THE WORLD STOPPED WATCHING is a sequel to the award winning The World Is Watching (also distributed by First Run / Icarus Films), a cinema verité look at foreign news coverage of a climactic moment in the US-financed Contra war against Nicaragua’s revolutionary government.

Fourteen years later, filmmakers Peter Raymont and Harold Crooks return to Nicaragua with two American journalists who were in the original film - and a Canadian journalist from La Presse - to discover what became of the first revolution to be conducted in the glare of the world media. They question the role and responsibility of journalists and their employers who first put Nicaraguans under the microscope, and then rushed off to the next hot spot.

Traveling throughout the impoverished country, we encounter Nicaraguans from every level of society: from Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega to an 82-year-old peasant survivor of a Contra attack, Carmela Requenes Martinez; to the legendary Sandinista commander, Julio Ochoa, and two former Contra mercenaries who admit to killings that took place during the U.S.-funded (and much discredited) Contra War.

The film also revisits the mothers and children in the barrios, the taxi drivers, and of course, the politicians. What has happened to their lives since 1987? How do they now feel about the Sandinista Revolution, the Contras, Ronald Reagan, and, most importantly, how do they feel about the sudden attention they then received from the international news media?

Much has changed. The country is now replete with strip malls, prostitutes and MacDonald’s. Literacy is down. Infant deaths are up. Many NGOs and UN agencies are doing useful development work, particularly in the area of women’s health and housing. But, according to recent UNESCO reports, 26% of Nicaraguan children never set foot in a classroom, a figure twice as high as the 13% average in the rest of Latin America.

The journalists have also changed. Do they still feel like frustrated high-paid mouthpieces for a hidden editorial line? Has their commitment to the power of journalism increased or diminished?

More importantly, however, for the filmmakers, is the other half of the story - what of the Nicaraguans left behind? What of the democracy they now live in? What of representation? Of freedom? Of poverty?

Also available in a 82 minute version

"Important! An illuminating film... for Media Studies, Media Literacy, Journalism, as well as for classed in Latin American History and Politics."—Journalism Studies

"Highly Recommended! In addition to the insights provided by reporters and photographers, which would be enough to keep a journalism class busy for a semester, the film is like a prism, allowing the viewer to see a number of different facets of the story, then weaving them together into a comprehensive whole. This is no easy task, and the end product is far-reaching, articulate and intelligent. Although billed as a sequel, this documentary stands by itself as a well-produced, articulate and intelligent film. It is essential for both journalism and media studies classrooms and an excellent supplement for classes in Latin American history and politics."—Educational Media Reviews Online

"A moving study of Nicaragua since the world stopped watching when Washington's perceived problem was fixed in 1990. Though justifiably critical of the U.S. media, this is a careful, balanced, accurate and sensitive documentary."—Thomas W. Walker, Ohio University, Author of Nicaragua: Living In The Shadow Of The Eagle

"This film is a moving testament to the hardships faced by the Nicaraguan people now that Washington's foreign policy elite has shifted its attention elsewhere. [The film] reminds us that the Sandinista revolution and the U.S.-financed counter-revolution were not just foreign policy abstractions, but life-altering events for thousands of people. The experiences of these individuals from all walks of life are a microcosm of the tumultuous events that tore Nicaragua apart, leaving scars that are not yet healed."—William M. LeoGrande, Dean of the School of Public Affairs, American University

"A rare view of the Nicaraguan people's triumphs and tragedies through the Sandinista Revolution and the US-run Contra war, and to the grim aftermath. This moving and sensitive portrayal... tracing the lives of individuals over these turbulent years, until today, is a fitting tribute to the memory of Ryan, a truly outstanding journalist, who closely shared Nicaragua's hopes and travail -- and yet, remarkably, unquenchable hope for a better future. To me, the message, searing and powerful, is that it is never too late for us to face what we have done and to try our best to help the victims salvage what they can from the wreckage of their lives and country for which we share a very large part of the responsibility."—Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology