It is time we retell our stories through an African lens.
Africans have relied on foreign funds, lessening their hold on their story. It is time we retell our stories through an African lens.
Born 50 years ago in the Democratic Republic of Congo to Rwandan parents, Eric Kabera is one of Rwanda’s top celebrated filmmakers. With a career spanning over 27 years, his craft as a film director and producer to the world was initially realised through films like 100 Days, a 2001 film he collaborated with British filmmaker Nick Hughes.
He later worked on Keepers Of Memory (2004), Through My Eyes (2006), Iseta (2008), Hotel Rwanda, Africa United (2010), and Intore (2014), all which have garnered immense recognition and accolades locally and internationally. Kabera who became founder and president of the Rwanda Cinema Center in 2005, later trained aspiring Rwanda filmmakers and later the Kwetu Film institute in 2010. He shares his view of the film sector’s evolution.
Films of tragedy introduced your craft globally. What did this mean to you?
Human history has always been covered by tragedy, triumph and survival. The story of Rwanda is not very different from that though it is one which was tainted by the Genocide committed against the Tutsi, which pretty much grew the interest and brought many media organisations from outside Rwanda to cover it because it was a tragic story of mankind beyond comprehension. I just happened to be the subject, witness and story teller to show and tell the world the story of mankind.
These films of tragedy sold Rwanda to the world, for much of what is known about the country was mainly through them. What did you see about the impact of film as a craft back then?
Starting out initially as a fixer, facilitator and translator in 1994 to International media houses like BBC, Sky News, Channel 4 and others, these came to cover stories on the Genocide aftermath, and of returnees, survivors refugees and life thereafter. These stories were dramatic and traumatic, which touched my heart. On taking a trip to Europe, I was shocked to realise people didn’t know where Rwanda was. This prompted me to team up with Nick Hughes, one of the few journalists who had been following up our history and we made our first film. This film was later highly documented through various media organisation.
Having worked on over five tragedy films about the 1994 Genocide against the Tusti, what's your experience?
It was difficult. Making a film itself is not easy. Making a film on tragic experiences of people’s lives to which you belong is not anybody else’s story since you are speaking of your relatives and generation. It brings a multilayered kind of trauma to an individual. I assume it is the same for those from outside Rwanda, although the magnitude is different. People must know there is also another life, of survival and life after death. This is what we are trying to convey, which is another huge responsibility.
Years intoAfrican film, what do you see as been in the evolution of film in telling our own story?
Many film makers have emerged, not necessarily from the wings of the Kwetu Film Institute, but from elsewhere, who are telling their own story. They travel to world festivals and have brought back awards too. With the advancements in technology, more can be attained.
With the low film screening and cinema culture in Rwanda and the region, how can a filmmaker earn a living from his craft today?
That has been the basis of my latest advocacy and what needs to be done. Other countries have funding and structures to support the film sector. It is not only Rwanda to catch up, but collectively as a continent. If it isn’t done, then somebody else will come and do it and own our stories. This has happened in the past 60 years of post-Independence Africa. Africans have relied on foreign funding, which lessens their hold on their story. It is time people to read and retell African stories through an African lens.