New Movie Kinyarawanda Tells Old Story in New Way

On Friday, the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement,a collaborative distribution entity backed by some of the most prominent black film organizations, released its second film, KINYARWANDA: A story of survival, in theaters in eight cities nationwide.

Urbanworld Film Festival in New York, Bronze Lens Film Festival in Atlanta, ReelBlack Film Series in Philadelphia, and Langston Hughes African-American Film Festival in Seattle are some of the organizations that make up AFFRM. The collaborative effort was founded by Ava Duvernay in the spring of this year and on March 11, AFFRM made its first theatrical release with the film "I Will Follow," which was written, produced, and directed by Duvernay herself.

Kinyarwanda is based on true accounts from the survivors of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, who took refugeat the Mosque of Kigali and Madrassa of Nyanza. Like 2004's Hotel Rwanda, the film focuses on acts of violence and this hatred still continue today not only in Africa, but in other parts of the world as well.

Hopefully this film will spark conversations and questions, for if it is able to reach someone new and allow that individual to speak out against genocide than it has done its job.

It is sad to say, that for some Kinyarwanda will still only be a film a depicting the horror and terrifying reality that is the genocide in Africa, but for those who dare to look much deeper, and who are willing to open their hearts,Kinyarwanda will hopefully be much more than just a movie, but an experience. The film is told through the perspective of six different characters: a Tutsi/Hutu couple, a soldier, a small child, two teenage lovers, a priest, and an Imam and while the film itself may take place in Africa, the themes and the emotions that run throughout this film are universal and are uniquely human. This film shows that even in the wake of something terrible such as genocide, there is still beauty, and this beauty comes from the stories of the characters.

Kinyarwanda written and directed by Alrick Brown won the Sundance Film Festival 2011 Audience Award in the World Cinema Drama category as well as the Grand Prize at the Skip City Film Festival in Japan this year. Brown wrote and directed the film when he was 35.