Beginning with three college graduates and a camera, Invisible Children has captured national and international attention and set the bar high for what a media-savvy social justice movement should be. Now, the doors opened by the low-budget documentary about child soldiers in Uganda are being propped open permanently by waves of young, independent artists who are seeking to use their talents in conjunction with their passion for social justice.
One of them is Dan Parris, a 23-year-old senior who is graduating from Biola in a little over a week with a degree in cinema and media arts. When the graduation festivities are over and the cap and gown are safely tucked away, Parris and one of his best friends, Rob Lehr, will travel across the United States and halfway around the world to join the movement of fellow, socially-minded artists in making his own documentary with the inflammatory title, “Give a Damn?”
His premise is simple.
“Basically, an idealist activist convinces one of his best friends who doesn’t give a damn about the poor to go to Africa and try and live on a dollar a day,” Parris said.
As the documentary unfolds, it will likely walk the intriguing line between buddy road trip film and social justice message movie. Parris and Lehr have been friends for years, but their paths to the documentary are vastly different. Parris was raised in the church and is anxious to see the average American care about poverty in Africa; Lehr, on the other hand, no longer believes in God and doesn’t feel like the problems of people thousands of miles away matter to him. His motivation to travel to Africa is to see the problems of poverty firsthand before he forms a concrete opinion about his response to them.
It is this dichotomy that Parris feels will elevate the film above more than a soapbox film with an agenda. Yes, the social message of the film is obvious, but Parris hopes that the camaraderie and unique relationship between himself and Lehr will also share the stage and bring a personal element to the story.
“It’s one of the first entertaining documentaries about extreme poverty, and it takes place around two friends on a massive road tripslash-spiritual journey,” Parris said. “Road trips are always fun.”
Parris’ unique journey will begin in his hometown of St. Louis on July 1, after which he will embark on a blitzkrieg of a tour that will see him hopping through major cities such as Atlanta, New York, Dallas, Denver, and Las Vegas, asking expert and average American alike if they truly give a damn.
The two questions the film crew will be arming themselves with are, “What is America’s responsibility to those living in extreme poverty?” and, “What actually works to fight poverty?” Throughout the experience, Parris and Lehr hope to meet with a unique blend of academic experts, activists and ministers, including Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute, and the creators of Invisible Children.
The final leg of the documentary adventure will eventually take Parris and Lehr to Africa to experience firsthand the atrocities against which they are preaching. While there, they will again collect some interviews from experts, but also ask average Africans questions parallel to those posed to their North American brethren. For a week, they will also attempt to live on a dollar a day, so that they can completely experience the impoverishment by which they will find themselves surrounded.
It’s not hard to see the potential of a film with so much personality to it, especially within the context of our current media-hungry society. Parris’ aspirations are aimed high when he contemplates the eventual completion of the film.
“Our tangible goal is Sundance 2010 and to then get worldwide theatrical distribution,” said Parris. “Our intangible goal, however, is to make fighting extreme poverty a priority in American lives.”
To learn more about “Give a Damn?” visit www.giveadamndoc.com.
