Invisible Children, a nonprofit organization that produced a very popular half-hour documentary about a notorious African warlord, Joseph Kony, reported it will release a 10-minute film on Monday to respond to questions and criticism over its approach. The documentary “KONY 2012” is a YouTube video that went viral last week and has been viewed more than 72 million times thus far. The San Diego based organization says it wants to make Kony famous and round up global support to end the murders, rapes, abuses, and abductions committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in central Africa.
With the popularity of the video and the awareness of an African tragedy, also came criticism and questions about the Invisible Children’s intentions, its transparency, and whether the social media frenzy was too little, too late. On Sunday evening, in an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, Ben Keesey, the group’s chief executive said, “There’s nothing to hide — Invisible Children has been transparent since 2004, when we started. That’s our intention and we want to show that this campaign is part of a model and strategy that’s comprehensive.” Jason Russell is the director of the video and one of the founders of the organization.
