Order your copy of the DVD

If you would like to order a copy of We Are All Rwandans on DVD (which comes as a double disk set with the DVD - french & english subtitles - and the beautiful original soundtrack on CD), please contact us. The usual price is £8 (of which £5 goes to school sponsorship and the fund to support survivors of the Nyange attack in Rwanda), plus £2 p&p.

Either contact Debs direct if you have her details or use the form at www.catsiye.com (under 'contact')

Mexican UN / Africala Festival pick up We Are All Rwandans

A privilege for us - here is the beautiful limited edition DVD cover for the compilation, which will be distributed in Mexican schools - check out Africala.org also.

Bend Film Festival

Next up for 'We Are All Rwandans' is Bend, Oregon, where the film is screening as part of the Bend Film Festival, which is by all accounts a lovely affair.

Debs will be at the festival for the duration (9-12 Oct) and attending both screenings, so please say hi if you happen to be too!

Non-Violence Film Festival

Just a quick one to let you know We Are All Rwandans is screening at the

NON VIOLENCE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

on the following dates:

9pm on Sunday 14th and Tuesday 16th September
2pm on Saturday 20th September

at the Princess Cinema (14th) and Kings Street Theatre (16th & 20th) in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.

Do pop along if you're nearby!

LA Shorts Baby

Although things are slightly crazy at the moment (see the India Short Film Blog!), there's definitely enough time to say that we were accepted to LA Shorts, which is brilliant news. They haven't yet published the programme online, but our screening time is:

5.15pm on August 16th
at the LA Shorts venue -
Laemmle Sunset 5 Theaters
located at 8000 Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood, CA 90046

At the minute it's looking unlikely that any of us will be there :-(, but if you're in the area and can make it down, please do!

That's all for now - xxxx

Best World Cinema Short @ Phoenix, Jacksonville coming up - and Short Film Corner @ Cannes

Just a quick one, but some great news in last week, to say we were awarded 'Best World Cinema Short' at the Phoenix Film Festival - awesome!
http://phoenixfilmfestival.org/pages/story-view.php?id=418

From May 15-21st it's the Jacksonville Film Festival, where We Are All Rwandans is listed in 3 programmes: 'the Short of It', 'Black Cinema' and 'World of Docs' - if you're in or around the area, please come down! (www.jacksonvillefilmfestival.com)

Also from May 14th-26th, the film is registered at the Short Film Corner in Cannes - a first foray into the mayhem, so will be interesting to see how that goes! (www.shortfilmcorner.com)

Debs and Ayuub also put together another tiny film (with Footprint's help and blessing!) during the March/April research trip in Rwanda. It's currently online at the Doorpost Film Project site - so if you'd like to check it out (and vote!), please do. It's a very short version of an amazing true story - filmed in a day (which rained a lot) with a fully Rwandan cast and crew apart from Debs. Miikka (who edited We Are All Rwandans) cut it in a day, and Bernie scored it in around 90 mins, so there wasn't much time for polishing. That said, check it out!
http://videos.thedoorpost.com/?film=2796a211a13b79703749f8941cfc4b56

A final note of good news - by means of exploring the partnership, Footprint produced with around half the original We Are All Rwandans London team (Debs, Miikka, Bernie - no Tim, Mairi, Sara or Sven sadly, due to geography and/or other commitments) - a ten minute short 'Home', for the 168 festival, an LA-based competition held each year in the spring. We were pleased and surprised to receive 12 nominations for this - for our actors and pretty much all the crew too - and to pick up 2 awards: best supporting actress and best director. Better than a poke in the eye for sure! If it's online at any point we'll let you know.

Hillywood & Feature Development

Greetings from the Rwanda Film Festival - 1 week of rural screenings (Hillywood) and 1 week of slightly more glamorous screenings and events in the country's capital Kigali.

Director/co-writer Debs and Footprint Film producers Mark Blaney and Jackie Sheppard (with features casting director Jeremy Zimmermann) joined the Hillywood crew to see We Are All Rwandans and 5 other films in the kinyarwandan language play on an inflatable screen in 6 towns around Rwanda (pictured above in Kibuye). It was an unforgettable experience to see crowds gather in the town stadiums and the 80ft screen inflate ready for the light to fade and movies begin.

Prior to Hillywood, we were also thrilled to be able to attend a screening of the film on a similar screen in Nyange school itself - on March 18th, the anniversary of the attack 11 years ago. We were also able to attend a memorial service the next day, which was really special.

Many of the attack survivors were in attendance

Laying flowers at Chantal's graveAmazing dancersThe school drummers

The Rwanda International Film Festival then kicked off with a bang a week ago, with a dignitary-attended opening ceremony in the plush Serena hotel.

Our film was played at the top of the opening night program, and got possibly the best response I've ever seen - with a round of applause as Helene makes her last stand. It was being hailed as an important moment in Rwandan cinema, which was very exciting... especially as we now begin work on the development of a feature script - which is the main purpose of this trip.

It's a pleasure and a joy to be working again with the wonderful Ayuub (above - in work mode!)- but slightly overwhelming as we listen to people's stories to realise both how many stories there are, and how much sadness there is amongst the inspiration and hope. The task for the next couple of weeks here, and then whatever follows, will be to find a path between truth and hurt and hope - as we try and create a representation of this beautiful and inspiring country and people in film...

Saying hello again to the Nyange kids

With Mark and Jackie - all of us shattered after a long flight and driving straight to the school! (But still smiling)

Completely exquisitely beautiful... We'll keep you posted on future developments - unless we see you here first!