Loading...God Grew Tired of Us is a documentary film about a group of boys from Sudan and their journey towards a better life in America.
In 1987, Sudan’s Muslim government orders death to all males in the Christian south: 27,000 boys fled to Ethiopia on foot.
From Ethiopia, they were forced to flee to Kenya in 1991; 12,000 survived to live in a U.N. camp in Kakuma.
Throughout the documentary, using archival footages, viewers get a view of their life in Africa, from their 1,000-mile flight to safety to the sub-par life they lived in their camps.
The filmmakers specifically focus on three boys in these camps and follow their everyday struggles. Each of them narrates their stories, re-tells what they’ve been through, how they live their lives in uncertainty and how fear of being murdered drives them onwards.
The film continues to follow the Sudanese boys as they leave Africa to start a new life in America. We spectate their lives in USA, showing how they integrate, work several jobs, send money back to the camp, seek education and miss their torn homeland.
Furthermore, throughout the film’s passage in the US, we see them dedicate themselves to doing whatever they can to help those they left behind in Kakuma, and to discovering the fate of their parents and family.
The title of the documentary comes from a statement by John, one of the boys, who expressed that he thought the suffering and killings he saw during his country’s civil war may have been the final judgment on earth stated in the Bible: “God was tired of us,” “tired of the bad things the people were doing.”
work lizard
- Info
- Release date2006
- Full runtime
- Director(s)Christopher Dillon Quinn
- Production companySilver Nitrate Pictures
Fantastic documentary! I hope all of them are doing well today.
So I dug into where the guys are today if anyone else is looking for the info.
The majority of Sudanese kids who went to the US improved their lives with education and jobs, although the older boys had a hard time adapting to American standard levels of education. They still got by while working jobs, earning a General Equivalency Diploma (GED) which opened even more opportunities for them.
John Bul Dau got an Associate’s degree from Onondaga Community College, and a degree in Policy Studies at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. With the education he received, he was able to create the John Dau Foundation funding healthcare in South Sudan.
Panther Bior was relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and has made the best of his life there. Panther did the same as John Dauin earning his GED while working an entry-level job to support himself. Eventually, Panther was also able to earn a degree in accounting from Park Point University, and got a Master’s degree in organizational leadership. Panther was also employed at Bank of New York Mellon in Pittsburgh as an accounting analyst. And is currently partnered with a ministry in Pittsberg while trying to build a school in Sudan.
I couldn’t find a lot of recent articles on Daniel Abul Pach but I’m guessing he’s been steadily working his way up the chain like the others.
Well done guys!