KASSIM THE DREAM

(Uganda , USA, 2008, 87 mins)

HDCAM

Producers: Kief Davidson, Liz Silver
Executive Producers: Luke Thornton, Forest Whitaker, Keisha Whitaker, Joshua A. Green,
Director of Photography: Tony Molina Jr.
Editors: Kief Davidson, Tony Breuer
Music: Leonardo Heiblum, Jacobo Lieberman, Andres Solis

• www.kassimthedream.com/
• Trailer

Kassim “The Dream” Ouma is a complex character. He's the 2004 IBF Junior Middleweight champion of the world, a father, a young man who hasn’t seen his mother since he was a teen, and a former Ugandan child soldier who was abducted into a rebel army at the age of six. Kassim brings this powerful and painful personal history into the ring with him every time he fights. Despite the fact that Kassim is closer to the “American Dream” than most people will ever be, his wartime experiences in Africa still gnaw at his conscience. And it’s this ache that sets Kassim on a journey to reclaim his past by seeking a military pardon from the president and government responsible for his abduction as a child. Kassim isn’t asking for anything more than a safe return to the country he fled, but the government publicly declares that if Kassim returns to Uganda, he will be tried for desertion and, if found guilty, executed. Director Kief Davidson (THE DEVIL’S MINER), an AFI alum, and executive producer Forest Whitaker give us an intimate portrait of a captivating and charismatic young athlete who has reached the point in his life when he feels compelled to transform a legacy of sorrow into hope and inspiration. KASSIM THE DREAM received the American Film Market/SILVERDOCS Award at the 2008 SILVERDOCS AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival.

–Jacqueline Lyanga

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