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A new film called Rwanda Rising looks at the African nation 12
years after the Rwandan genocide. Mike O'Sullivan reports, the documentary
produced by Andrew Young, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,
had its premiere in Los Angeles.
Ethnic tensions in Rwanda
led to the killings of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994. In 2004,
Andrew Young attended a memorial to mark the 10th anniversary of the
genocide. Returning to the United States, he saw several films about the
killings, but said the films were showing only part of the story.
"So I got a film crew to go with me the next time, and we just took
pictures of the people," said Young. "We tried to let the people tell
their own story and let the film show how far they have come in healing
the wounds of this horrible event, which is now 12-years-old."
The
resulting documentary, Rwanda Rising, opened at the Pan African Film
Festival in Los Angeles. It shows rebuilding efforts at the grassroots
level.
Clip from Film: "This is a coffee cooperative of 2,000
coffee growers and their families. And of those 2,000 people, 800 are
women. And of those 800 women, about half of them are widows of the
genocide."
Andrew Young lives in Atlanta. Today he helps run a company called
GoodWorks International, which promotes investment in Africa and the
Caribbean. He says when Americans hear African news, it is usually bad
news.
"But that is the way the news is," he said. "We always say, even in
Atlanta, if it bleeds, it leads. I understand that. But that is why it is
important for some of us to tell the good stories, the stories of healing,
the stories of prosperity, not just poverty, and the stories of political
unity after a tremendous conflict like this."
The film has interviews with Rwandan president Paul Kagame and Paul
Wolfowitz of the World Bank.
Former President Bill Clinton also appears in the film, impressed with
the way the two Rwandan ethnic groups have come together in villages that
foster reconciliation.
"I never cease to be shocked by the way the Hutus and the Tutsis live
together in these reconciliation villages, the stories they have of their
experiences during that horrible period and their refusal to let it shape
the rest of their lives," said Bill Clinton.
Music producer Quincy
Jones also appears in the film and he attended its premiere in Los
Angeles. Jones has been to Africa many times, and tells VOA that, too
often, those outside the continent are poorly informed about it.
"Because there are many sides of Africa, and until you take the time to
go out and take the energy and the compassion to go out and explore what
the differences are - there is a big difference in South Africa and
Johannesburg, and Darfur, or Kigali," said Quincy Jones.
The Rwandan capital of Kigali still has tensions, but Jones says the
Rwandans are resilient and are moving on.
Andrew Young says there are many bright spots in Africa, despite the
news stories of poverty, conflict and disease. He says South Africa is one
bright spot, and Nigeria is another.
"We hear about the bloodshed in the Niger Delta, which is real," he
said. "But Nigeria is [more than] 120 million people. And people are
moving together."
He says Nigeria has an elected civilian government, and has moved from
a budget deficit to a budget surplus. | 
