So They Don't Have To Live Like Refugees

To build on, extend, and augment (not to mention enhance) this week's thematic variation on Disaster Movies, Seattlest alerts you to a documentary on the ongoing refugee crisis in Darfur.

About this time last year, three intrepid documentarians spent three weeks in Chad and Sudan, filming as much as possible in the refugee camps before their batteries ran out. Their focus was on the life of the children in the camps, and it wasn't too hard to get footage of that, as most of the camps are around 80% women and children. They began with a camp near Iriba, Chad, named Iridimi (pop. 15,000) and traveled into Darfur, into areas controlled by the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).

One of the filmmakers, Jen Marlowe, was the artistic director of Two Roads Theatre Ensemble, a Seattle theater outreach education company. She's since been working in youth conflict resolution, coordinating programs for Israeli and Palestinian kids who've yet to internalize the lessons of "Ebony and Ivory."

"Darfur Diaries: Message From Home" is being shown this Thursday at 7pm, at Holy Names Academy Auditorium on Capitol Hill (728 21st Ave. E.) There's a suggested $5 donation to benefit Doctors Without Borders (though Seattlest prefers to call them Medecins san frontieres). You don't have to be Catholic to get in, and no "surprise" baptisms are planned.