'God Grew Tired of Us'
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A young man named John Bul Dau provides the title to the documentary "God Grew Tired of Us" and one of its most heart-wrenching moments.
National Geographic Films/NewmarketRegarding doughnuts with sprinkles, the "Lost Boys" wonder: "Is this a food?"
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'God Grew Tired of Us'
Narrator: Nicole Kidman.Directors: Christopher Quinn, Tommy Walker.Rating: PG for thematic elements and some disturbing images.Opens Friday at the Regent Square Theater, Edgewood.
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Two of the 'Lost Boys' make a new life in PittsburghMore information about the Sudanese Lost Boys and other refugees is available at the Web sites www.godgrewtiredofus.com, www.onekidoneworld.org and www.ccpgh.org.
At age 13, he was one of the oldest "Lost Boys" of Sudan and certainly one of the tallest. That meant he became a leader by default but, in fact, his maturity and sense of duty might have made him a leader no matter what.
He was in charge of 1,200 other boys, orphaned or hopelessly separated from their decimated families, and he shepherded them through life and death. "I learned how to bury the dead bodies. That was part of my job. I have to go and bury my fellow brothers," he says.
"Imagine at the age of 13. ... It was so bad."
And yet he did it, never shucking his sense of responsibility once he left a United Nations refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya, and settled in Syracuse, N.Y. Two other remarkable young men, Daniel Pach and Panther Bior, landed in Pittsburgh, where they, too, proved the human spirit can be remarkably resilient.
Immigrant stories form the foundation of America, but the Lost Boys were just 3 to 13 when orphaned by a civil war and forced to flee their villages on foot through the desert. They encountered famine, dehydration, disease, hyenas, lions and rebel soldiers; they had only each other, and they never forgot that.
John, Daniel and Panther took a distant spot on a world map and made it home. Arriving in cities where everything was foreign, from refrigerators and alarm clocks to doughnuts with sprinkles ("Is this a food?"), potato chips and Downtown bus stops, they carved out lives.
Although Daniel and Panther once wondered how they would become acquainted with the ways of Pittsburgh, they learned to field questions about their homeland, to juggle jobs, bus schedules and college classes and to become accustomed to a culture where a group of young men entering a store together is seen as intimidation rather than a sign of a makeshift family.
Hearing narrator Nicole Kidman say that merchants filed complaints with the police over this makes you embarrassed to be a Pittsburgher. After all, the boys once had traveled in a line that stretched for miles. They were bound, as if by an invisible rope, as much as mountain climbers are lashed together for protection.
"God Grew Tired," directed by Christopher Quinn and Tommy Walker, was years in the making. It started with a trip to a Kenyan refugee camp in 2001 -- they were drawn first to Daniel, who created something called "Parliament" and entertained the others -- and the filmmakers accompanied the young men to America.
They spent the next four years visiting Syracuse and Pittsburgh, and the movie documents the men's assimilation and milestones, such as marriage plans, unexpected family reunions, new jobs and, briefly, efforts to improve life in Africa.
In August 2004, Pittsburgh Filmmakers booked another movie called "Lost Boys of Sudan." The subject is the same, but not the subjects. As with stories of Holocaust survivors or World War II veterans or Ellis Island arrivals, they are all different.
That it takes a lesson about the aftermath of a distant civil war and brings it to Pittsburgh simply makes it all that richer. It addresses a complicated chapter of world history, and it shows us the faces of sorrow, survival, second chances ... and inspiration.
First Published February 8, 2007 12:00 am
