Iseta/ the story behind the Road Block

ISETA: The Road Block

 

During April 1994, on quiet road in Kigali a group of neighbors in Rwanda were filmed.  This was the opening days of the Rwandan Genocide, and even though almost one million people were slaughtered, remarkably there is only one known segment of footage showing any actual killing.

 

This movie is about the extraordinary journey of that evidence as the original photographer returns to Rwanda, revisiting the people and events that he by chance caught on film.  As the footage returns to the community, friends and family relive the tragic events as they work with the photographer to identify the victims, and then eventually the killers.

 

The film discovers a witnesses, a school master who survived because his ethnicity was written wrongly on his ID card as he stood with the killers at the roadblock, helpless; the mother of a victim hiding in the house, just
feet away, waiting endless minutes to be told her daughter is finally dead; the brother beaten senseless and lying in the ditch told kindly by his
friend, “let me beat you, but I will not kill you” while his sister dies beside
him; the looter who removed the doors from the victims houses as they were left
to die – and most remarkably, the wife of the killer, who secretly carried two babies through the front line to save them before returning to her murderous husband.

 

Finally the search for the killers leads to the local court where on the last day a new arrest brings in the laughing militia leader and killer, caught on camera beating his neighbors to death.

 

 

filmiography Eric Kabera

Rwanda Women Celebrating Achievements-2007 Rwanda Renaissance -2006 Rwanda Re-united :A video focusing on the reconstruction and building of Rwanda /1998-99 Producer,100 DAYS movie : A feature film recounting days ensuing the start of Genocide on Rwanda/ 1999 Producer, Changing Times in Challenging Times. (Avega)\ 1997 Producer /Director, Kist at a Glance: A documentary highlighting the introduction of ICT in Rwanda through Kist/ 2000 Producer, KIST Towards a Brighter Future: A documentary highlighting the progress of Kist in the last 5 years since its commencement/ 2003 Producer, Ramp Historia :A Swedish TV youth Program that reflects on history through the eyes of the youth. /2003 Director/ Producer, Keepers of Memory, a documentary commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Genocide in Rwanda. /2004 Producer / Director, Through my Eyes, in collaboration with the Rwanda Cinema Centre (RCC): A documentary film on Rwandan youth reflecting on their past, present and future perspectives./2004

Vivid Features co producer Nick Hughes Director of photography

Nick Hughes (b. 1961, London) graduated in electrical engineering from Bristol University, but beginning in 1989 worked as a cameraman in Africa (mainly for the BBC). He captured events in Ethiopia, Somalia, Congo, and Afghanistan and, of course, in Rwanda. In this way he participated in the making of fifty documentaries, but was also openly involved in various operations connected with African armed conflicts. As a director he made the television drama Ndoto ya Daudi (1993), the documentaries Provence (1995), and Big Fish, Small Fry (1996) and the feature 100 Days (2001). He has also shot commercials (Colgate, Mercedes, Tetra Pak, and Raid). He lives in Africa and owns Vivid Features Ltd. (with headquarters in Kenya and Nigeria), a production company that cooperates with CNN.   Nick Hughes was cameraman for over ten documentaries covering different aspects of the Genocide including: – Witness: ‘The Betrayal’. Channel Four UK – Panorama:’ The Bloody Tricolour’.BBC UK – News night: ‘Women who kill’. BBC UK; Director/Producer/Writer of the Feature Film, 100 DAYS. The first feature film about the Genocide of Rwanda. Shot in Rwanda, with Rwandan actors, producers, at actual sites of the Genocide in Kibuye, Rwanda.   Nick Hughes has been news cameraman during:-Genocide April, 1994 -Pacification 1995 -Camp clearance,Goma,Congo, 1997  -Congo war 1998- Channel Four Documentary Key Interviewee ‘The Hunger Business’. Aired UK 2000   Mr. Hughes General Professional Experience includes work as a Director on:IUCN – ‘Big Fish, Small Fry’. Documentary 1996 European Union – ‘Ndoto ya Daudi’. Drama 1993 – Minerva Vision – ‘Commission du film du var, Provence’, France   He has been cameraman on over 100 Documentaries and features for International Broadcasters:BBC,Channel Four Dispatches,BBC Panorama   Nick Hughes corporate experience includes: Managing Director & Owner of Vivid Features Ltd., Nairobi, Kenya. Vivid Features is the foremost Facilities Company in East Africa and is privileged to manage, staff and equip the CNN bureau for East, Central and West Africa.  He was also Director of Minerva Vision, UK

 

 

 

Director’s statement:

                                 

“…the genocide is revisited through this picture with our crew embarking on  journey where they trace the relations to the victims in this picture.  The cameraman revisits and finds people he never knew, preserved only in this work, revealing the compelling and dramatic story of the death of someone’s daughter, someone’s father, and someone’s mother’s.

 

Nick Hughes who recorded the atrocious last moments of their life, reveals to the families for the first time the perpetrators – neighbors of theirs, people they knew too well.

 

The event startles memories and wrath as the survivors relive how people died on spots only marked by their vivid recollection and memory.

 

As these families come together for the very first time to witness how their loved one’s died, memories emerge from the evident color of their clothing, small clues such as shoes and the people’s height, and from the crude implements used with astonishing speed and spirit to exterminate.”