Merci Congo [Video]
Publisher: Paul Freedman
Date: 2016
Topics: Conflict Prevention, Extractive Resources
Countries: Congo (DRC)
The ongoing conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has been called the “Deadliest War Since World War Two”. More than five million Congolese have died since 1994 while millions more have been displaced by the violence and chaos plaguing the region.
Merci Congo is an independently produced documentary film that explores the impulse in people who decide to act in the face of moral indignation. Inspired by the story of famed British activist, E.D. Morel, who discovered evidence of forced labor in the Congo and sparked a movement against a Belgian King, Merci Congo highlights several ‘modern Morels’, each personally transformed by the knowledge of human suffering on a grand scale.
An American college student, a Congolese polio survivor, a schoolteacher, a mother, a political activist, the CEO of a major tech firm—each committed to individual causes, large and small. Whether supporting victims of sexual violence or demanding clean water for a city; whether empowering women in remote areas with technology or cutting funds to rebels by changing a business model, each of these activists tells their story of how they are trying to bring peace to this beleaguered nation and, more importantly, why.