Ten years after genocide in Rwanda left 800,000 dead, a new film
about one of the heroes who rose from the tragic event was screened
at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills in conjunction with the
UCLA African Studies Center.
Several special guests were brought in to speak after the film,
including lead actor Don Cheadle, director Terry George and the
real Paul Rusesabagina, upon whom the film “Hotel
Rwanda” was based.
Rusesabagina, who was able to save more than 1,200 people by
protecting them in his hotel during the massacre, was greeted with
a standing ovation for several minutes.
He recalled the genocide as a time when “the whole world
closed its eyes and ears.”
“I said to myself, “˜Now Paul, this is the end of
it,'” he said of the chaos that descended upon his
country.
Allen Roberts, the director of the African studies center,
completed his doctoral research near where the genocides actually
took place. For Roberts, the people portrayed in the film were all
too familiar.
“It’s a hard film to watch, but it makes you feel
there’s something good about humanity after all,”
Roberts said.
The Rwandan genocide unfolded in spring of 1994 when a plane
carrying the Rwandan president, an ethnic Hutu, was shot down. This
event escalated already tense racial relations between the Hutus
and Tutsis ““ two Rwandan racial groups with a history of
violence ““ resulting in the genocide.
Over the course of 100 days, the Hutu extremist-led backlash
resulted in the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 Tutsi and
moderate Hutus.
Rusesabagina offered his four-star hotel as a refuge for Tutsis
to protect them from the machete-yielding extremists.
George said large studios were hesitant to support the film,
forcing him to seek private funding and making it a more personal
project.
“When writing scripts I have always tried to find an
ordinary man who is able to confront evils,” George said.
“You can be moved and enraged and have hope.”
The making of the film brought Rusesabagina, who lives in
Belgium, back to Rwanda after not having visited for seven years.
He has since traveled around the globe promoting the film, which is
being distributed by United Artists and MGM.
“Paul was instrumental to getting this film made. He was
on the set at all times to make sure that it was true to his story,
so it seemed natural to bring him here to speak,” said Craig
Greiwe, spokesperson for MGM.
The screening was attended by UCLA students and faculty as well
a community members.
“It was inspiring. I was completely in awe because
he’s a person who has done things that people should do and
don’t,” said Lynn Fine, a fourth-year international
development studies student.
Seeing the real Rusesabagina was the highlight for some
students.
“It put a real human face on it,” said Matthew
Sablove, a fourth-year international development studies student.
“It’s not just Hollywood.”
The idea to screen the film for an academic audience was brought
forth by MGM.
“They were interested in bringing the film to other
audiences, specifically to an academic audience or those interested
in Africa or African diasporas,” Roberts said.
The film is being promoted in conjunction with Amnesty
International and the United Nations, and producers hope to develop
materials to complement the film, such as a study guide for use in
an academic setting.
“It’s great when the business community brings
something to UCLA. It’s a nice collaboration,” Roberts
said.