More photos from the shoot

Are online at http://www.catsiye.com/rwanda-stills/

Update from London!?

The Cast & Crew - from left to right...

Sonia, Eric, Tim, Bernie, Fabrice, Sven, Aloys, Viateur, Gladys, Sara, Solange, Debs
Mairi, Emmanuel, Kennedy, Ayuub, Billy, Celeste

Well - we're back. All apart from Sven at least, who's staying on now in Rwanda to work on another documentary. Bernie and I, Tim and Mairi flew in this morning (after an 8 hour layover in Nairobi - nice), which is what Sara had done the day before!

Tim's crane gets a run=out - wicked!

We said goodbye to the cast and crew in Kigali - hard to believe that 2 weeks have gone so quickly, and quite how much got done in that time!! I'll attempt to follow up this post with some sort of link to pictures of the shoot and everybody - they are such a cracking lot!

Kennedy playing the students' teacher, Mr Murigande

Still a little dazed to tell coherently of the 4 generators that packed up on us during a 5 day shoot, or Tim and Mairi's near miss getting on the plane from Entebbe (not their fault!) or Nairobi Eye Flies (better known to us now as Beelzebugs!), or the amazing support of the school students - including some of the siblings of those who died - who joined the film as cast, extras, techies and onlookers! ...

Or our incredible cast - who also mostly doubled as crew when they weren't acting!! - all found through the Rwanda Cinema Centre, who were a totally invaluable part of putting this together. Or Emmanuel and Emerte, survivors of the attack, who were script supervisors, extra-finders and incredibly supportive of the project.

Filming the rebels in a local townlet

Or for that matter, the amazing UK team - Sven, Tim, Mairi, Sara and Bernie - all self-funded, all unbelievably hard-working, passionate, talented and a real treat to do this with. Or particularly Ayuub, our co-writer and Rwandan producer extraordinaire - simply one of the best blokes you're ever likely to meet - and a gifted film-maker in his own right.

Recreating the attack scene, with guns loaned by the local police force!

More photos to follow - and maybe even some stills from the footage! Meanwhile - thanks loads for thoughts, prayers and support - even when it all went a bit mental, as it did more than once, it was a case of remembering that this really is quite an extraordinary story - and one definitely worth telling!

Our Nyange Students

Loads of love - xxxDebs

Update from Kigali!

Just a quick one - from a very odd keyboard, so apologies for typos!

All going well - we got 2600 quid funding from 3 sources on the day we left!!! Talk about last minute, but HUGELY encouraging, not to mention a big relief...

Last day today before heading to the school to film - director of photography Tim and prod manager Mairi arrive tonight from their shoot in Uganda, meanwhile zwe are doing final castings here in Kigali

We have been to the school and it is so bequtiful. It's a difficult balance to be there with fun-loving students and actors, and the survivors and subject matter of the story we are there to film. It is a balance we will need to keep finding!

All is coming together - still got to find a way to recreate an explosion!! but we have all the regional permissions from police etc, ministry - crucial! - and are borrowing guns from the local police?!, have been working with survivors, and the wonderful rwanda cinema centre to finalise script details, run the castings, and make all the crazy arrange,ents - this in addition to nearly losing sven and bernie to the countryside yesterday when they drove to meet ayuub in an unmarked location near the school!

Really appreciate prayers and well wishing - it is certainly felt!

Filming now from tomorrow - weds - to next monday. All to do!

Time in byumba with debs aunt Meg was also wonderful - no time to say more - all love and thanks again for yr support and interest

xxx Us all