The Power of the Pump

Last night King called me to tell me that one of his cousins in South Sudan contacted him to tell him the Northern Arab militia is again setting fire to the villages in the South. When his People flee, they capture them and "slice their throats like goats".  King said, "Valerie, we must do something." "Do something" reverberated in my head over and over. I am not a political leader with influence. I am not a diplomat with opportunities to meet with dignitaries. I am a filmmaker. That is my voice; that is my sphere of influence. But if no one sees this film, if we don't raise the funds to finish the project, I have failed King.

The genocide is about oil. We support South Sudan. China supports northern Sudan. China owns our debt. Hmmm. The oil is under the soil in the South; the pipelines empty out in the North. The government in the North won't pay the government in the South a fraction of what the commodity is worth per barrel. The government in the South turns off the flow. The government in the North goes and kills King's People, innocent villagers living peacefully in huts that don't use gas or oil or anything made from it. They are nowhere near a city. They have no electricity, no cars. They make fire rubbing two sticks together to cook their meager meals. Real old school. Live caveman oldschool.

We buy gas without a care in the world. And everytime we do, we are part of the problem. I am no hippie, I assure you, and I have no interest in rubbing two sticks together in order to eat. But there has to be better way than murdering innocent people to get a good value at the pump. Ya think? Would we take a stand if every time we filled up our SUVs we had to watch a villager have their throat slit after we swiped our credit card before the gas was released from the pump? I think so.

And that is why I want this film to be seen by the world, because if consumers knew, they would demand change. The power of the consumer is the most powerful voice we have. Blood diamonds. When we were educated about those atrocities, sales declined dramatically and now we hear the phrase "conflict free diamonds" when we shop for engagement rings in addition to the four C's. We don't "need" diamonds and we do need gas but this nonetheless demonstrates the power of the voice of the consumer. We have the power to make the same change here. King is the voice of his People; I am his voice through film; you are our collective voice to your network to support this important film.

King and I implore you to share this powerful message.

$1 for each child that runs today

Today 1,000 newly orphaned South Sudan children will run from tyranny starving, dehydrated with only grass in their tummies to refugees camps to be interred indefinitely as the brutal conflict over oil continues in their homeland creating a new generation of Lost Boys and Girls. 28 family members  of Olympic marathoner Guor Marial were killed in the war when he was a boy in what is today South Sudan and he was one of those little Lost Boys like King Deng in the refugee camp. Guor has run and walked a lifetime and now these new Lost Children will endure every bit of the hardship he did.  They have experienced a depth of tragedy only their tribal brothers and sisters can understand.

But we have a choice--to hear their cries this time before tomorrow comes and another 1,000 orphans wander to this same destiny. We can do something. We can support King Deng in his dream of telling his story for the world to hear because seemingly, we have not or there would not be a new generation of Lost Children. Guor still awaits his visa to travel to London to run as an independent without a country under the Olympic flag yet the Visa commercial narrated by Morgan Freeman plays on to tug at our heartstrings to entice us to watch the coverage. Is sitting in our comfortable, air conditioned living rooms all we can do? I think not and I know not.

Guor is running for so much more than a race. He is running for freedom. He is running for the solidarity of his newly formed nation. He is running for his family. He is running for the new Lost Boys and Girls. He is running for his King. And he is running for Muturo, the word for God in his native language.

His family that remains in war-torn South Sudan will trek 40 miles one way to the one television there is to watch Guor run in the Olympics. When will this journey end? King Deng says it can end today. He believes with his entire being that peace will reign in his country. If we hear his story and message through our film, it can end.

Please send this YouTube link of the trailer for the film to your friends, followers and family: King Deng, The Original Lost Boy of Sudan. I believe if humanity really knew the devastation King and his people have been through, they would want an end to it immediately.

In order for King to return to his homeland and for us to film it, we must raise $1,000 each day for the next 49 days through our Kickstarter fundraising website, the funding platform Robert Redford created through the Sundance Film Festival. As you can imagine, to be selected by this highly prestigious organization is quite competitive. And they chose my project.

If you do the math, that's $1 per child each day. Sure we can do that...