George Clooney in Sudan

Journey to Sudan
For one week in October, actor George Clooney traveled to Sudan with documentary filmmaker Ann Curry (standing beside him on the boat, above) and John Prendergast, co-founder of the human-rights group the Enough Project, to study signs of mounting tension in the region as it prepares for a Jan. 9 referendum on whether the southern part of the country should gain independence from the north. Though the vote is a condition of an agreement the south signed with the Sudanese government after a brutal, decades-long civil war, many fear that the Sudanese government will not allow the oil-rich south to split off, which could trigger another conflict.

• Clooney's "Antigenocide Paparazzi": Watching Sudan from Above