Gulu, Uganda has been my home this summer. Last year was my first time in this war-torn region of Northern Uganda, and I was a bit nervous and unsure of my surroundings. Not this time. I taught a filmmaking workshop along with the wonderful Shola Ajayi, who is a collegue of mine from Film School. We worked with the non-profit organization THARCE-Gulu, to put together this arts empowerment workshop, and really wanted to help create some positive images of Gulu through social media and filmmaking. Our students were between the ages of 20-30 years old and were awesome.  Eliza Dushku and Rick Fox also work with THARCE-Gulu and brought us amazing laptops donated by HP. 

All in all, it was one of the best trips of my life. I can't wait to go back.

Here is one of their projects: http://vimeo.com/26091869

I had footage air on CNN today. It was very exciting for me, and even more exciting for THARCE Gulu to get some amazing publicity, thanks to Judy's daughter Eliza. And yes, I really did take a screen grab of my name. Like I said, it was an exciting day.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/02/21/Iyw.eliza.dushku.cnn?iref=allsearch

You may have heard about child soldiers...children who were abducted from their homes, forced into a violent life of slavery and fighting. Northern Uganda is one of the places where this happened. And this is where I spent my July. Though the war ended years ago, the aftermath can still be seen in the town of Gulu. It was here that I traveled with a group organized by Judy Dushku, who is a professor of Government at Suffolk University. She is heading up a new non-profit called "THARCE-GULU". This group went to build huts for vulnerable, war-affected people in the community. I went along to document the housebuilding, and also to bring instruments, books, dvds, laptops and cameras in order to start an arts center through THARCE. I lead a one-day 'storytelling' workshop with a group of war-affected students. One day was definitely not enough, and I think that as THARCE Gulu expands and develops, I might go back again.

It was an amazing month. Very life changing! Videos to come soon...