Batavia girls featured in TV film on Darfur

Paul Freedman has screened his documentary "Sand and Sorrow" all over the world.

The film about human rights violations and genocide in Darfur, Sudan, has names like George Clooney, Elie Wiesel and Barack Obama associated with it.

But when people talk to Freedman about the film -- which will premiere on HBO next month -- they usually want to talk about Batavia's Riley and Hannah MacDonald.

"The first thing about 95 percent of people say is, 'Where did you find those girls? Those girls are amazing,' " he said.

Two years ago, when Riley was a student at Batavia High School and Hannah was a student at Rotolo Middle School, the two put together a day of activities to teach the community about genocide in Rwanda and Sudan.

They had already talked to classes at the middle school and had several Rwandan refugees come to the high school to tell their stories. That night, they held a candlelight vigil for victims of genocide, and a presentation drew almost 1,000 community members.

Freedman, a second cousin of the sisters, was there to film it. He originally didn't know if it would be in his film at all.

But he ultimately decided on a structure that kept coming back to the girls during their journey to learn more about the topic and push for change.

"To show somebody 90 minutes of human rights atrocities is unwatchable," he said. "I wanted to add a message of hope."

That came from the MacDonald sisters, who were inspired to start educating people about genocide after watching one of Freedman's earlier films about Rwanda.

"We were pretty profoundly affected, and I think we felt like we had no choice but to do something," said Riley, now a sophomore at Augustana College.

The majority of the film focuses on the Darfur region of Sudan and the ethnic conflict that has resulted in the deaths of about 400,000 people since 2003. Filmmakers talked to some of the 2.5 million people who have been displaced from their homes in fear of the Janjaweed army, which activists say is being financed by the Sudanese government.

Freedman aims to draw parallels between the Darfur conflict and the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the Holocaust, and other ethnic and religious conflicts, and especially the similar slow international response to such conflicts, he said.

"I want people to learn from the past," Hannah said. "These are our brothers and sisters. If we were in trouble, we would want them to help us."

The film is narrated by George Clooney and includes interviews with Elie Wiesel, Barack Obama and John Prendergast.

The sisters attended a screening for the film of nearly 1,000 people in New York last year and were surprised at how much people were interested in their work.

When Freedman introduced them at the end of the film, they received a 30-second standing ovation.

"It's amazing to see what one little town in Illinois can do," said Hannah, now a junior at the high school. "It really shows you that one person can make a difference."

The film will air on HBO for the first time at 7 p.m. Dec. 6 and then air several more times throughout the month.

While adults often see the politics of such a situation, young people often see it as simply an issue of right and wrong, Freedman said. That's why he thinks the sisters' message is so effective.

"People are really affected by Riley and Hannah," he said. "I'm so proud of their unflagging belief and conviction that what they're doing is right."

The girls have continued working for social causes. Hannah helped start the Unity club at the high school, and Riley is active with Amnesty International at college.

And although they've gotten lots of encouragement and compliments from people they don't even know, the best part of the film being shown on TV is that their message can reach a larger audience, the sisters said.

"It isn't about what me and Hannah did," Riley said. "It's, 'Here's something these people did, and you can too."