2008 Woodie Awards
Student film documents lives of Kenyan youth
Eric Eikmeier '08
Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: Entertainment
The premier of the documentary Chokoraa: The Garbage Eaters was held on campus last Friday.
This poignant film depicts the plight of young homeless people in Dagoretti, Kenya. It was created by Saint Joseph's student Michael Mungai, '09, and filmed by Mark Orrs, '03, over the summer of 2006.
Chokoraa was created on a budget of only $15,000 over the course of two years. It is centered around the stories of some of the young people forced to live on the streets of Kenya, and the efforts of an organization, Dagoretti 4 Kids, to help them.
Scenes alternate between the squalor of the Dagoretti market and interview sessions with Mungai, who is one of the founders of Dagoretti 4 Kids. According to Mungai, the documentary was created to both educate and fundraise.
Chokoraa opened with a heavily accented man saying, "An idle man is an angry man, and a hungry man is a crazy man," which set the tone for much of the film as the audience meets various members of this community.
The first scenes showed the camaraderie that exists between the individuals that find themselves in this situation. Later scenes show how they earn a little money, the addiction to huffing glue that many suffer from, and the poverty that they experience daily.
Some of the members of this community are Peter, an older street dweller who is looked up to as a big brother, Margaret, a young woman with an infant child, Kabro, a 13-year-old victim of abuse who wishes to attend school, and Kingpin, the local drug dealer.
Surprisingly, Kingpin stole the show, as the film effectively exposed his desperation and suffering. The viewers quickly see that he has been forced into his situation as the street orphans themselves have. In a particularly moving scene, Kingpin weeps openly to Mungai while pleading for assistance for bettering his situation.
Where this documentary departs from convention is in the interaction between Mungai and the subjects in the film. In many documentaries, the film crew attempts to maintain a level of distance between themselves and the people they are filming. This norm was shattered as Mungai appears on camera interacting with everyone. This unique perspective creates a heightened sense of closeness and really helped the audience see the humanity in the people they were being introduced to.
This poignant film depicts the plight of young homeless people in Dagoretti, Kenya. It was created by Saint Joseph's student Michael Mungai, '09, and filmed by Mark Orrs, '03, over the summer of 2006.
Chokoraa was created on a budget of only $15,000 over the course of two years. It is centered around the stories of some of the young people forced to live on the streets of Kenya, and the efforts of an organization, Dagoretti 4 Kids, to help them.
Scenes alternate between the squalor of the Dagoretti market and interview sessions with Mungai, who is one of the founders of Dagoretti 4 Kids. According to Mungai, the documentary was created to both educate and fundraise.
Chokoraa opened with a heavily accented man saying, "An idle man is an angry man, and a hungry man is a crazy man," which set the tone for much of the film as the audience meets various members of this community.
The first scenes showed the camaraderie that exists between the individuals that find themselves in this situation. Later scenes show how they earn a little money, the addiction to huffing glue that many suffer from, and the poverty that they experience daily.
Some of the members of this community are Peter, an older street dweller who is looked up to as a big brother, Margaret, a young woman with an infant child, Kabro, a 13-year-old victim of abuse who wishes to attend school, and Kingpin, the local drug dealer.
Surprisingly, Kingpin stole the show, as the film effectively exposed his desperation and suffering. The viewers quickly see that he has been forced into his situation as the street orphans themselves have. In a particularly moving scene, Kingpin weeps openly to Mungai while pleading for assistance for bettering his situation.
Where this documentary departs from convention is in the interaction between Mungai and the subjects in the film. In many documentaries, the film crew attempts to maintain a level of distance between themselves and the people they are filming. This norm was shattered as Mungai appears on camera interacting with everyone. This unique perspective creates a heightened sense of closeness and really helped the audience see the humanity in the people they were being introduced to.
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