Rescuing Emmanuel (Len Morris, 2008): USA

Reviewed by Anna Bewe. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Street kids are crowed everywhere, not only in Kenya where the most of this emotional documentary takes place, but also in the U.S. and other places around the world. The filmmakers come across young kids who just want to have something to eat and a chance to go to school. The film Rescuing Emmanuel is made by the marriage couple Len and Georgia Morris, and during their shooting in Nairobi, they get unexpectedly emotional involved with a young street boy.

Rescuing Emmanuel is a documentary about street kids around the world. The film was meant to be about street kids in general, but the documentary took another direction after the film crew met Emmanuel, a lively kid who desperately wanted to start school again and who always tried to be in the centre of the filming camera. The film crew left Nairobi to go to the other side of the country, but somehow the film crew had Emmanuel stuck at their minds and couldn’t let go of the thought of what would happen to him when they had left. They decided to go back to Nairobi and to find Emmanuel, which turned out to be very difficult, because of the large city and the large number of people living at the streets. The film crew wanted to help Emmanuel, to take him to Mama, which were a place where 150 kids live, where they get food and goes to school. Later, they find Emmanuel, and the story takes a different direction. The documentary also tells some statistics and about street kids daily life, and how they usually end up. It’s also joins voices of Desmond Tutu and Wangari Maathai.

This was an amazing and also alarming documentary – I was very heart-strained, the film was very touching and sometimes I got tears in my eyes. The documentary showed how rough and tough it is to live on the street, and how many kids are abused. This film made me feel grateful for what I have, but also made me want to do a difference. The filmmakers sometimes used hidden surveillance cameras to shoot at places where it was forbidden, which gave us an insight to the dark life some street kids are living. The documentary showed that there are still a lot to do for homeless and street kids around the world, but it also showed that it makes a difference if you help one person. This was the best documentary I saw at SBIFF, it was touching to follow this one person’s life journey. I hope that leaders around the world will take a look at this film and realize that something has to be done this very instant.