Bruce David Janu

Who is Bruce David Janu?

Bruce David Janu is an educator and low budget indie filmmaker. Currently he teaches Social Studies at Elk Grove High School in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. When he is not teaching, Janu is making educational materials and films. In 2000, he created an educational supply company called Bell, Book & Camera Productions. Through his company, he wrote several educational books, including Bring Out Your Dead: Recreating the Black Death in the Classroom, Mouldering in the Grave: A Dramatic Approach to Teaching About John Brown and The Constitution: A Cooperative Learning Approach.

In addition, he has written several articles for Illinois History Teacher.

Janu began creating educational films for particular topics to be used in his classrooms. The films have covered a wide variety of subjects, including immigration, freedom, millennium fears and gothic cathedrals. Usually, the short films involve Janu dressing in strange costumes and talking with people on the streets of Chicago.

As a result of his educational video work, Janu moved Bell, Book & Camera Productions into the wedding videography field in 2001.

In 2005, he began work on his first feature-length film: a documentary entitled Facing Sudan. Janu got the idea for the film after meeting a young janitor at Hersey High School who had been to South Sudan. Brian Burns told him stories about children dying in his arms and villagers running for cover at the sound of a distant plane. When Janu decided to document Burns' story for another classroom video, he began meeting other people like Burns and soon the short, classroom video Janu had planned turned into a feature-length documentary.