Internews Peace-Building Films

Internews Europe worked with local journalists to produce the 12 documentaries, which were filmed in both countries and tell stories of everyday life involving music, sport, and village events. The films seek to familiarise communities on both sides of the conflict-affected border with each other and to show how they can live together in peace. The productions were also broadcast on local television and radio stations in both countries and were broadcast daily on public buses and a ferryboat in the DRC.

The following 4 films are being shown in screenings in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, and on the "Hillywood Country Tour" (nicknamed for Rwanda's hilly countryside):

• Les Enfants de Dieu (Children of God): The film examines the various activities of family planning organisations in internally displaced persons camps. It describes family planning options and how women can access these methods, and discusses the new, more open attitude of the Catholic Church regarding family planning.
• Special Koffi: This movie features Congolese music star Koffi Olomide. Olomide once performed at a stadium in Kigali, Rwanda, where he explained how natural it is for music and musicians to cross borders.
• A Letter to My Daughter: This film was produced in French and Kinyarwanda with English subtitles. A young Congolese journalist is shocked when she interviews victims of domestic violence in Rwanda and Congo.
• 24h in Mutubo Camp: This film shows the Hutus ex-combatants in a transit camp in Rwanda. Click here to watch this film.

Conflict.

According to the organisers, since November 2008, public screenings of the documentaries by Internews' office in Rwanda have led to nearly 20,000 people returning from all parts of the country and Eastern Congo.

A Letter to My Daughter was nominated for an Award in the international documentary category of the International Film Festival South Africa, which took place in November 2009, and was selected for the Radar Hamburg Film Festival that same month in Hamburg, Germany.

Internews is an international media development organisation whose mission is to empower local media worldwide to give people the news and information they need, the ability to connect, and the means to make their voices heard.