About The Film

Lost Boys of Sudan is an Emmy-nominated feature-length documentary that follows two Sudanese refugees on an extraordinary journey from Africa to America. Orphaned as young boys in one of Africa's cruelest civil wars, Peter Dut and Santino Chuor survived lion attacks and militia gunfire to reach a refugee camp in Kenya along with thousands of other children. From there, remarkably, they were chosen to come to America. Safe at last from physical danger and hunger, a world away from home, they find themselves confronted with the abundance and alienation of contemporary American suburbia.

Lost Boys of Sudan directed by Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk, won an Independent Spirit Award and screened theatrically in 70 cities across the U.S. to strong audience and critical praise. The film was broadcast nationally on the PBS series POV in the fall of 2004 and earned two national Emmy nominations.

An extensive national outreach campaign has brought Lost Boys of Sudan to thousands of community settings to build awareness and support for refugees and the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. Read More

Producer / Director
Megan Mylan

is a New York-based documentary filmmaker whose work has been recognized with an Academy Award, Emmy-nominations, Independent Spirit Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is currently directing a documentary on race relations in Brazil. She directed and produced the Oscar-winning film Smile Pinki broadcast on HBO. Her film, Lost Boys of Sudan, co-directed with Jon Shenk, was nominated for two national Emmys and won an Independent Spirit Award. Megan also directed Batidania on Brazilian resistance music. She has worked on documentaries for HBO, PBS, Showtime and the BBC including the Oscar-nominee, Long Night’s Journey Into Day and the Sundance Award winning film Sing Faster. Before beginning in film, Megan worked with Ashoka, an international development non-profit, in the U.S. and Brazil. She has a Bachelor’s from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Masters' degrees in Journalism and Latin American Studies from the University of California at Berkeley. In 2011 Megan will be guest director of documentary at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Producer / Director / Cinematographer
Jon Shenk

Jon Shenk, Director/Cinematographer, is a documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and founder of Actual Films in San Francisco. He was a Director of Photography for the Academy Award-winning Smile Pinki (2009). He was awarded an Emmy for Blame Somebody Else (2007), a feature story he wrote, produced and photographed for the PBS series, Exposé. The film recounts Chicago Tribune reporter Cam Simpson's investigation into the kidnapping and execution of 12 Nepalese workers in Iraq, in which he exposed a vast international human trafficking network. Shenk co-directed and photographed Democracy Afghan Style (2004, 80 minutes), a PBS/ITVS/Arte film about the post-war constitutional process in Afghanistan.   In 2005, he directed and photographed segments for The New Heroes, a PBS series about social entrepreneurs He directed and photographed The Beginning (1999), an observational chronicle of George Lucas complex creative process during the making of Star Wars: Episode I that some reviewers consider to be the best DVD behind-the-scenes documentary ever made. Jon has produced and photographed dozens of documentaries for PBS, the BBC, A&E, Bravo, CBS, NBC, and National Geographic. He has been nominated twice for Emmys for his cinematography. He earned his Masters degree in Documentary Filmmaking from Stanford University in 1995 and his B.A. from Yale in 1991.

Executive Producer
Frances Reid

Frances Reid has been producing, directing, and shooting documentary films for over 30 years. Her most recent production is Long Night’s Journey Into Day on South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The film,co-directed with Deborah Hoffmann, received a 2000 Academy Award® nomination and won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Her film, Skin Deep, is a documentary exploring race relations on college campuses, it was broadcast nationally on PBS and is now in use by nearly 2,000 colleges and universities nationwide. In 1994, she received an Academy Award® nomination for her documentary short Straight From The Heart. Her producing and directing credits include such films as the groundbreaking documentary In the Best Interests of the Children and The Faces of AIDS awarded First Place by the Black Filmmakers' Hall of Fame.

Editor
Kim Roberts

Kim Roberts has written, directed and edited a number of award winning documentary and narrative films. Her editing credits include Daughter from Danang, 2002 Sundance Grand Jury Prize, Academy Award® Nominee, for PBS-American Experience; Daddy and Papa, Sundance 2002, PBS; The Wolf, Nightline; Great Wall Across the Yangtze, PBS.

Editor
Mark Becker

Becker is a director and editor of documentary films. Becker is currently directing a film about two migrant Mexican musicians; the film has received grants from numerous foundations, including the Sundance Documentary Fund and the Jerome Foundation. His film Jules at Eight has been broadcast on PBS, and has won awards from the International Documentary Association, the Student Academy Awards, Slamdance Film Festival, and the Chicago International Film Festival. Becker has edited various films for PBS, The Learning Channel, and MTV. In addition, he co-edited a feature-length observational documentary about George Lucas, which was released on the DVD with Star Wars, Episode I.

Full Credits

directed and produced by
MEGAN MYLAN & JON SHENK

featuring
SANTINO MAJOK CHUOR
PETER NYAROL DUT

editors
KIM ROBERTS
MARK BECKER

cinematographer
JON SHENK

sound mixer
MEGAN MYLAN

additional cinematography
MICHAEL CHIN
NICHOLAS DOOB
JOHNNY SYMONS

additional sound
DOUG DUNDERDALE
PETER NUBILE
BOB SULLIVAN
JOHNNY SYMONS

additional editing
ROBERT DALVA

assistant editor
KEVIN ABRAMS

associate producers
KELLY DAVIS
BEN AJIEK AJIEK
THON DENG
JOE HARRISON, III
MARIO MAKOL
VICKY MAULEÓN

additional translators
AWAN ANYIETH
EMMANUEL ANNEI
SAMUEL AKAU
GUM M ALOH
PETER THON DOT ALOH

production assistants
SIMON G. CHOP LUK
JOHN CHOL

colorist
BOB CAMPBELL

on-line editor
LOREN SORENSEN

post facilities
LEVEL 3 POST
BAY AREA VIDEO COALITION

sound editor
STEVE LIMONOFF

re-recording mixer
WILL HARVEY
POLARITY POST

motion graphics
GREG TUZIN
HEATH KESSLER

special thanks
DEBORAH HOFFMANN
JOK MADUT JOK
JORG E AGUILAR
MINDY ARONOFF
ORLANDO BAGWELL
SERGIO BARCELLOS
SETH BENEVENTTO
SABA BERHANE
JULIE BROOME
SASHA CHASNOFF
MICHAEL CHIN
TOM CHRISTOPHER
BONNI COHEN
MARY COLLINS
GREGG DEINHART
DWAYNE DUNN
JON ELSE
LEIGH FOSTER
JOHN FREEMAN
KYLE GILLMORE
THE GILLMORE FAMILY
TAMARA GOULD
ROBIN GROTCH
GUSTINE LANE SUDANESE
SUE FAULKNER
PAMELA HARRIS
JON HALPERIN
SHERRI HANNA
JOHN HAPTAS
TERRY HAIR
KOKOU SAM KATAMANI
LILLIAN KENKA
MICHAEL KEVANE
ANN KOHN
JAN KRAWITZ
TODD KUSHNIR
JONE LEE
MAUREEN LEWIS
KATHY LILLEY
KAY MABERRY
STEPHANIE MACHURA
MAGGIE MACKAY
MEGAN MCDONALD
JON & MARIE MORRISON
JIM MOWRY
JACK & IRENE MYLAN
NICOLE NEWNHAM
JAMES NOY
MALITH NGOR ANYOK
DANIEL NHIAL MAC
EDITH PALMBERG
DAVID PANDAK ADUOT
PAUL PEPPLE
CASEY QUINLAN
LUKA DENG RING
ELLEN SCHNEIDER
ADAM SCHNITZER
CAMILLE SERVAN-SCHREIBER
CHARLES & JOYCE SHENK
RICHARD SHENK
WILLIAM SHENK
MENG SHU
GABBY SKURNICK
JIM SMITH
PINDIE SMITH
PAUL STROMBERG
SARAH SMITHIE
PINDIE STEPHEN
JIM SUPER
JEREMY WEIKEL
AMBER WEIKEL
TERRA WEIKEL
DIANE WEYERMANN
NICOLE WIDDERSHEIM
LIBET WOLF
UNITED PLASTICS GROUP
WAL-MART, MIKE OVERTURN
DAVE WINTON
YMCA HOUSTON

archival footage and artwork
UNHCR

made possible with support of
SUNDANCE DOCUMENTARY FUND
PACIFIC PIONEER FUND
FLEISHHACKER FOUNDATION
DEN-MAT, INC.
NU LAMBDA TRUST

produced in association with
AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY, INC. and
INDEPENDENT TELEVISION SERVICE
with funding provided by
THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING

executive producer for itvs
SALLY JO FIFER

executive producer
FRANCES REID

© ACTUAL FILMS / PRINCIPE PRODUCTIONS 2003