We Come As Friends

I am intrigued by this strange collision of people from around the globe in Africa. What interests me is how fantastic, horrific, and how transparent, human stories unfold in this beautiful place from which we humans originate. - Hubert Sauper

Six years in the making, Hubert Sauper's We Come As Friends observes the precarious start of South Sudan, the African continent's newest country. With an eye for both haunting beauty and sorrow, the film captures South Sudan's earliest days of independence, the rapid exploitation of its natural resources by the world's superpowers, the displacement of its people from their ancestral homelands, and the devastating descent into war.

In a tiny, homemade tin and canvas airplane, through surreal and surprising encounters, Sauper explores the human landscape of the fledgling country – Chinese oil workers, UN peacekeepers, Sudanese warlords, American evangelicals, displaced farmers and their families – to capture all their thoughts and dreams for South Sudan's future.

Join New America NYC for a screening of We Come As Friends and a post-screening discussion with Academy Award® nominated director Hubert Sauper and other experts in global development and international diplomacy on the future of South Sudan and the economic growth and stability of the African continent.

Follow the discussion online using #NANYC and by following @NewAmericaNYC. We Come As Friends opens August 14 at the IFC Center through BBC Worldwide North America.

Introductions:

Beth Dembitzer
Curator, Social Cinema@New America

@bethdembitzer

Tim McChristian
Executive Director, African Leadership Foundation

Participants:

Hubert Sauper

Director and Producer, We Come As Friends

Derk Segaar
Head, Protection Sites Management, United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan

@DerkSegaar

Esther Soma
South Sudanese refugee
Graduate, African Leadership Academy

President, African Students Association, Yale University

Dayo Olopade
Author, The Bright Continent: Breaking Rules and Making Change in Modern Africa
2010 Bernard L. Schwartz Fellow, New America
@madayo