Devil Came on Horseback: docu turning into feature film

If it will bring the story to larger masses then I,m all for it, but I can’t help but feel that dramaticizing the events that Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg were able to skillfully document might be lsot in translation. Variety reports that the doc (one of my favorites at Sundance) based on the memoir of former US Marine Captain Brian Steidle will be brought once again to the big screen via Jen Chaiken and Sebastian Dungan of 72 Prods. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Freed will
adapt the story mostly from the novel version of The Devil Came on Horseback and borrow elements (I supposed) from the documentary film. Below is a description of the emotionally jarring documentary film that preemed this past summer.

Using the exclusive photographs and first hand testimony of former U.S. Marine Captain Brian Steidle, THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK takes the viewer on an emotionally charged journey into the heart of Darfur, Sudan, where an Arab run government is systematically executing a plan to rid the province of its black African citizens. As an official military observer, Steidle had access to parts of the country that no journalist could penetrate. Ultimately frustrated by the inaction of the international community, Steidle resigned and returned to the US to expose the images and stories of lives systematically destroyed. Sundberg and Stern’s film allows us to witness Steidle’s transformation from soldier to observer to witness and, finally, to passionate activist and moral hero. Renowned New York Times Op-Ed writer Nicholas Kristof published Steidle’s photographs in his groundbreaking series on Darfur entitled “The American Witness” which marked the first time photographs were included on those pages.