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Kassim the Dream

Coverage by Nobuhiro Hosoki

 

Interview with director Kief Davidson

Story : This is the story of World Champion Boxer, Kassim "The Dream" Ouma - born in Uganda, kidnapped by the rebel army and trained to be a child soldier at the age of 6. When the rebels took over the government, Kassim became an army soldier who was forced to commit many horrific atrocities, making him both a victim and perpetrator. He soon discovered the army's boxing team and realized the sport was his ticket to freedom. After 12 years of warfare, Kassim defected from Africa and arrived in the United States. Homeless and culture shocked, he quickly rose through the boxing ranks and became Junior Middleweight Champion of the World. Kassim, now age 27, seems to have obtained the American Dream with his jovial nature, fame and hip hop lifestyle. As Kassim trains for his next world title fight against Jermain Taylor in Little Rock Arkansas, keeping his demons out of the ring becomes increasingly difficult. His desires to reunite with family in Uganda intensify when Kassim's only hope for a safe return is a military pardon from the president and government responsible for his abduction.

Release 5 June 2009

Q: How did you come to this project? What interested you in Kassim "The Dream" Ouma?

Kief Davidson: I was looking to do a film about child soldiers, but I was really looking for a strong dynamic central character to make sense of the film all around. I came across the article on Kassim, who was at the time the junior Middleweight Boxing Champion of the world. So there's lots of interesting press around him. That was the starting point really.

Q : Kassim was kidnapped when he was 6 years old. Were there lot of kids captured around that age who were recruited into the rebel army?

Kief Davidson: Yeah, quite a lot! At the time Kassim was kidnapped, it was by a different rebel group: the one that gets a lot of the press now. But the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army), the current rebel army, has been kidnapping kids for over 20 years now. They are still very much active; kids of all ages are kidnapped. And since then, LRA has effectively left Uganda now, so they are kidnapping kids in Congo now. But is this a problem that's long going, as people tend to think of it as a problem that was from years ago, but is still happening now.

Q: So over 30,000 kids were kidnapped in Uganda for the last 20 years?

Kief Davidson: Yes, over 30,000 kids just in Uganda. I think the UN (United Nations) reported that 300,000 child soldiers exist around the world; it's not just in Africa.

Q: Two years after Kassim was kidnapped by the NRA(National Resistance Army), they took over the government. Would it make any difference if they hadn't taken over the government?

Kief Davidson: What happened in Kassim's case, he was kidnapped in 1986 by the NRA before President Museveni was head of this rebel group. Close to a year after Kassim was kidnapped, Musseveni took over the government, and Kassim effectively became an army soldier but he was still only seven years old. And he still fought in the bush against other rebels, because other rebel forces are large. It wasn't until he was around 11 years old, he stopped fighting in the bush and started training with the military boxing team. He met other soldiers that were boxers. The boxers said that it's good way to travel and essentially escape in the sort of way that he worked towards.

Q: Could you talk about how Kassim was able to access to a visa and stay in the United States?

Kief Davidson: What happened was, he became an amateur champion in Uganda, and the Ugandan military team which he was a part of, all received the visas to come to America for the big boxing tournament which is the world military boxing game. Then, Kassim realized that the visa was actually very valuable, so he deserted the army and took the visa. And several other people on the boxing team did the same thing. He came to the U.S, deserted the army; they got to the U.S shortly after he asked for political asylum, so he was basically in political asylum up until recently, when he got his green card.

Q: When he arrived in the United States, he was staying in some crack hotel where a lot of hookers and junkies were hanging around. Did he talk about that experience, because there isn't much footage where he talked about that.

Kief Davidson: I don't think he stayed that long. He stayed at the crack hotel for probably a couple months. Once he met the people in the gym, he made other friends. He would stay with other people, stayed at the gym sometimes. He adapted pretty quickly.

Q: What element did you find fascinating about Kasssim? Could you talk about his character?

Kief Davidson: I think when he first came here, he had this idea that he would come to America, get a fight with Oscar De La Hoya, make a million dollars and go back home, you know like immediately. That' s really not the way it works. I think Kassim generally never thinks long- term, so he's very impulsive, and I think this is one of the reasons that people want to hang around with him: he's a lot of fun to be around. He just thinks of going through life like very instinctively. But I think that impulsive [side of him] sometimes gets him into trouble though. But he was incredibly brave for doing what he did, deserting everything to come to America, making a success of himself, because he would have family back in Uganda that he wanted to support. So I think initially this is really about him finding the way to support his family.

Q: Even after he started to boxing, he was still smoking joints. Wasn't he getting into trouble by doing that?

Kief Davidson: The problem is if he tested positive. Technically he stopped smoking a month before his fight, so it got out of his system. As a professional athlete, it's something that you really shouldn't be doing, because it limits your ability to be a great fighter. But with Kassim, that's something that he has been doing since he was six years old, because with child soldiers, that's the first thing--they give you drugs to control you. Actually back then it was marijuana; other places would give you heroin. It's a big problem when kids are given those drugs. Unfortunately for him, it is still something that he hasn't be able to quit. I think it very much affected his boxing career. You can't compete at the same level as someone else that doesn't do that.

Q: He got permission to go back in Uganda. If he was just a regular person and not a boxing champ, would that have happened, because he did desert the military in Uganda.

Kief Davidson: Well, I think a lot of people looked at Kassim as a hero in a sense, but there were also a lot of people that didn't. With Kassim, it's a very complicated issues. Yes, he was kidnapped as a child and forced to be a child soldier, but the reality is spent his most of his childhood and teenage years as an army soldier, committing atrocities. So I think there are very much two different camps of people sort of feel about Kassim as a person. And he has a bit of reputation of partying a lot, too. I think Kassim wants to be a humanitarian but he has to deal with own problem first before he can really be the true humanitarian that he would like to be.

Q: what kind of message do you want to send?

Kief Davidson: Kassim represents one story out of thousands of child soldier stories, but the film isn't particularly about the issue of child soldiers. It deals with the issue, but the film is centered around him as a person. I'm hoping that audiences are so compelled by him as a character that it's the person that they want to learn more about, then the bigger issue, and what still is happening around the world today. You know, I think it's really a starting point for people to get emotionally involved with the character. Personally I think it's better for someone to be emotionally involved with a character and to want to learn more than just [what is provided by] an informational film.

End.