Filmmaker Jason Russell has become an overnight sensation with his video “Kony 2012,” which documents the inhumane actions of Joseph Kony (head of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, aka LRA). The filmmaker stopped by Access Hollywood Live on Friday, where he spoke about his Invisible Children campaign and what he hopes will happen in Uganda.
“It is a movement that is beyond us. It is the youth of the world waking up… they’ve been told, ‘You have potential, you have social network, you’re powerful,’ but they hadn’t realized what that means yet. And now they do,” Russell said of the 56 million and counting people who have watched his video online.
Russell explained that he’s thrilled with the attention the video has received and hopes Kony – who reportedly abducted and forced approximately 66,000 children to fight for the LRA since the rebellion began in 1986, along with using girls as sex slaves and forcing boys into a life of violence as child soldiers – is ultimately brought to justice.
“The war’s not over yet… We’re almost there and [this is] the last piece… if [Kony] comes to the International Criminal Court, but the world doesn’t know about it, what an atrocity that would be,” he explained. “The world needs to realize, you can’t have Hitlers anymore. We’re not going to have Rwandan genocides anymore. We’re stopping that.”
Despite calls to take out Kony with force, Russell would rather remove him with a hashtag and not a gun.
“He is surrounded by innocence, so he’s surrounded by abducted children. That’s why he’s so protected because it’s really hard to kill children that are forced there against their will,” he explained. “It’s going to be really difficult but we can do it, we can do it peacefully. Joseph Kony is obsessed with himself and obsessed with his image. He’s listening to what’s happening right now in the jungles of the Congo. He can hear us so we need everyone that’s listening to hashtag ‘Konysurrender.’ One word ‘Konysurrender’ that’s what we need everyone to do.
“He knows we’re after him. He knows the youth of the world is after him and whether it’s a 100 advisory troops or whatever it takes, we don’t want a bullet through his head and we don’t want bombs dropped,” he continued. “We need this to work peacefully and we need to work really hard to make sure that this ends peacefully. [We want him] handcuffed and escorted to his jail cell to face trials at the International Criminal Court.”
“Let’s say Kony surrenders, he comes out, he’s somehow he’s apprehended, he’s brought to justice. Do we move to number two?” Billy asked.
“It’s the beautiful ending to the very beginning… they’re in Burma or North Korea or this bad guy who’s been slaughtering people in Darfur, literally slaughtering human beings to death… hundreds of thousands,” Russell said of other possible people to draw attention to.
As for Russell himself – who got his start selling a musical to Steven Spielberg – he’s still adjusting to his overnight success, but is sure it’s just the beginning of great things to come.
“I don’t know what that means to prepare for that, the fame,” he told Billy. “The campaign is stopping at nothing, we’re stopping at nothing. Nothing can stop this movement. There’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time is right now.”
For more information on “Kony 2012” and the Invisible Children campaign, CLICK HERE!
Copyright © 2024 by NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be republished, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.