I basically feel the same way that the brilliant Flag Wars, My Country My Country, and The Oath director Laura Poitras does:
I think the video is horrendous, but not an anomaly. Rather, I think it reflects some of the most pernicious undercurrents in the documentary genre relating to race and power. The idea that Ugandans need a white American five-year-old boy or a celebrity as vehicles to make people care about abuses of power or their suffering ultimately reaffirms the status quo. The best critique I've read is from the novelist Teju Cole, 'Seven thoughts on the banality of sentimentality.'Today's New York Times has a story that strikes a similar imperialist chord as Kony 2012. In a report about the murderous rampage by the U.S. military in Afghanistan yesterday, the Times writes:'Coming after a period of deepening public outrage, spurred by the Koran burning by American personnel last month and an earlier video showing American Marines urinating on dead militants, the apparently unprovoked killings added to a feeling of siege here among Western personnel.'This is quite breathtaking - the U.S. military goes on a murderous rampage killing and burning Afghan children, and the Times reports a "feeling of siege here among Western personnel." In order to understand these narratives, you have to start from the premise that there are certain people whose lives and stories matter, who are agents, and there are others who serve as a backdrop or violent threat.
