In terms of practical approaches to apprehending Kony, since I became aware of him when we began to make The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court in 2006, I've always wondered, who pays his satellite phone bill?  Where is he getting arms and ammunition?  Who is aiding and abetting him from the outside, and doesn't the sat phone company know exactly where he is every time he turns on the phone, or even when the phone is off?  If I can locate my iPhone from my laptop, why can't international intelligence operatives, and the U.S. army advisors on the ground in Uganda, figure out where he is?  We could find bin Laden but not Kony?  These are the questions that make me wonder what's going on.  I have no conspiracy theory about this, but I do wonder why the issue of how Kony survives as an armed and connected warlord with backers, is never addressed.

How can a documentary film contribute to social movements? By telling a story that captures the zeitgeist of a historical moment, that stirs and inspires audiences to reflect and to act. In this past year Granito: How to Nail a Dictator screened around the globe, from Amman to Auckland, Paris to Havana, São Paulo to Vancouver, New York to Moscow, Geneva to Lima, in over 50 film festivals. In screening after screening, audiences connected to the theme of the power of collective change espoused in Granito, resonating with the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street movements.  But most remarkably, Granito's release added its 'grain of sand' to the tipping point for justice reached in Guatemala this year, where more perpetrators of the genocide against the Maya people have been arrested, tried and convicted  than in the previous 30 years since we released When the Mountains Tremble .  And now to reinforce that tipping point, we are launching a companion digital project designed to restore the collective memory of the genocide in a public online archive, described here - Granito: Every Memory Matters.  The film's journey is reflected in the Granito Facebook page, where nearly 4,000 followers have rallied, sharing stories, news, and demanding justice.  And to get a sense of the people behind all of this, check out this slide show of photos of 'granitos' by renowned portraitist Dana Lixenberg.

As documentary activists who use film and advanced technologies to further human rights through storytelling, it's been a memorable year for us, from the standing ovation at Granito's Sundance Film Festival debut last January, to being Opening Night Film at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York, to vibrant discussions about power and democracy sparked at the Moscow screening , to meeting the amazing community that underpins Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival, to the nearly 1,500 people that filled 3 screenings in one night at the Hot Docs Doc Soup series in Toronto.  Another major highlight of the year was our Kickstarter campaign to make an indie run for an Oscar nomination, which brought 346 backers together with the goal of introducing the message of Granito to the millions of viewers that tune in to watch the Academy Awards.  In spite of a valiant effort we ultimately didn't get nominated, but our biggest reward is that now we have 346 committed backers who believe in what we do!

This really captures the essence of "Granito: How To Nail A Dictator": "'Granito'" is remarkable for allowing two intertwined stories, one global and the other personal, to unfold together.  It presents the hurricane of violence that enveloped Guatemala 25 years ago not just as a historical horror, but as a lens through which the filmmaker examines herself, her values, and her relationship to her art.  Subtle, provocative, and deeply original, it is a hymn to both the nobility of Guatemalans and the power of filmmaking." 

This great quote came from Stephen Kinzer, co-author of "Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala", an inspiration for the making of "When the Mountains Tremble", the prequel to "Granito".