WATCH NOW
Documentaries are currently emerging regarding Nigeria’s film industry because of the respect Nollywood receives due to the increasing amount of films produced, as well as the unique personalities involved in the industry which is ranked as the third biggest globally. There’s a great appreciation for these films because they reflect the reality that awareness for African movies developed mainly because of shows produced in Africa itself.
Exploring the Rwandan film industry through Leah Warshawski and Christopher Towey’s documentary Hollywood serves a purpose, just a different one. According to the doc, just like there are no real film schools or theatres in Rwanda, there is also no culture of watching movies like there is in Nigeria. The deeper answer to why there is such a disconnect can be found in the Kwetu Film Institute. Founded by Eric Kabera, the Kwetu Film Institute is the first film school in Rwanda and it seeks to teach aspiring filmmakers how to narrate visual tales. In addition to this, the institute also conducts ‘Hollywood’ film festivals every year which last for 12 days and they showcase Rwandan films all over the country on a floating screen. This festival is unique in that it serves as an introduction to Rwandan cinema as well as the Rwandan language to a lot of people.
The film captures the effortful yet gratifying work of the Hollywood team as they cope with superstorms from the rainy season, power shortages, and at times, uninterest. While tracking the women and men behind the wonderful stories in the documentary, Finding Hillywood makes interesting themes come to life. We meet a young woman who is passionate about making films around women’s and children’s rights and a man who’s crafting anti-Hollywoodesque love story movies. A treat about meeting these filmmakers is that we get to see so many clips from their work; the directors and their movies do the talking in a much more eloquent way. One of the flaws of the documentary is the sparsity of time with the people thus it fails to paint a wider picture of the crew.
It’s Ayuub Kasasa Mago, the documentary’s director and actor who happens to be the manager of the Hollywood Festival, that is at the centre of the documentary. Mago developed a passion for filmmaking after getting a role in ‘The Last King of Scotland’ during a period when he was suffering from a drug addiction due to the death of his mother at the hands of the militia. This, alongside how charming and expressive Mago is, is in addition to how great of a storyteller Mago is. It is Mago who sets the tone for the documentary’s undercurrent when he says Three hundred days during which the country is said to have lost 20% of its total population. ‘The history of [the genocide in Rwanda] is always present.’ Indeed, many Hollywood Films attempt to deal with the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide.
In this documentary, perhaps the most astonishing scene is when the inflatable Hollywood screen is being raised in a desolate area, or even on a soccer field. Next to it is an edifice that serves as a memorial to a mass grave. The camera looks to the left. At that point, it becomes clear that, quite literally, thousands of people some of whom cannot be older than ten years are waiting patiently for a screening of a movie. Such images perfectly capture what the Hillywood Festival stands for in Uganda. Just like this, there are many people that would argue that movies serve as a form of cathart, and Putting Purpose to the Poverty also does this quite convincingly, which is that these movies and the festival itself are a newer approach for the Rwandans to deal with their history as well as a means for moving forward.
To watch more movies like Control (2007) visit 123Movies.
Also Watch for more movies like:
