If you’ve never heard of Joseph Kony, then most likely you’ll never forget who he is if you’re on Twitter or keep up with the latest viral videos on YouTube/Vimeo. The video below is simply titled “KONY 2012”, and looks to raise awareness against Joseph Kony, the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) who uses young children in his fight. The Twitter movement can be found under #stopkony and Invisible Children.

You can watch the video below. It features some disturbing moments, but is very eye-opening.

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

The viral aspect of the video has reached astronomical heights, being brought into the national media spotlight. Numerous Hollywood celebrities have been retweeting the video, increasing awareness of the documentary.

Alec Baldwin did what he knows best and interjected his political leanings into the proceedings…

Other celebrities have been able to keep politics out of the situation, and have simply raised awareness for the video…

The objective of the movement, and video is quite interesting. The reasoning is they want to make Kony famous, so he becomes important enough so that policy-makers and those with authority try and have him arrested for his crimes.

There is a hitch in this story worth noting. If you visit the YouTube page for the video, you’ll see a large number of dislikes. Those who criticize the ‘Invisible Children’ charity claim that they have manipulated facts, and have been opaque and misleading about how they’ve used funds donated to the charity.

Also, Hollywood hasn’t been completely blind to the LRA and the movement against them. In 2011, a movie titled – Machine Gun Preacher, was released. The plot follows a real-life man named Sam Childers who made it his mission to save children from the LRA. The trailer is featured below.