Documentary Review

The documentary, Virunga, is a great viewing experience to see the people of the Eastern Congo fighting for their land they call home.

This documentary follows a group of people in the Eastern Congo trying to keep the wildlife in Virunga National Park safe from the M23 rebels. Also investigated was SOCO International, trying to disrupt the park to obtain oil that was said to be in the area. In the film reporters go undercover to gather information on their illegal plans to take from the natural resources of Virunga National Park. They uncovered that SOCO was planning on working with M23 in order to make this happen. Also from a different perspective were the team of rangers who cared for the Gorillas and lived for keeping them safe. They risked their lives to stand against the rebels when they came to take over and they stood their ground to keep the park theirs. Virunga brings to life a lot of issues that go unknown in this part of the country. In the documentary it really brings out emotions seeing worry and sadness in the children and Gorillas when danger arrives and that'd what really gets the viewers attention. That, and all of the raw action war scenes of people in the town being shot and the rangers fighting for the station. I thought it was very informative and interesting to watch a real life perspective as these events occurred, but the best thing to see was how these people fought to keep people trying to do harm out of their territory.