The Word Universe: A Journey To West Africa

If sincerity and good intentions were the central criteria for evaluating a film or video, The Word Universe would have scored big stars. Unfortunately, good intentions are just about the only thing this video has going for it. The video chronicles the journey of filmmaker Mark Keegan back to West Africa to find his best friend, a refugee from civil war in Liberia, now living in the Ivory Coast. After a perfunctory explanation of the internecine coups and counter revolutionary skirmishes that have wracked Liberia since 1980, and after an emotional reuniting of the friends (the most effective scene in the video), most of the film is spent surveying the shattered lives and the misery of exiles from this political mayhem. We follow the filmmakers' hand-held, woefully undisciplined camera as it meanders around relocation camps and countryside, picking up disturbing news about the torture, poverty, and sorrow experienced by the victims of these wars. While many of these images and stories are greatly affecting, in the end they're remembered as little more than sound and sight bites--the camera never stays around long enough to give us whole lives. It's a pity the video falls flat; except for a single Cinema Guild title (The Liberia Tragedy, 1991), there isn't much on video concerning this particular national tragedy. For this reason alone general collections which have a spare $19.95 to throw away may want to consider it. Aud: H, C, P. (G. Handman)