The Lost Boys of Sudan

Movie: The Lost Boys of Sudan

Documentary by: Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk

In the documentary, The Lost Boys of Sudan, camera crews follow two young Sudanese boys named Santino and Peter. They both are selected to go to America to study and work to send money home to Sudan. They arrive in the United States and are given residency in Houston, Texas. Both Santino and Peter become the leaders of the group living together in their apartment, but Peter soon leaves for Kansas to be on his own, leaving Santino in charge of the others. Both continue to work hard. Peter graduates from high school with high academic honors, and Santino becomes an electrician through correspondence classes. The movie follows their different hardships in adapting to the new culture and gives insight to the views the Sudanese boys have on living in America. I thought that it was interesting how the goals of the "lost boys" changed throughout the movie. After being in the United States for a short period of time, they lost interest in continuing customs that would be considered normal in Sudan. The situation arose out of something as simple as a man holding another man's hand, something commonplace in Sudan. The displayed a blatant shift in mindset by saying, "We are in America. We will act like Americans." I also thought it was interesting to see how self-centered Peter became throughout the documentary. The reason he was sent to America was to be educated and to send money back home. He left Santino in charge of the rest of their group in order to better his own life. Instead of worrying about sending money back home, he worried about making the basketball team. In a conversation with his sister, he lied saying he was unable to send money to help, and that it was too difficult to call because he spent all his time studying, all while laying around watching television. Another aspect I found interesting is the slight degree of racism towards African-Americans from the Sudanese. Early in the film, an elder warns the boys not to act like the black people in America, who are the cause of a lot of trouble in the United States. In another instance, one of the boys berates blacks and says that they are all violent, bad people. I think that this is a direct result of American media, and the glorification of life like rap and hip hop stars. It portrays blacks as thugs, drug dealers, and criminals; It even gives Africans a sense that they will be discriminated against not only for being immigrants, but because blacks in general are discriminated against because of their lifestyles. It was also interesting to see the boys dissatisfaction with the system put in place for their education. Santino talked about how difficult it was to do well with education because the system he was involved with seemed to put more emphasis on working to boost the US economy than it did to educate immigrants. I think that if the United States is putting the effort to educate immigrants so that they can become productive members of their own society and help their home nation, rather than just be a brain drain.