Finding Courage

A documentary film with animated sequences about child survivors of wars and violence. They talk about their experiences from Afghanistan, New York, Colombia and Sierra Leone. They take us into their lives and share their memories, nightmares and dreams.

Though continents apart and without knowledge of each other these children share the common consequences of grief, courage and hope.
A Colombian boy takes us down the road where his hand disappeared. In New York, two girls tell us about their father, who worked on 'too high' a floor of the World Trade Centre. We meet a girl in Afghanistan who struggles to remember her father since even his pictures were burned. In Sierra Leone, a family on their way to a well for water is attacked, leaving behind a daughter with no idea what the rebels were even fighting for. A boy in the Colombian jungle dreams of becoming a doctor. A girl in the besieged city of Kabul is determined to become President of her country and outlaw all weapons.

The children reveal their stories and dreams in response to being read the animated tale of the book about a little elephant who tries to find the courage to cope with the death of his father. While they identify with the plight of the little elephant, we discover that they are the real heroes, far beyond the politics and rhetoric of statesmen, terrorists or soldiers.
By interplaying these children’s life stories with the animated tale of the little elephant, FINDING COURAGE is a sensitive portrayal of the consequences of war and violence.

FINDING COURAGE is the educational version of the feature length documentary ECHOES OF WAR and is shown to this day in projects all over the world, promoting the psychosocial well-being of children and their families.
For children from the age of eight and older there is also an animated 20 minutes version of THE STORY OF BABA.
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For the accompanying book "Little Baba Finds His Courage" by Nancy Baron and Sybil Wettasinghe, including a teacher’s manual, contact info@molenwiek.nl