Reflection on "The Good Lie" (no underline or italics possible, sorry)

On the evening of September 21, I had the pleasure of attending a GIP event that chronicled and analyzed the fascinating and heart-wrenching story of the Lost Boys and Girls of South Sudan. It began with a screening of The Good Lie, a film that shed light on the difficulties that Lost Boys and Girls had with their adjustment to American culture and society. I won't recap the history of the Sudanese Civil War or the plot of the film here, but I encourage you to google them if you are unfamiliar. I certainly was unfamiliar with their story before the GIP scholars began to study them, and the tragedy of the Lost Boys' and Girls' childhoods was simultaneously shocking and enthralling. Their story reads like a particularly disturbing work of fiction, mostly because it is impossible to imagine that any real human being could subject a person to what they went through, not to mention a child.

After the film, there was a question and answer session with the screenwriter, Margaret Nagle, and Kuoth Wiel, who played Abital. I was a little worried about it, as such sessions are often dominated by questions from faculty or shallow questions from students or simply silence. Happily, it ran smoothly, and I found it very insightful. Although I was unable to ask anything (granted, my handraising was timid at best), all the questions I wanted asked were asked. There were only a couple questions from the faculty. Students' questions were almost unfailingly useful, and there was a good balance drawn between questions on the movie-making process, Kuoth's life story, and the history and current state of political instability in South Sudan. It even offered opportunity for self-reflection. A question about Kuoth's biggest instance of culture shock upon reaching the US, meant to relieve tension, illicited immediately "The snow!" and subsequently a critique of our society's cult of individualism. "Saint Margaret," the Sudanese-American community's name for Ms. Nagle, recounted the emotional reactions of Lost Boys and Girls brought together to review the script. They talked for hours alone then brought Margaret in to ask her, "How did you know?" Margaret knew the facts because she had done her research, about ten years worth, but that was not what they meant. Facts do not a story make. What struck them and me was the empathy and emotional connection conveyed in the script. The final product is astounding in its ability to affect the audience. We Poly students could not be more culturally or geographically separated from the Lost Boys, yet we all in those two hours felt a connection to them only attributable to universal empathy. Such a powerful connection was encouraging, because that is exactly what is needed if we wish to help the Lost Boys and Girls, South Sudan, or, realistically, anyone.

Ms. Nagle left us with a mission, to examine and to monitor the way we treat people. We must actively cultivate an ability to accept and to celebrate our differences. The vitality of this practice in an environment like South Sudan, recovering from a cultural genocide, is unmistakeable, but it is an issue here as well, a fact that is important to be reminded of occasionally, lest we think we have overcome adversity. And I am eager to start or rather to continue in earnest, an attitude attributable to The Good Lie's rare ability to be at once shocking, thought-provoking, entertaining, and inspiring. I fear this first GIP event has set the bar rather high.