Change Agent | Congocast
Send Story to a FriendCongocast's Blog
Reporter
I received an email after my last blog from a rep at attentionusa.com. They are a NYC PR firm working to help get the word out about Reporter, last year’s documentary by Eric Daniel Metzgar about Nicholas Kristof that premiered at Sundance in 2009. It will be airing on HBO this month and they offered to send us a screener so we could check it out. Here is the trailer: The film follows Kristof (@NickKristof) as he travels in and around Goma (in the province of North Kivu) as he looks for a story that will bring the world’s attention to the plight facing the Congolese people. The film is composed of three themes–one part treatise on the psychology of human compassion, one part raw examination of the DR Congo crisis, and one part snapshot of the flailing newspaper industry. The sum of these parts is a riveting documentary which sheds light on the nature of the issues facing the DR Congo while it attempts to put a face to the crisis it examines. USING SIMPLICITY TO AWAKEN ABILITY Metzgar begins his film with a short quote: “If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.” – Mother Teresa The director examines the science behind compassion, noting that as NGO’s try to raise support for issues, the more complex their message gets, the harder it is to get people to act. I know as I hear the stats about Congo, hear rape stories, see children starving, that I begin to find myself overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the situation. Kristof knows that if he can find that ONE right story during his visit to the DRC, he could expose the world to it’s slumber of inaction and hopefully reveal to them their ability to do something. Whether he finds his story will be up to you. But I think of all the films I have seen on the DRC in the last four years, the story he does find vividly shows the collateral damage caused by the 16 year war being fought in the Congo. When the death toll from any war rises into the millions, the bulk of the perished are not from violence. But, unfortunately violence sells. Starvation and disease that result from growing instability never become a headline–and Kristof is actively working to change that. ATTENTION VS. ACTION I think the most inspiring thing about the piece for me, was the revelation that just because an issue is receiving attention doesn’t mean the cause has found it’s voice. Kristof was one of the first journalists to begin shining his light on the conflict in Darfur early last decade. He would repeatedly write stories about the injustice facing the Sudanese people until someone listened. One woman interviewed in the film points out that repetition can be a fear of journalists. You want to have breaking news. But writers that were continuous in their denouncement of the Holocaust during WWII were not derided later for their repetition. Their voice was necessary to ending the horror occurring at that time, and the same is true for humanitarian disasters like Congo and Darfur today. Attention does not equal action. Enough cannot be said. The chorus must get louder. I definitely recommend that if you have HBO, you check this film out, as it will surely leave an impression. Hopefully it will add to a growing chorus working to help the Congolese people leave this war behind them.
Tweet This Post“There is no way that is her!”
When I saw her picture my first thought was, “there is no way that is her…” Saturday night as I was wrapping up my work, I stopped to check my twitter feed. As I opened my favorite twitter client I saw at the top of the list a tweet from Nicholas Kristof. If you don’t know who Nicholas is, he is one of the few international journalists today that is championing the cause of the Congolese people in his writings and work. He is a voice laboring to fill the knowledge gap of the uninformed about the terrible things facing the DR Congo. I had started following Kirstof on twitter after I saw that he was the subject of the Ben Affleck produced film on the DR Congo called “The Reporter” last year. His tweet said: “The World Capital of Killing, Congo, and a heroic doctor and patient there: my Sun column, http://nyti.ms/aIutFe“ So I clicked… A FAMILIAR FACE As Kristof’s NYT article began to load, I noticed it was about Panzi Hospital. He had interviewed a rape survivor named Jeanne Mukuninwa along with Dr. Denis Mukwege, the doctor working to help put her life back together. The story was similar to what we saw in Episode 7 of the podcast. But, as I looked at the picture of the woman at the top of Kristof’s article, something seemed familiar. Was she one of the women we interviewed at the Panzi hospital in 2007? But what would she still be doing there 3 years later? Maybe it wasn’t her? She looked a bit happier. Her hair was done, it had been straightened. She was different, more put together. I knew that in Episode 8 of our video podcast we had shown part of an interview we shot at the Panzi Hospital with a woman we thought was named Jan. But could this be her? Jeanne Mukuninwa in Kristof's 2010 Interview So I went back to the original interview we had shot. I scrubbed the clips and found the one where our translator asked the young woman’s name. Sure enough, she stated it was Jeanne Mukuninwa (I had mis-spelled the name as my french is bad). Jeanne in our 2007 Interview for the Congocast.org Podcast If you read the New York Times article by Kristof, you will notice two things about Jeanne that have happened over time. 1) She looks like she is doing better than she was in our interview in 2007. 2) She is back at Panzi hospital because she was raped again after she returned to her village. Nothing makes me more angry than that last statement. How could that happen–again? ALIVE AS COMPARED TO LIVING As exciting as it was to see that she appeared to be doing better, I am reminded that this conflict is seemingly far from over. Many of these women, once their surgeries are complete, return to their villages only to be raped again. It is unsafe. And yet, they go back. Why? Because their families are there. Their lives are there. They grew up there. So they return – only to revisit the horrors they had escaped by coming to Panzi. I know I’ve said it over and over again, but you can help. PRAY: Pray for this conflict to end. The evil perpetrating this madness is more than a group of men. Maybe you don’t pray… DONATE: Find a charity that is making a difference and give what you can (Some are listed under our links here). But maybe you don’t have any money… EDUCATE: Yourself, your family, your friends, your facebook buddies & your twitter followers – you don’t have an excuse to not update your status and tell people what is happening. If you would like to find out more ways you can get involved – visit http://www.enoughproject.org. They are an incredible resource on activism and can provide a great way for you to learn more about how you can make a difference and educate yourself on the issues. Hearing what has happened to Jeanne in this article was devastating. It could inspire a sense of hopelessness. But I don’t think that is what the Congolese people would want from you or me. It was a huge encouragement to see her face again. To see that she is still alive. To see that her hair is straitened and cut. That is a simple thing, but is speaks to me that she is not just alive but she is living. Could I do the same in the face of such obstacles? Could you? Jeanne’s story, past and present, reminds me that the spirit of the Congolese people is strong. It reminds me that many of these rape victims are not just alive, They are living. They are fighters. And that the living are worth fighting for.
Where do I start?!?
So today, I’m going back through the 17 episodes we made of the Congocast podcast over the last three years to begin the process of cutting it down into a rough cut for a film. The hardest part about this is figuring out where to start! Right now when you back the 17 episodes we have up end to end the entire video piece is about 2 hours and 24 minutes in length! The first step is to just start pulling things out and see what is left and whether it makes sense! I have an additional 60 hours of footage from last years trip waiting in the wings – but I thought to get the process rolling again I could start by editing something I’m more familiar with. I’ll continue updating the congocast.org site as I get more into the process of turning this crazy project into a film! So check in again soon as I will be using this blog to update you on things that are happening in the Congo activist community and the progress I am making in cutting the film together! - Evan
Back in the saddle!
Well, it has been quite a bit of time since I’ve been at work on the Congocast.org project! Sorry for long wait! Editing on the Congocast project has restarted. Thanks to the help of some awesome volunteers this past fall, we have gotten all of our footage from our trip last year into the computer (it was giving us quite a bit of trouble). It is ready now to be edited, so we will keep you updated as the process of doing post production unfolds. To start, I’m currently taking all 17 episodes and putting them together in a single video project to see what happens. Right now the whole thing is 2 hours and 24 minutes long! (Here is a shot of the what the video timeline looks like with that much footage on it.) So needless to say, cutting this video into a longer format project is going to be some work – not to mention adding in the new footage that we shot last year to wrap the whole thing up! I’ll check in again soon as we start to make progress! - Evan
