Bridging communication gap for deaf is his calling

In 2007, he applied for a young filmmakers’ training workshop at the Rwanda Cinema Center and did not make it to the shortlist. However, his zeal to make films never stopped. Today, Jean-Marie Vianney Manishimwe is a budding filmmaker, entrepreneur and founder of Locus Film Production, a filmmaking house based in Kigali. He spoke to Moses Opobo about his aspirations. How did you end up behind the camera? From when I was three years old, my dad had a camera at home which he brought from Belgium. When I was six years, I started playing with the camera whenever he was away. I took photos at social gatherings like weddings, and sometimes I just loved to hold the camera. Gradually, I started falling in love with art media and taking pictures. Unlike other boys, I spent more time watching movies than playing football. By 2005 I started thinking about being part of our film making industry. I begun writing some comedy and theater scripts. I also wrote and acted in a play at my local church. In 2007 a friend told me the Rwanda Cinema Center was organizing training for young filmmakers. They wanted 25 people, and I was the third last to be registered. Two ladies came after me, so in the spirit of affirmative action they were taken instead of me. It was like my worst day, because it was me who had informed some of the applicants about the training. But it gave me new courage to work harder. It’s also where I met Richmond Runanira, my co-founder at Locus Film Production. Richmond was one of the students who directed a film launched on the closing day. That’s how we met, and then parted ways immediately after. We never saw each other until after four years. How did you team up? In 2008 I got a job at EWSA as a technician and stayed in it four years. I only did it for a living. It wasn’t my passion. In 2012, after we met again, I resigned shortly after, and we started Locus Film Production. What was the beginning like? I remember we started with one camera and a computer. We had the idea of shooting a documentary about the deaf. However, I needed someone with some experience in filmmaking, which I didn’t have. We started to imagine what kind of scripts we would develop from the deaf community that could effectively tell their story. We wrote a proposal and scripts and took to the Rwanda National Union of the Deaf (RNUD), then started shooting shortly after. Imagine living in a world without sound, a reality which many Rwandans with hearing impairments have to live with everyday. In the documentary film, A World Without Sound, the viewer is taken on a trip to the reality of the lives and challenges of deaf people, struggling both in Rwanda and elsewhere. Sign language is the foundation of the deaf community, and this film advocates the awareness of its inclusion and recognition before the law, across all sectors of the society for the greater good of bridging the gaps of communication between the deaf and those who hear.