Genocide documentary, “By the Shortcut” launched

Hundreds of people, who flocked the Petite Stade, on Tuesday, were left in tears and terrible shock after watching a terrifying Genocide documentary, “By the Shortcut”.

Thursday, April 16, 2009
Rwandan fashion designer, Daddy De Maximo Mwicira Mitali poses for a photo

Hundreds of people, who flocked the Petite Stade, on Tuesday, were left in tears and terrible shock after watching a terrifying Genocide documentary, "By the Shortcut”.

"By the Shortcut”, is a Genocide documentary directed by Rwandan fashion designer, Daddy De Maximo Mwicira Mitali.

It tells the story of Rwandan Tutsi killed and thrown into Akagera and Nyabarongo rivers during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi.

The noise inside the Stadium was terrifying, people screaming and crying, as they remembered their slaughtered loved ones. Then, a grief-stricken voice was heard from the crowd.

The trauma of the human catastrophe that left over a million dead is still raw, so raw that people are still very sensitive to even the slightest lapse of decorum.

Mitali, 26, joined the film industry after building a career in fashion design and modelling. He becomes the first Rwandan male to venture into fashion show business.

He shot his debut documentary after an extensive research on water bodies in Rwanda and Uganda. Findings are that more than 17,000 bodies piled up into rivers during the genocide.

‘By the Shortcut’, officially launched on April 14, had its premier at Kigali Serena, August, last year, which earned him fame.

It earned him an invitation from the Prince Chaus Fund for Culture and Development to dine with her Majesty Queen Beatrice of Holland.

Mitali (a Genocide survivor), last month presented his movie in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

In the same year, sponsored by Nokia, a mobile phone manufacturing company, Mitali organised Face of Africa show, in Rwanda at Lyco Umubano, formerly Novotel Hotel.

Alongside his talent, he has successfully found a fortune in fashion design and modelling which he started in 1999 and opened a fashion design agency, DadMax, in 2005.

Mitali put on limelight his first fashion collection in Rwanda -collaborated with the French ambassador’s wife Koro, to organise the international fashion design, Mode Afrique that attracted famous fashion models, namely; Alphadi (Niger), Patheo (Burkina Faso), Clara Kane (Senegal), Imane Ayissi (France), Christallix (Cameroon) Chouchou Lazaro (Gabon) and Gilles Taurre (Guadeloupe) who designs clothes for Miss Universe.

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In 2007, he attended the Afrique Festival Collection in Cameroon, which brought together 75 fashion designers and 85 models.

In the same year, he organised an international fashion show and the likes of Alpha Oumar from Guinea Conakry and Guy Amougau from Cameroon attended.

In February last year, Mitali participated in Cameroon’s fashion designers’ show that attracted other Africans in the same career.

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