By Dana Al-Qadi

Gargoyle senior editor


Posted Monday, April 23, 2007, The OG, news

[UPDATE: Please note that there is no longer an admission fee to UFU's movie night. The article below has been revised to reflect that change.]

UNITED FOR UGANDA will show the Oscar-winning film “The Last King of Scotland” in the North Attic at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Originally the student organization intended to charge an admission fee of $1, but that has now been changed. Admission will be free.

The 2006 film chronicles the journey of a Scottish doctor who has just finished medical school and wants to make a difference somewhere in the world.

His good intentions take him to Uganda, where he winds up working with two other doctors and eventually gets sucked into Ugandan corruption. The movie depicts life in the 1970s under the regime of former Ugandan leader Idi Amin Dada.

Forest Whitaker won the 2007 Academy Award for best actor for his portrayal of the dictator.

UFU is a student organization dedicated to helping Uganda's “invisible children” — former child soldiers who were forced to fight for the rebel Lord's Resistance Army in the Acholi region of northern Uganda.

Says UFU member Amanda Grill: “UFU has focused on drawing attention to the child soldiers, the victims, and the citizens for quite some time now. This night is really about getting more information about what Uganda is like from the political end. On Wednesday, we want people to see who the people in power are and why these atrocities happen.”

Although there is no longer an entrance fee, UFU will raise money by selling pizza and baked goods at the event along with UFU T-shirts and “Invisible Children” DVDs.

For added incentive to attend the movie night, several history classes are offering extra credit for students who attend. Students in subfreshman history, U.S. History, World Since 1945, Anthropology, and American History Seminar are eligible for extra credit.

Receiving the credit may require a written response to the movie or some other work. Requirements will vary from class to class, and students should ask their teachers what they are required to do beforehand.

Says history teacher Chris Butler on his decision to offer extra credit to his students, “I think it is a good movie that gets the concept of absolute power.”

Because the film is rated R for violence and sexual content, students who are below the age of 17 will need a parental permission slip that can be found with the teachers of the classes offering extra credit.

The movie night is the latest in UFU's fundraising efforts. In November the group sponsored a lock-in for upperclassmen, followed by a lock-in for underclassmen in January.

Currently UFU is in the midst of its “Personal Sacrifice Campaign” to raise money for the Schools for Schools project.

The Schools for Schools project links schools in the United States to their counterparts in Uganda. Each U.S. school competes with others in their cluster (group of schools assigned to the same Ugandan school) to raise the most money to send to their school. (UFU's own Schools for Schools page is here.)

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