Conversation, Screening

This program, introduced by Alison Des Forges, examines the role of documentary film in raising awareness of rebuilding processes after catastrophic ethnic conflicts, specifically the effects of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Filmmaker Anne Aghion will be joined in a post-screening discussion by Des Forges, a senior adviser at Human Rights Watch and expert witness in numerous trials at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, as well as Stella Umutoni, a global peace and unity advocate hailing from Rwanda.

5:00 PM Pre-Event Screening: Anne Aghion’s influential film Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda?(55 mins., 2002) captured the testimonies of both survivors and killers in the remote community of Ntongwe, as the government was preparing the Gacaca tribunals, a new system of citizen-based justice intended to handle over 100,000 genocide suspects languishing in detention.

6:45 PM Screening: Aghion returns two years later with In Rwanda, We Say…The Family That Does Not Speak Dies, (55 mins., 2005) as close to 16,000 suspects, still untried, are released across the country. Having confessed to their crimes and having served the maximum sentence the Gacaca tribunals would eventually impose, perpetrators of appalling crimes are sent home to plow fields and fetch water alongside the people they victimized.

7:45 PM Screening: The Rwandan genocide left the country nearly 70% female, handing Rwanda’s women an extraordinary burden and an unprecedented opportunity. An inspiring story of loss and redemption, Kimberlee Acquaro’s 2006 Academy Award-nominated God Sleeps in Rwanda (28 mins, 2006) tells the story of women survivor’s spirit to overcome the genocides devastating legacy. The film follows five courageous women as they rebuild their lives, and, in doing so, redefine women’s roles in Rwandan society.

Participants
Anne Aghion, filmmaker
Alison Des Forges, senior advisor to the Africa division of Human Rights Watch
Stella Umutoni, activist

These events are a part of the “Considering Forgiveness” Cycle.