Film students bring Rwandan tragedy home
A group of Fanshawe students recently returned from a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funded trip to Rwanda with the hope that the footage they shot while in the re-building nation will help raise awareness about some of the country's biggest problems.
The Fanshawe students, chosen based on their documentary proposals, spent 11-days in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, exploring two main themes for their films: The 1994 genocide and AIDS.
Jillian Brady, a member of one of the seven students whose proposal was accepted, explains that the project is expected to help shed light on some of Rwanda's more obvious problems.
“The program was designed to bring awareness to some of these issues,” Brady, who is in the Music Industry Arts program, explained. “They wanted to send people into the field to document, and then bring home a final product to share with others.”
But before being chosen as one of the students taking part in the CIDA sponsored trip, Brady says knew very little about the African nation's recent bloody history.
“I didn't know much about what happened,” Brady admitted, referring to the genocide that took place in the mid-nineties. “I wanted to learn though, because you have to be sensitive to the situation, and prepared, to bring back some of that awareness.”
And according to Greg Murphy, Chair for Fanshawe's School of Contemporary Media, that's exactly what they were aiming for.
“They should understand their world because it helps them to find themselves, and their strengths,” Murphy explained. “We put them on the ground in a situation where there was no access to clean water for most people, no electricity, or access to education. It was forcing them outside their comfort zone and hoping that it would carry over into their lives back home.”
The group Brady spent the majority of her time with was shadowing a couple of genocide survivors, and learning their stories. And most of that time was spent with a young man named Albert whose parents were killed during the genocide. He and his sisters had fled their house and were reunited a little while later at a displaced persons camp, after which he was responsible for taking care of them while still a teenager and in school. At 29 he is now hoping that one day he can get his Master's in engineering and has even written a thesis on a wireless car alarm.
“I don't think people really know what happened,” said Brady. “Over there not a lot of people get to go to school, or even get to dream, which is unfair because they're talented and smart.”
The second group spent their time focusing on AIDS and visiting local hospitals, including an AIDS widow's facility.
“We put them in Rwanda with a skeleton crew to study their topics in an unknown situation,” Murphy continued, explaining the work the students put into the trip. “Sometimes they were working from 4 a.m. through midnight without a break, so it was really tiring for them, but this sort of project helps expand the understanding of who you are and your understanding of the world, and the work we can do.”
Brady is hoping the movies will be done sometime in November, considering the teams have just started the editing. Both documentaries will also have a three minute featured spot on Global's “The National” sometime in the upcoming weeks, with the final product being aired during International Week on the program.
She believes that part of the documentaries draw will be that it's based on real people, but that also made it more difficult to film.
“Sometimes is felt like an invasion,” she explained. “So I didn't pry much. Most people were willing to share, but sometimes people would wave you away, which I understood, because I'm not sure how we'd feel if people were shoving cameras in our face and trying to film our everyday lives.”
If there was one moment that stood out for Brady however, it was a trip she made to a local church.
“I went to a service, which was mostly singing, and the sound was ridiculously intense. It's how some of them heal; they sing,” she explained.
“Most of these people have lost family members and here they were at the church to heal, to be with people, with other people who understood how they felt.”
“This wasn't a movie, these were real lives,” Murphy said about the documentaries. “People who had been mutilated and were without basic needs. My own feeling is that the films will be extraordinary when they're done because it's a talented crew and they captured some really compelling stories. It's going to get a really strong emotional reaction from the audiences.
“They aren't entertaining stories, they're enormously tragic.”
“I think the films will be cool because it's done from a student's perspective,” Brady continued. “And people need to understand, because I learned that we take our lives here for granted. The happiness everyone there has, they've held onto it through everything. Even though so many are in such trouble they're the happiest people in the world, much more than us, and we have everything we need.”
The Fanshawe students, chosen based on their documentary proposals, spent 11-days in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, exploring two main themes for their films: The 1994 genocide and AIDS.
Jillian Brady, a member of one of the seven students whose proposal was accepted, explains that the project is expected to help shed light on some of Rwanda's more obvious problems.
“The program was designed to bring awareness to some of these issues,” Brady, who is in the Music Industry Arts program, explained. “They wanted to send people into the field to document, and then bring home a final product to share with others.”
But before being chosen as one of the students taking part in the CIDA sponsored trip, Brady says knew very little about the African nation's recent bloody history.
“I didn't know much about what happened,” Brady admitted, referring to the genocide that took place in the mid-nineties. “I wanted to learn though, because you have to be sensitive to the situation, and prepared, to bring back some of that awareness.”
And according to Greg Murphy, Chair for Fanshawe's School of Contemporary Media, that's exactly what they were aiming for.
“They should understand their world because it helps them to find themselves, and their strengths,” Murphy explained. “We put them on the ground in a situation where there was no access to clean water for most people, no electricity, or access to education. It was forcing them outside their comfort zone and hoping that it would carry over into their lives back home.”
The group Brady spent the majority of her time with was shadowing a couple of genocide survivors, and learning their stories. And most of that time was spent with a young man named Albert whose parents were killed during the genocide. He and his sisters had fled their house and were reunited a little while later at a displaced persons camp, after which he was responsible for taking care of them while still a teenager and in school. At 29 he is now hoping that one day he can get his Master's in engineering and has even written a thesis on a wireless car alarm.
“I don't think people really know what happened,” said Brady. “Over there not a lot of people get to go to school, or even get to dream, which is unfair because they're talented and smart.”
The second group spent their time focusing on AIDS and visiting local hospitals, including an AIDS widow's facility.
“We put them in Rwanda with a skeleton crew to study their topics in an unknown situation,” Murphy continued, explaining the work the students put into the trip. “Sometimes they were working from 4 a.m. through midnight without a break, so it was really tiring for them, but this sort of project helps expand the understanding of who you are and your understanding of the world, and the work we can do.”
Brady is hoping the movies will be done sometime in November, considering the teams have just started the editing. Both documentaries will also have a three minute featured spot on Global's “The National” sometime in the upcoming weeks, with the final product being aired during International Week on the program.
She believes that part of the documentaries draw will be that it's based on real people, but that also made it more difficult to film.
“Sometimes is felt like an invasion,” she explained. “So I didn't pry much. Most people were willing to share, but sometimes people would wave you away, which I understood, because I'm not sure how we'd feel if people were shoving cameras in our face and trying to film our everyday lives.”
If there was one moment that stood out for Brady however, it was a trip she made to a local church.
“I went to a service, which was mostly singing, and the sound was ridiculously intense. It's how some of them heal; they sing,” she explained.
“Most of these people have lost family members and here they were at the church to heal, to be with people, with other people who understood how they felt.”
“This wasn't a movie, these were real lives,” Murphy said about the documentaries. “People who had been mutilated and were without basic needs. My own feeling is that the films will be extraordinary when they're done because it's a talented crew and they captured some really compelling stories. It's going to get a really strong emotional reaction from the audiences.
“They aren't entertaining stories, they're enormously tragic.”
“I think the films will be cool because it's done from a student's perspective,” Brady continued. “And people need to understand, because I learned that we take our lives here for granted. The happiness everyone there has, they've held onto it through everything. Even though so many are in such trouble they're the happiest people in the world, much more than us, and we have everything we need.”
