Somali born journalist Rageh Omaar and director Paul Sapin made Lost Boys, a 27- minute documentary, in four days. The film explores Somali youth inter-gang violence in London. The murder of 18-year-old Mahir Osman in January 2008 by a Somali gang made Clan Elders realize they had lost touch with the younger generation and violence was spiralling out of their control. It was time for the community as a whole to ask itself why second generation Somali men were underachieving and spilling their blood on London streets.

Led by Somali community worker Ahmed Elmi, the film takes us through a series of interviews with gang members and with elders who have taken up patrolling the streets at night. The interviewers also speak with both families of the bereaved and of the murderers. The questions that arise are those typically posed to second-generation immigrants- lost in the space between the "homeland" to which their parents are still attached and the "new land" in which their future is inscribed. Neither here nor there, they struggle to find meaning and identity.

Britain’s Somali community is diverse: the elders who chew Khat (the Somali leaf, legal in Britain, that provides stimulation among its users) and discuss Somalia; successful Somali drug dealers; and young Somalis without jobs or role models who succumb to a pattern of violence and reprisals in which they can finally prove their worth.

This documentary sets itself to break the silence that has shrouded theses issues. It launches a debate within the community pointing at its own responsibility and offers a glimmer of hope by reuniting the families of the criminals with those of their victims. "Where blood has been shed, let something grow". It nevertheless remains a snapshot rather than an in-depth study and its point of view is limited to that of the men. As such, it leaves the audience beckoning more explanations and a deeper understanding of the causes at stake.

After the film, screened at the Frontline Club, the debate continued with the observation of a Somali viewer who noted the huge discrepancy between Somali immigrants in the UK and those in the USA, the latter a thriving community. According to him, one of the major problems was the aid bestowed by the British government on the Somali émigrés. The American notion of "sink or thrive" has, in his view, forced the communities there to succeed, whereas the welfare system in the United Kingdom has condoned a lack of action. 

So how can Somali inter-gang violence subside? By giving a voice to the unrepresented Somali youth, the documentary sparks questions and closes with a plea to end the "myth of return" and tackle the reality of Somalis living in London. The film implies that British Somalis must work together to create a stronger sense of community, integration and dialogue.

Reviewed by Charlotte Goldsmith is a documentary film maker based in London.

Films set in Africa have come a long way recently. Stereotyped natives and mzungu heroes have given way to more complex takes on the continent. The Last King of Scotland and Blood Diamond both captured something about the feel of the place while offering a serious look at Africa and its problems. Blood Diamond, in particular, managed to make the jump from niche audience to Hollywood blockbuster

So it was with some excitement that I received 24: Redemption for Christmas. Jack Bauer is a weakness of mine. I find his brand of televisual porn – you know it’s bad for you but you can’t help yourself, even if it might make you go blind – to be hugely addictive (I went through the first series in a weekend, much to the surprise of the guy at the DVD rental place. I lied and said I’d been ill and couldn’t leave my house). If 24: Redemption was set in Africa then surely we were in for a Dogs of War-style treat.

Erm no. The plot did nod towards Frederick Forsyth with a coup controlled by nasty men in Washington DC. But everything else, from the ridiculous made-up country of Sangala, to the oversentimental portrayal of child soldiers, lacked Forsyth’s finesse and painstaking attention to detail.

The new setting won plaudits in several quarters, such as The Times…

Opening up the series to another continent flooded the show with oxygen and at the same time mercifully reduced the stakes somewhere towards believability.

But I couldn’t see it. Sangala just didn’t feel right. And I know the 2hr film was called Redemption, but Bauer leading a party of schoolchildren to safety? Come on. Surely the Bauer I know would have been training another bunch of villagers and leading a counter-coup. This was a filler designed to sate appetites starved by the writers’s strike. And it showed.

Reporter is a film about the work of New York Times foreign correspondent Nicholas Kristof. The film, produced by Ben Affleck, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival last week,

“As journalism of all kinds becomes more desperate to make money, then there is a tendency to focus more on celebrity,” Kristof said in a telephone interview from his home in the New York City area. “I just don’t know what’s going to happen to journalism, what our business model is going to be. I tend to think that one way or another, news and information will still have value.” link

You can catch a short interview with Affleck and Kristof with the LA Times above. The (somewhat dramatic and breathlessly wordy) trailer for the documentary is below. Anyone seen it in full? Any good? By the way if you haven’t seen the trailer to the Frontline Club’s own journalist documentary film, head over to Blood Trail now.