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‘Bill Gates Congo Man’ and his Crafty Crew of Preteen Gangsters

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‘Bill Gates Congo Man’ and his Crafty Crew of Preteen Gangsters

Meet three street kids growing up in war-ravaged Eastern Congo who survive on petty hustling, an unconventional sense of brotherhood, and no shortage of charm.

Theo Anthony
Nov 30, 2015
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‘Bill Gates Congo Man’ and his Crafty Crew of Preteen Gangsters

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Interview by Holly Lynn Ellis

Theo Anthony’s short film “Chop My Money” depicts a day in the life of three street kids in the Eastern Congo. Largely unsupervised and living in a region ravaged by war, David, Guillan and Patient — or “Bill Gates Congo Man,” as he likes to be called — are self-proclaimed gangsters, although their primary money-making routine consists of hustling the town’s NGO workers for spare change. But the tough-talking trio conforms to no preconceptions of what children growing up in a war zone should be like. Instead, they insist on writing their own story.

Holly Lynn Ellis: Tell me about your background and what led you to the Congo.

Theo Anthony: I’m based in Baltimore. I didn’t go to film school, but I studied film theory. I got out of school and lived in Baltimore for a while, in New York for a while. I didn’t like the work that I was making; I didn’t like the scene I was making it in. My girlfriend at the time had just accepted an NGO position in Rwanda. She was…

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