, hungry and poverty stricken continent. Brainwashed into believing that Africa can only be rescued through western intervention, it’s them, the bourgeois American adolescence who naively feel they can improve world welfare through their hashtagging and liking.

The plan backfired. It was the wrong approach. The wrong targets. The video lacked context, disempowered Uganda and dismissed the country’s previous actions. How can children be saved through the use of military forces against them? For people of Western Africa, it represents Africa as savage, and America as noble. For those who suffered, it brought back fearful emotions and torturous memories they hoped to forget.

Kony 2012 illustrates the persistency of American attitudes towards Africa and it’s people. This is 2012’s interpretation of Said’s ‘Orientalism’ and in a globalised world, it was cruel.