Patriot’s for tomorrow; Rwanda’s young, restless filmmakers

“You can follow something on the radio,” the young filmmaker and director of the Amani Film Festival says, “but it can make a much better, stronger impact to see something. Seeing and understanding, versus hearing is very different.” He blames this on the problems of the Great Lakes region’s history. According to many, rumour and hate-inspiring media such as radio and radical print journalism did much to facilitate ethnic hatred and violence that has long devastated this part of Africa. For a country where even broadcast television is only a 15-year old addition to the society, long has visual-based history been neglected. So he and some fellow filmmakers decided to reverse the trend. For what is still an industry in the most embryonic of stages, Moses Musafiri and the three other founders of the Amani Great Lakes Film Festival, have helped turn film into a culture—be it a small one still—and a culture for peace in Kigali. Following last March’s Rwanda Film Festival, highlighted by former UN ambassador Andrew Young’s documentary Rwanda Rising, the Amani, which takes its name from the Swahili word for peace, premiered in July, showcasing over 60 films with directors. Running this past summer from July 21 to July 27, the weeklong first annual festival focused on ‘pictures of peace’ from across the world, with many films focusing either specifically on the 1994 Genocide or peace issues. It is an important issue for people like Moses, both as filmmakers and as citizens of Rwanda. The festival, along with just few others throughout the year, has become a major building block and player in not only the cinematic arts in Rwanda, but the culture of dialogue in the country. “Our objective is to promote the peace,” says Musafiri. “It is culture exchanging. We live in a region that is in war all the time. We have had a bad background, and that is why we have to promote the peace.” “Look at the Congo. They can make a movie about love and war, and that is beautiful. After the film, filmmakers from Rwanda, Burundi, and everywhere else will meet together and talk about the film and debate.” Now Musafiri is preparing for the second festival, slated for late 2008. Currently, two South African films are confirmed. Cinema in Rwanda has been a fragile, almost invisible industry, but the administration is placing big dreams on its future. The country is hoping to compete with more traditional film-industry heavyweights such as Kenya and South Africa for filming rights. During March 3 Annual Rwanda Film Festival, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Joseph Habineza announced Rwanda’s intention to dive wholeheartedly into the entertainment field, citing its location, geology, and security as prime reasons why local and international filmmakers should practise their craft in the country. But all that begins with a few inquisitive young minds. Along with the Amani Film Festival, the country has been represented globally, most recently and importantly at New York’s TriBeCa Film Festival, where three young students from the Rwanda Cinema Centre had films showcased. Award-winning filmmaker Eric Kabera (Keepers of Memory) founded the Cinema Centre in 2001, citing a “lack of resources for audiovisual endeavours.” Staging screenings in outdoor stadiums and in fields on inflatable screens, the Cinema Centre was able to show films by Rwandan filmmakers to thousands of people throughout the hills of the country—telling their own stories from their own perspectives to their own people. In March this year, the Cinema Centre held its third annual festival, aptly named ‘Hillywood.’ Six weeks later, at a ceremony in New York, former US President Bill Clinton praised both President Paul Kagame, attending the festival, and the film industry for helping redevelop Rwanda. “These young filmmakers are part of that future. They’re not just trying to build an economy: they’re trying to build a modern political system and a modern rich culture rooted in who they are without denying where they have been; looking toward where they can go and what they can become,” Clinton said. As the country and industry grow though, more and more things will be expected from this small country and its small number of filmmakers. “I can see that many Rwandans don’t have a culture of film,” says, Musafiri, who counts Burkina Faso director Gaston Kabore amongst favourites. “In Rwanda there is no school of cinema in the country. We have one person who comes here and can do workshops, but we have no real training grounds, and material and equipment is very expensive. These are some of the challenges we face.” But for the filmmakers of Rwanda, cinema is the solution as well. Gilbert Ndahayo, one of three Cinema Centre students to make the trip to New York, like many in his field, escaped surreal horrors during the 1994 Genocide before turning to film. Ndahayo’s family was murdered in his home’s courtyard after being taken from a convent where they sought refuge. They were killed together with 200 others. The story is not uncommon in Rwanda, but responses like Ndahayo’s have been; he recently finished a documentary compiling confessions and memories of 50 Genocide survivors. As he said to the BBC in March this year, “Rwanda has suffered a lot. I have suffered a lot. I want to express it.” But film making in Rwanda is not simply a reaction to the 1994 Genocide—though it has been a major focal point for the industry—but an integral partner in helping the country and society grow into itself. Rwanda Cinema Centre founder and long-time refugee in the Congo Eric Kabera has sights on directing the country’s first piece of comedy, after filming its first feature film, 100 Days. “It’s a comedy about a beautiful girl. But I talk to investors and they say: ‘A comedy in Rwanda? I don’t see that’,” said Kabera in an interview with the UK-based The Independent. “That’s the problem we have now. These films are sending a message about Rwanda, so at least people know where we’re from. But it means that everybody who sees it sees the Genocide and nothing else. It is a good introduction but we want to go beyond the genocide. We want to present a new face of Rwanda.” They are off to a strong start. Ends