(US NGO, praised by U.N., has State Department help) (1070) By Jessica Allen Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- Time creeps slowly across the sands of the refugee camps in northern Kenya, creating despair for those trapped in the daily routines of survival with no place to go. Can the magic of the motion picture offer any hope here? A non-governmental organization (NGO) in New York, FilmAid International (FAI), thinks it can and has taken steps to alleviate the despair of displaced Africans at Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp by providing films for entertainment as well as training refugees to make films themselves. FilmAid is working in cooperation with Hollywood movie executives to restore people's dignity and hope, says Kakuma Camp manager Faisal Mohamed. The camp, located in Northwest Kenya, is home to 72,000 refugees from Sudan, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Rwanda, and Burundi. Mohamed, a Somali refugee himself, is all too used to the endless hours of idle listlessness that take up the average refugee's day. While the UN-run camp takes care of their physical and health needs, there is no escape from the hours of worrying about their fate. The FAI films, Mohamed said, are "awakening the minds of people into life." Established in 1999 with financial assistance and support from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, FilmAid is dedicated to "addressing the problems of psychological trauma, isolation, and idleness in refugee camps," according to an FAI press release. The NGO's Advisory Committee is co-chaired by the actress Julia Ormond and is supported by such Hollywood luminaries as actor/director Tom Hanks. Film and television studios, government and non-governmental organizations around the world including Sony Picture Classics, the Walt Disney Corporation, the Cartoon Network, Wildlife Awareness Foundation, Zimbabwe's Media Development Trust, and the European Union have donated such films "E.T.", "Gandhi," "Shakespeare in Love," "The Never Ending Story," "A Goofy Movie," "The Addams Family," "All Dogs Go To Heaven," "Babe," "101 Dalmatians," and "Anastasia" to be shown in the camps. They also provided many educational films of social and health issues that have a great impact on the refugees. According to FAI, films are chosen for their uplifting qualities as well as for their entertainment value. In "Gandhi", for example, the refugees see how one man experienced and responded to injustice in racially segregated South Africa, developing the non-violent tactics that would serve as the basis for his anti-British protests in India. This was the same tactic for change that was later adopted by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in the Civil Rights movement that transformed the United States. "City Lights," Charlie Chaplin's last and perhaps best film, is another example of how the NGO is bringing hope to Kakuma as it did to camps in Kosovo, Bosnia and elsewhere in the Balkans following the fighting there. In "City Lights" children and adolescents are cheered and consoled by the story of an unlucky drifter, in many ways a displaced person in his own society, who falls in love with a blind girl. Known worldwide for his slapstick comedy and ability to captivate an audience, Chaplin's film brought smiles to the faces of children at Kakuma. It provided a temporary distraction from the sufferings of their day-to-day lives. As the film critic Roger Ebert said, "Silent films stay with you. They are not just a work, but a place," and a place of laughter and imagination is something all children, especially suffering children, need. Soon after FAI was established, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan complimented the NGO for making, "a significant difference in the lives of refugees." He added, "Cinema provides a creative window of escape and stimulation for people who have been forced to flee their homes and countries. "The ability of films to communicate crucial information, about landmines and other hazards, can also save lives. When refugees are hired to run FAI programs they are empowered to bring pleasure to others, and community spirit flourishes where thousands assemble to watch a film," the U.N. chief said. Noted Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan recently wrote of FAI's relevance in a world sadly populated with the displaced: "FilmAID is an organization for an increasingly savage world. It has a motivating idea that, like many of the best ones, is beautifully simple: to show movies to displaced persons; to go to the pitiless camps where residents spend years of their lives; to bring cinema to those who desperately need its ability to lift spirits, inspire hearts and enlighten minds." At the 2003 Golden Globe Awards in Hollywood, FAI was featured among the charities supported by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). HFPA president Dagmar Dunlevy cited FIlmAid International for its "mission is to deliver feature films and other screen entertainment to refugee camps in hopes of bringing relief, laughter and distraction to the children of war -- some of whom are seeing the magic of movies for the very first time." In addition to the popular Hollywood films, FAI uses educational films to deliver life saving messages on issues such as HIV/AIDS and health, the issue of gender-based violence, and to educate on landmine awareness and conflict resolution. Recently it reached out to 100 malnourished children, their mothers, and caretakers with a screening of Singing Babies at the Therapeutic Feeding center in the camp. Other films, such as "Sarah Saves Her Friend", "Carry Your Burden", and "Whom Do I Trust" that deal with teenagers and their relationships to the older generation, help warn of the common pitfalls in adolescent sexual relationships while "Challenges in AIDS Counseling" serves as a primary source, with the accompanying Q&A booklet, on the dangers of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. At Kakuma FAI also provides vocational training and employment. The refugees are trained and employed by FAI to run the NGO's screening programs and many are also taught basic filmmaking skills so that they can tell their own stories and educate their own communities. "Training sessions," according to FAI, "teach refugees how to edit film with a computer, how to use professional sound equipment, and how to operate DVDs, VCRs, and projectors as well as understand how to use screening equipment and generator and sound-equipment operation."