In March 2012, a 30-minute film produced by U.S.-based not-for-profit Invisible Children and narrated by co-founder Jason Russell, aimed to shed light on Joseph Kony, the leader of the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

He was the target of the Kony 2012 campaign led by Invisible Children, which garnered international attention.

Before Invisible Children existed, in 2003, Russell, along with Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole, set out to create a film on the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan and travelled to northern Uganda to speak with those who had fled Sudan. Their plans changed when they witnessed the war in Uganda with the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Russell, Baily and Poole produced their first film, Invisible Children Rough Cut, and out of that film, the not-for-profit Invisible Children was born.

On this episode of What happened to…? Russell speaks about how the idea of Kony 2012 started, how it became a viral sensation after its release and the swift criticism that followed.

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