Pan African Film Festival and Hillywood trailer

It looks possible that more exciting news will follow, but for now, just a couple of bits:

1. We were selected for the Pan African Film Festival which is happening LA during February - I'll post the link once it's up - which is quite exciting, and even more brilliantly, is taking place the same week as a great friend of Debs and Bernie gets married (also in LA!), so they're able to go. We're thrilled to be in the festival, and really looking forward to seeing how the film goes down in an audience full of strangers! Debs and Bernie will be in LA from Jan 31st to mid-Feb.

2. I just received this LINK which is an online trailer for a doc being shot this year about the Hillywood rural film festival, where our film will play in Rwanda in March. It's a totally brilliant initiative, which takes an 80ft inflatable movie screen to villages around Rwanda, and plays locally made films. It's had coverage on the Beeb and all over the place - and we're thrilled to be part of it. Look out for Ayuub (our co-writer and co-producer) - who also co-ordinates Hillywood - in the trailer. He's such a dude.

3. The new website is NEARLY ready - and will have more detailed information, publicity pics, bits from the soundtrack and HOPEFULLY a trailer - I'll post here when that's up.

4. Finally - we have raised something like £700 through album sales so far, which is amazing. Thanks so much for that, and I'll try and post up details and updates of the two organisations over the next month or two if any are interested in supporting them further. (Please read the last post for more details about the organisation).

Lots of love - as mentioned at the beginning of this post, I hope there will be more exciting news to follow soon...! xxx

Get Involved

Along with our first proper screening tonight, we are making the rather wonderful original soundtrack to the film available as a CD, in the hope of raising some support for two organisations in particular.

The first organisation we would love to be able to send support to is Rev Meg Guillebaud's school sponsorship work, which is a part of Friends of Byumba


Meg was born in Burundi and now lives in Northern Rwanda, working with the Diocese of Byumba - an area which was badly hit by the genocide and now has a huge population of war widows and orphans. Meg is extremely involved with the local community, organising training, medical funding and school sponsorship among many other things. It costs around £150 a year to support a child through school, and Meg's ability to facilitate orphans and the children of sick parents getting to school is restricted only by the amount she has to spend. Aloys, one of the main actors in the film, actually realised half way through the shoot that his own brother had been educated because of Meg's help with the fees. We would love to be able to contribute towards more school fees in this critical way.

The second organisation is the KOMEZUBUTWARI assocation, which is headed up by Emmanual Ulimubenshi - survivor of the class 6 attack. Emmanuel has been a crucial part of the process of making the film - he helped us with script research, with organising permission to film in the school, and during the actual shoot, was with the production team for the duration, helping us to reconstruct what happened in the most accurate way possible. (He is pictured below with Fabrice who played Emmanuel in the film).


The KOMEZUBUTWARI organisation is incredibly exciting - it was established by the survivors of the Nyange massacre, and their activities include the following:
- Organising training and debates around issues of reconciliation and peace
- Facilitating post-trauma care for attack victims
- Fundraising for the ongoing healthcare for those injured in the attacks, some of whom have still not received the medical attention they need after 10 years
- Fundraising to support attack victims through higher education after many missed getting the crucial government note which provides support through university

We are beginning to explore ways to support these wonderful guys in their work - if you have any questions or ideas, please don't hesitate to be in touch

Details about these initiatives and the soundtrack will follow shortly on the film's official website (currently work in progress):
www.WeAreAllRwandans.com

Completion!

Well, it's pretty much done, and it looks like we have the opportunity to have a guest-list only screening of our film at BAFTA, but obviously this is only worth doing if you all can make it! They've been lovely in helping us set this up, but the date is only 10 days away - please check your diaries and let us know whether this is any good asap... (contact Debs at debs49 'at' gmail.com for details)

To refresh your memory if you don't want to read the archives: 'We Are All Rwandans' is mid-length (30 min) drama about childhood heroism in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. Based on a true story, and filmed in the actual locations where the events took place, this is a collaboration between UK and Rwandan film-makers to retell an amazing Rwandan story.

We are currently looking at two 'friends & family' screening dates - both to be confirmed asap: November 22nd at BAFTA, and Nov 30th at the RSA just off the Strand.

Details of booking/guest-listing will follow - we really hope you'll be able to join, to watch, and help us celebrate this whole thing actually coming together!

Nearly there & Funding!

Well, the great news is, we've nearly done it. I hope that in the next couple of weeks we'll be finished and thinking in terms of screenings and DVDs! There are some stills below to give a sneak peak though...

Early responses have been good too, which is really encouraging. We also got news a few days ago that we are being fully funded for the costs so far and those remaining - amazing!

Big thanks to Ayuub and the RCC guys in Rwanda (check out RwandaFilmFestival.org) who are still working at their end recording voiceovers and uploading them to the net so we can download - as well as checking translations etc. It's quite cool that you can still work as a team from different sides of the planet.

Anyway - just a quick one really - but here are some stills from the cut... Look forward to being able to show you the whole thing :-)

ALSO - if anyone knows the best format for subtitling a film - please get in touch!!

xxxx

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