Rescuing Emmanuel (Len Morris,2008):USA

Reviewed by Emelie Zahner. Viewed at the 2009 Santa Barbara Film Festival

Rescuing Emmanuel is a touching documentary. I’m not a documentary person but this documentary filled me with tears of sadness, and laughter of hope. After the film they had a Q and A and the filmmakers said that this documentary was supposed to be about street children in general, but when the director (Len Morris) began to make this documentary, there was this boy who wanted to be heard.  He followed them every where they went. In the beginning they found him very annoying, simply because he was everywhere, but then, they couldn’t stop thinking about him, and so they made this documentary of his story. The film shows the life as a street kid true his eyes. You see how he lives, some of his friends, and how people around him act against him. This is a story about Emmanuel, a 13-year old boy who lives in the street.  He doesn’t have any identification papers or any birth certificate; he doesn’t have anything that tells the rest of the world that he exists. He is a nobody, a nobody that does whatever it takes to be heard.

Kenya is one of many African countries that struggle with street children, but it is not only Africa that has this problem. This is a big problem all over the world. The film shows pictures of street kids from Russia, Mexico and more. The filmmakers also include a short interview with a 10-year old kid from Mexico who had abused drugs for so long that he could die over night. The film mentions that there are even street children here in the US. Street kids face many problems during their short lives. 90% of the street children all around the world sniff glue to lower their hunger. The filmmakers made this documentary not as a general documentary about street children and their lives, but as Emmanuel’s own story. In turn, he touches everyone in the audience by  just a normal kid who happens to live on the street. This is a personal documentary and that’s why I think it stands out from the rest of the documentaries that I have seen during the Santa Barbara Film Festival. I liked the fact that the film mixes pictures of Emmanuel, interviews with him and also interviews with people that are trying to do something to solve this big problem in Kenya. In between everything else, the filmmakers include pictures of and interviews with other street children, which makes the documentary feel more real.

Rescuing Emmanuel went straight into my heart and it will be there for a long time. There was a perfect mix between sadness and joy to keep the audience awake. I didn’t want the documentary to end I wanted to see more of Emmanuel, the boy who just wanted to be heard. This is one of the best and most interesting documentaries I have ever seen in my life because it made me feel hope even amid all of the sadness. This is a documentary I can see over and over again and can recommend that everyone see, even if you don’t prefer documentaries.