As commander of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire watched helplessly as slaughter continued unabated. After combating post-traumatic stress disorder, he found a new call to action: “The ultimate focus of the rest of my life is to eradicate the use of children as instruments of war.” Director Patrick Reed follows Dallaire across his new battlegrounds in the Congo, Rwanda, and South Sudan, where he meets with local groups and learns how they indoctrinate child fighters. Animated scenes, based on accounts from Dallaire’s recently published book They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children, are interwoven throughout the film, which depicts a child’s journey through abduction, indoctrination, and death. Narrated by a former child soldier, the vignettes lend insight into the players and the politics and scale of these atrocities. Will Dallaire succeed where others have failed, or will he once again be forced to look on as the world turns away?  DP

Moderated conversation following screening with filmmakers and special guest Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire