The story of Sum 41 shooting a documentary in the Congo, only to become trapped in their hotel during a firefight nearby.

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#sum41 #congo

I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.

In May of 2004 the Canadian punk band Sum 41 found themselves trapped in the middle of a horrific civil war in central africa. This is a topic that’s been requested by a lot of people so today’ let’s talk about it. Show RPG clip.
Sum 41 was coming off the success of their first two albums, 2001’s all killer no filler and the following year’s does this look infected. The band would spend 2003 and 2004 working on their third album It was announced in march of 2004 that Sum 41 would be taking a break from recording having finished the drum tracks and head to Africa.. MtvV news would report at the time "From the Front Lines," produced by the Canadian charity organization War Child, will detail Sum 41's two-week trip to the Congo, where they will examine human rights, the history of the conflict, poverty and the role of child soldiers -- some of whom were forcibly enlisted -- as well as interview children for their perspective on the issues they face… The idea for the project actually was the idea of Sum 41 who then contact Canada War Child to collaborate. It’s important to note that MTV News also reported that the original documentary was supposed to only spend a ⅓ of the time on Congo with two other unnamed African countries being highlighted. I am guessing based on the region of where the conflict happened possibly Uganda and Rwanda.
In May of 2004 Sum 41 touched down in the democratic republic of Congo . Congo by this point had been engaged in an eight year long civil war that had it’s roots from the conflict in Rwanda. By this point in the conflict over 3 million people had died. While the united nations deployed peace keepers they were enforcing a pretty shaky peace treaty that had been signed by teh warring faction by this point in time. s, It’s a conflict the media hadn’t really shed a lot of light on.


Joining Sum 41 on their trip to Congo included Director Adrian Callender and two doctors who had served in war zones including, Eric Hoskins and Samantha Nutt.


The band was would land in a town named town named Bukavu, which was near the Rwandan border. The town was relatively peaceful


Despite the town being relatively peaceful the band was warned that there might be sporadic gunfire.


. Dr. Samantha Nutt who was the executive producer on the project told Blunt magazine They almost paid with their lives to tell that particular story”,
“My job was really to brief them and to provide them with information and to answer their questions, and also to make sure to steward some of the interviews; to make sure that everything was being handled in a sensitive and appropriate way.” adding i explained to them that we weren’t interested in doing the kind of typical “Celebrity-goes-to-a-different-part-of-the-world, uses-that-celebrity-to-draw-attention-but-it’s-usually-about-the-celebrity”. We said to them ‘What our vision is for this is you go, you’re functioning effectively as journalists, you’re educating your audience back home, you have to be smart and articulate on the issues and it’s not about your vague emotional experience – we’re not interested in that.'”
As for how the project began, nutt would explain, it was actually Sum 41’s idea to do the project first and the band would approach war child canada for the collaboration.
Upon first landing into the country the band would drive through the town of Bakavu which had a sign that read “welcome to bukavu, tourist capital of congo’ with the sign having a few bullet holes in it. Eerily foreshadowing what was about to happen. It was on day one they met members of the Untied Nations and learned more about the conflict. By Day 3 the band would hike through the jungle to visit gorillas, forgotten victims of the conflict and poaching. It’s the same day they meet a business man named Alladin who they refer to as the best dressed guy in Congo. Aladdin makes his money selling a mineral named Coltan which is used in many electronic devices we use everyday. The mineral also serves as a source of funding for many of the countri