Another Rwandan film wins UK competition

Well, Rwandan movies continue to shine on the international film stage with considerable recognition. First it was ‘Africa United’, a sensational new film about a group of five African children who set out to walk thousands of miles to the World Cup venue in South Africa, then ‘Kinyarwanda’, which recently won the Audience Choice Award in the World Dramatic Cinema category at the Sundance Film Festival. And, here is another one yet again. Dieudonne Gahizi Ganza’s ‘The Change and I mean it’ won the Best Documentary prize at the 2011 Biomovie Competition, last weekend, beating 400 films in a competition organized by UK’s TVE. The film based on ‘Umuganda’, a Rwandan homegrown community work programme, provides a template for a backstage story and shows the importance of preserving the environment. “I don’t know how I can express my pleasure, or what to say, but I am absolutely happy as an African to win such competition. So it is an accolade for my country and my university,” says the excited Ganza, a final year student at the National University of Rwanda (NUR). The film also indicates the country’s major concern for the environment – where plastic bags are banned and where glass bottles and other items are recycled. ‘The Change and I mean it’ film is headed to the big screen as the acclaimed new environmental documentary and, it is set to be a major hit on several networks. In an interview, Ganza told The New Times that, as the overall winner of the competition, he was given an award and $2,000 as motivation fee. He also signed a contract with TVE, which will update him on upcoming international movie competitions. “My contract with the TVE will also involve buying my movies and getting markets for me,” Ganza notes. Meanwhile, the 1st and 2nd runner-ups were from Canada and US respectively. At the university, Ganza is offering Applied Statistics. Ends

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Another Rwandan film wins UK competition