Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine are two filmmakers who call D.C. home. They've made a name for themselves as writers, producers, and directors of documentary films, often for National Geographic and television, but their latest project has raised their profile far beyond the recognition of their previous work. War/Dance, for which the pair take joint directorial credit, has earned the couple a mantle's worth of awards this year, including the documentary directing prize at Sundance. The film is also being talked about as a serious Oscar contender.

The subject of War/Dance is a group of children in a refugee camp in war torn northern Uganda. Many of these children have already been roped into the conflict, as the kidnapping of children to serve as soldiers or victims of sexual abuse is an all too common story in the region. The children of the Patongo camp had managed, amid all this strife, to qualify for Uganda's National Music Competition, and the film focuses on the stories of three of the young musicians as the camp prepares for their competition appearance. Having recently become parents themselves, the Fines elected to make the film as a long distance collaboration, with Sean traveling to Uganda and shooting the film while Andrea remained in D.C. to work on the structure and piecing together of the footage Sean was getting. Amid a busy week of premieres, the Fines answered a few questions for DCist.

Making this film obviously put Sean into a lot of dangerous areas. Were there any moments that stand out as particularly frightening during the filming?

There were many frightening moments. But probably the most difficult had to be one of the nights we were driving back to camp after filming, I had just contracted malaria and were surrounded by camouflaged soldiers with six rocket propelled grenades pointed point blank at our faces. It took a few minutes to confirm they were military and not the rebels. Every day we had to have our guard up. Rebels were always around us. But in the end of the day our danger was nothing compared to what the kids that live in Northern Uganda face everyday. We were lucky we get to go home but the kids can't go home. They are trapped in the camp. Trapped in the war.

Photo courtesy THINKFilm Company, Inc.

How did the fact that you recently had a child of your own impact you during the making of a film that so closely examines such atrocities towards children?

Having a child effected us a great deal. From the very start we had a serious talk if the film was worth the risk. When it's just you out there you only have to worry about yourself, but now with a child we had to think about him. You have to think about all the what ifs — what if you get caught by rebels….what if you get shot…what if you get sick…what if you get killed. We decided that because the war in northern Ugandan was affecting so many children, over 30,000 abducted by rebels, as parents we had to take on this project. It would be something our son would be proud of.

Then when you are filming you also see things very differently. You think about the parents and how as a parent it is your number one duty to protect your child and the parents of Northern Uganda cannot protect their kids. You think how that must feel. And in the end of the day it makes you work harder, and try to make a better film.

I imagine it must have been an emotional shoot, being in such a grim situation, yet with children who are so strong and using music to lift themselves up out of that. Can you go into some of the emotions you went through during the filming?

The shoot was very emotional. Even the edit was emotional. But what is important is that no matter how emotional this film was for us...it is 100 or even 1000 times more emotional for the children of Patango. That said you can not help but get emotional when you have a 14 year old child tell you they were forced to kill people or film a young girl collapse at the sight of her father's grave (who died at the hand of the rebels). But I think what the children taught us was that their lives are more than painful memories, their lives can still be full of joy and hope. The overall emotion we felt was inspiration. You cannot help being around these beautiful, resilient, talented children and not feel inspired every second of the day.

Becoming close to the children, was it difficult to leave them once filming was over?

Leaving Northern Uganda and the kids was very difficult. We consider them family, but we were also excited, as were they, for us to start to put their amazing stories together. They trusted us with their stories; now it was our turn to help the rest of the world hear them. We left energized, committed and inspired to tell the children's stories in a way that would give them the dignity they deserved.

"Left" is also an interesting word. Even though we physically left the kids they will always be with us. We never stop thinking about them.

Have you kept up with the lives of the children in the film in the months since you've left?

We try to contact them every few weeks to keep up with them and let them know how their stories are affecting people in the United States. We helped start a scholarship fund with AMREF (a local NGO) that we help to manage with the translator we worked with. Every month the translator travels to Patango to check in on the children and monitor their needs and progress in school.

We also left our cell phone with Dominic (the xylophone player) since it is free to receive calls we can talk to him pretty regularly. He also calls us and hangs up to let us know to call him back. Usually this is around three in the morning. We quickly call back hoping to hear everything is OK.

What's your reaction to the way in which the film has been received?

The film has been so well received. Audiences love the film. Probably the best compliment as a filmmaker that you can get is when people tell you that days go by and even weeks and they cannot get your film out of their heads. People tell us this all the time. We feel like if this is happening we have done our job.

People have also responded with action. We get e-mails asking what people can do. Even children are responding telling us they feel they must help. One high school junior is even collecting used band instruments in her county to send to the Patango School. As the film begins to play in more cities, increasingly more people have contacted us to take action so we are very encouraged by the response so far. And since ticket proceeds help the kids, the more audiences the film reaches, the more the kids are benefiting.

How do you think basing yourselves in D.C. has impacted your careers as filmmakers?

We are proud to be called Washingtonians. D.C. is full of great filmmakers. Filmmaking is a team effort and we feel that some of the best filmmakers live in the D.C. area. We could not have made this film without the talented pool of people that live here . From our editor, Jeff Consiglio, to Henninger Media, the post house, where we mixed and color corrected the film, everyone put everything they had into making this a great film .The whole community got behind it. We can't wait to make our next film in DC.

What are your favorite aspects of this city, both/either as makers of film and/or as fans of film?

Our favorite aspects of D.C. as filmmakers are the people that work in film and television here. People in the filmmaking business that come from D.C. have a very true passion for storytelling. There is a proud history of great filmmakers from D.C. and we hope to follow in their footsteps. It is a small community of very talented people so you always know what others are working on and seeing different people's films. D.C. is full of life. It's inspiring to be a filmmaker here. It pushes you to be on top of your game. We love it.

Do you know what's next for you?

We are developing a fictional feature with a Hollywood producer about a former child slave from India, working on a new project with the producers of War/Dance about sports and children and working on a film with Joseph Califano about substance abuse and how it is crippling our society. Plus a few special surprise projects.

War/Dance is currently playing at Loews Dupont Circle theater.