Academic English Studies

Events

Rwandan Film Shown in Portland

Date: February 18 2010 7:30pm Location: PCC Cascade Campus Moriarity Arts and Humanities Building Room 104

In 1994, hundreds of thousands of Rwandan Hutus were incited to wipe out the country’s Tutsi minority. From the crowded capital of Kagali to the smallest village, local “patrols” massacred lifelong friends and family members, most often with machetes and improvised weapons. Announced in 2001, and ending in 2009, the government put in place the Gacaca Tribunals, open-air hearings with citizen-judges meant to try their neighbors and rebuild the nation. As part of this experiment in reconciliation, confessed genocide killers were sent home from prison, while traumatized survivors were asked to forgive them and resume living side-by-side. Filming for close to a decade in the rural village of Gafumba, filmmaker Anne Aghion has charted the impact of Gacaca on survivors and perpetrators alike. Through their fear and anger, accusations and defenses, blurry truths, inconsolable sadness, and tireless hope, she captures their emotional journey back to coexistence. Winner of the Human Rights Watch 2009 Nestor Almendros Prize for courage in filmmaking. In French and Kinyarwanda with English subtitles.