Hillywood

Rwanda Film Festival
For the fifth year running Rwanda has had a film festival also called Hillywood. It is a traveling festival that goes in the cities but also the villages. They travel with a blow up screen and show the movies to the people. The movies are about a variety of things, from documentaries about different African countries to comedies and dramas directed by Africans, and even some random foreign films.
So far I have gone and seen 4 movies.
The first was Children of Congo. It was a documentary focused on the street children in Kinshasha and Goma. One of the most interesting aspects of the movie was the relation of children to being on the street and them being accused of sorcery. To be honest I had never thought of this. From what the film showed, it seems that when bad times fall on families they can blame it on a child, accuse them of sorcery or witchcraft, and then kick them out of the house. Of course the children are not witches.
Aside from looking at the causes of street children, the film also looked into the different programs that are trying to help the children and make whatever dent into the problem they can.
Overall I thought it was an okay documentary.
The next film I saw was Iron Ladies of Liberia. This is a go see. For sure. It is a documentary following the President of Liberia's first year in office. It also follows the new police commissioner of the country. Both of these positions belonged to women for the first time. The documentary takes place right after Liberia went through major conflicts. Not only is it informational to those of us who are not so well informed, but it also is enlightening to see women in such positions of power and how they deal with it.
I highly suggest if you can find this film, that you get it, and watch it.
The third documentary I watched with my friends was called War Child. It is a documentary about Emmanuel Jah, a child soldier from the Sudan who has become singer/rapper. He tells his story and then we get to see him go back to Southern Sudan for the first time since he was smuggled out as a child. One of the most amazing parts of the film was the achival footage they had of him as a boy in a UN refugee camp in Ethiopia.
Although at times it seemed a little to long and that it wouldn't ever rap up, I can still say that I enjoyed it and learned a lot.
If you cannot find this documentary I would suggest you look up some of his music, because he sings about his past experiences.
The last movie that I have seen as of now was called Iesta. It was the shortest documentary at only 55 minutes. But by far those 55 minutes are the most well used. As we all know 15 years ago there was a rwandan genocide. Too many people were killed, yet there is only one documented killing while it happened. Those murdered were recorded by cameraman Nick Hughes. If you hav ever watched anything about the genocide I am sure you have seen the clip, because it is the only clip of killings actually happening, everything else is just of the bodies afterwards.
This documentary is about Nick Hughes going back to Rwanda to find out who were the people he captured on tape being killed, and who were the people did it. This movie was obviously emotional on all fronts, but I have to say that it was also very interesting. I can't rightly explain. Or rather I can't find the write words to explain. But please look into this documentary.