I saw the movie last night at a screening hosted by Artists for Amnesty International at the United Nations. It was an emotionally moving and raw account of a boy's life in a horrific place at a horrific time and hopefully brings spotlight to the plight of hundreds of thousands more children who are in a similar fate today in many parts of our world.
The movie makes you ask yourself how man can treat its own offspring in such a callous and cold manner. We were fortunate enough to have Oscar Orlando Torres, whose story is being told, present at the screening along with the director,Luis Mandoki, Larry Bender (Producer) and the rest of the cast. A Q/A session followed the screening and Oscar said something that I think is extremely important and casts light on another issue in this country, the power of teachers to influence students. He said that after he escaped El Salvador and settled in Los Angeles, he began to drift towards the gangs that were forming in the early 1980's in LA, many of whom were filled with teenagers who were from El Salvador and had lived through what Oscar had. Had it no been for a teacher who cared about him and was strong enough to literally pull Oscar from the life of a gang-member, take him to the track and field coach to get him involved in sports and also help him to explore his liking for poetry, his life may have been much different today.
One other issue that this movie leads you to explore is our inability to counsel and rehabilitate these children who have been through more as a child emotionally in their tattered youth than most go through in their lifetime. When governments are finally pressured into taking action and rescuing these children from their plight, we leave them to fix their battered bodies and souls by themselves.
I thought this movie told the story about a child and his family during a horrific time in El Salvador's history and brought to the forefront a several current global problems that many have chosen to ignore. I hope it will act as a catalyst to spawn further discussion and focus attention on our most precious gift in life, our children. I admire Oscar for his bravery and willingness to relive something most of us would sooner bury and forget and congratulate Luis Mandoki for doing it with such care and sensitivity.
The movie makes you ask yourself how man can treat its own offspring in such a callous and cold manner. We were fortunate enough to have Oscar Orlando Torres, whose story is being told, present at the screening along with the director,Luis Mandoki, Larry Bender (Producer) and the rest of the cast. A Q/A session followed the screening and Oscar said something that I think is extremely important and casts light on another issue in this country, the power of teachers to influence students. He said that after he escaped El Salvador and settled in Los Angeles, he began to drift towards the gangs that were forming in the early 1980's in LA, many of whom were filled with teenagers who were from El Salvador and had lived through what Oscar had. Had it no been for a teacher who cared about him and was strong enough to literally pull Oscar from the life of a gang-member, take him to the track and field coach to get him involved in sports and also help him to explore his liking for poetry, his life may have been much different today.
One other issue that this movie leads you to explore is our inability to counsel and rehabilitate these children who have been through more as a child emotionally in their tattered youth than most go through in their lifetime. When governments are finally pressured into taking action and rescuing these children from their plight, we leave them to fix their battered bodies and souls by themselves.
I thought this movie told the story about a child and his family during a horrific time in El Salvador's history and brought to the forefront a several current global problems that many have chosen to ignore. I hope it will act as a catalyst to spawn further discussion and focus attention on our most precious gift in life, our children. I admire Oscar for his bravery and willingness to relive something most of us would sooner bury and forget and congratulate Luis Mandoki for doing it with such care and sensitivity.