A blast from the internet's viral hall of fame, Kony 2012, is back in Narratively's in-depth look into how the sensation-turned-cancellation came to be—and what has happened in the 11 years since the video promising to change the world ripped through headlines. In the piece, the visionary behind Kony 2012, Jason Russell, opens up about how his past brought him to take on Joseph Kony, the leader of Ugandan's guerrilla extremist group, the Lord's Resistance Army. Russell's tale begins with his performances as a teen in a group called Christian Youth Theater, during which Russell and other teens were alleged to have been sexually abused by staff. After those alleged crimes were ultimately brushed under the rug, a therapist later told him he was his parents' "invisible child."
He continued to perform in missionary youth theater, traveling to Central Africa, where he vowed to return and make a real impact. On his first filming trip in war-torn Sudan, he captured harrowing stories about the LRA, which he compiled into a film that ultimately was not accepted into festivals like Sundance back home. Russell did not give up on his new mission and formed Invisible Children, a non-profit that used provocative storytelling to promote social change. Driven by idealistic recent graduates packed like sardines in a San Diego home, the group created the 29-minute Kony video released in 2012 that had three days of record-breaking, viral glory driven by everyone from Oprah to the Kardashians, before plummeting alongside Russell's mental health as critics panned its white-savior framing. Read the full story here. (Read more about LRA's Joseph Kony.)
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