Rwanda through Eric Kabera’s lens

Eric Kabera, 45, a journalist, filmmaker and founder and president of Rwanda Cinema Centre, is credited with pioneering the modern phase of Rwanda’s film industry.

In 2001, he teamed up with British filmmaker Nick Hughes to produce the 1994 genocide-inspired 100 Days, a low-budget international hit that gave the country’s film industry the boost it needed after years of stagnation.

100 Days, which brought to light the horrors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, had a successful premiere in Kampala and won the Best Cinematography Award at the Delhi Film Festival in India in 2002.

But the high of 100 Days was followed by the lows of Keepers of Memory, a documentary Kabera did for the 10th commemoration of the genocide. He also produced Through my Eyes — a documentary film about Rwandan youth reflecting on their past, present and future — The Chosen and Intore.

In 2010, however, riding on the euphoria that surrounded the World Cup in South Africa, Kabera rebuilt his career with Africa United, a haunting feature film that earned him recognition by the Directors Guild of America and the Pan African Film Festival’s prestigious African Creative Visionary Award in Los Angeles, US.

Sharing experience

After a career that spans 14 years, Kabera is today considered the father of Rwanda film industry and he shares his experience and skills with a new generation of Rwandan filmmakers whom he inspires to take up the calling.

In his endeavour to build the industry, in 2005, he started Hillywood, Rwanda’s first film festival that serves as a platform for locally made films, one through which local filmmakers interact with internationally-established professionals.

In 2010, he founded Kwetu Film Institute, Rwanda’s first film school offering all aspects of movie making — scriptwriting, production, directing, acting, lighting, sound, post-production, etc.

Today, many young Rwandan filmmakers — some of them former students of Kabera — are making waves with a plethora of award-winning films, the bulk of which tackle the issue of genocide.

One of Kabera’s former students, Kivu Ruhorahoza, is the maker of Grey Matter, a feature film that won the jury special mention for Best Emerging Filmmaker at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival and the Ecumenical Jury special mention at the 2011 Warsaw Film Festival.

The 110-minute film — whose storyline rotates around two siblings grappling with co-dependency and post-traumatic stress disorder after the 1994 genocide — also won Ruhorahoza the Best Director Award at the Tubingen French Film Festival and the Jury Special Prize at the Khouribga Film Festival in Morocco.

Another of Kabera’s proteges is Thierry Dushimirimana, one of many new generation Rwandan filmmakers who made himself a name in 2006 with A Love Letter To My Country, a 36-minute film that tells the story of a romance between a Tutsi girl and Hutu man whose lives were greatly affected by the 1994 genocide.

The film earned Dushimirimana international recognition when it screened at various international film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in 2011.

Poupoune Sesonga is another young filmmaker whose 12-minute Kivuto, released in 2012, took her to film festivals in the US, South Africa, Belgium, Finland, Burundi and France, among other countries, and also won her seven accolades along the way.

Kivuto follows the life of a disabled child who lost her parents in the genocide and who has to cope with life minus the parental love and care that most children get.

In the same year when Sesonga released Kivuto, Richard Mugwaneza launched his career with Nota Bene, a 17-minute film about a boy who — spurred on by a burning desire to make something of his life — embarks on a long and intricate journey from his home village to the city, a world totally unknown to him. The film, Mugwaneza says, “helped me get exposure at several film festivals in the United States and Europe.”

But even as they ride the wave of success, most Rwandan filmmakers opt for short productions; “Making films is expensive and difficult, so to break into the career one has to start with a short film,” says Kabera.

Kabera thinks the future of Rwanda’s film industry is “bright but more support and investment is needed” for filmmakers “to continue telling local stories.”

Luxor to the rescue

In the recent past, Egypt’s annual Luxor African Film Festival has come to the rescue of some young and talented Rwandan filmmakers with offers of grants aiming at helping them bring their projects to life.

Msafiri Kayambi was the first to win a $5,000 grant last year through the festival’s Space to Establish Partnership Programme (STEP) for his first short film titled Dark Days, which tells the story of the struggles of an upcoming filmmaker. Dark Days was also among the films that premiered at this year’s festival.

This year, two of the five beneficiaries of the STEP programme were Rwandan filmmakers Phillip Mbabazi and Joel Karekezi, who received $5,000 each courtesy of their films Nine Letters and Mercy of the Jungle, respectively.

At press time, Kayambi had just embarked on Expulsion, a documentary film that follows former Rwandan refugees who were last year “expelled” from Tanzania.