Burundi Film Center

Some strangers blog that came up when I googled the Burundi Film Center.

Burundi Film Center’s short films.

I told people about it, but not too too much. Mostly because I hate this feeling I put on myself to be responsible for the entertainment of others… but it was really good! Wish I would have promoted it more.

From what I understand a guy from Uganda went to Burundi and started the Burundi film center. There hasn’t been a film made in Burundi since 1990 me think. He said that there are many people making films in Uganda, but no-one was documenting life through film in Burundi. The country has been warring since the 1972 genocide. There are many Burundian refugees in SLC that started arriving last summer from refugee camps in Tanzania.

But the films were not about war. They were about social issues that Burundians face every day. Poverty, Rape, HIV, death, birth, justice, love… It was great. The Center showed these films in the streets of Burundi where thousands gathered to watch. The film maker said that many people in Burundi are illiterate. By addressing social issues through film the population is educated about these issues where other resources are unavailable to them.

One short story was about an engaged woman who was raped. She feared that her fiancé would no longer want her. Afterwards the filmmaker informed us that in Burundi some women are killed by their families after being raped because it is such a shame. So this message to an uneducated Burundian audience is HUGE!!! I am not saying all raped women are killed, but it does happen. So the film makers suggesting that it wasn’t the woman’s fault, and that a man can support his woman is beautiful. In the closing scene the woman is informed that she is HIV positive and her fiancé holds her hand and the scene closes… The audience understands that life isn’t going to be easy, but they are going to do the best they can together.

I am really glad I went. And the Q&A with film makers and actors afterwards was enlightening… and… I am sorry I didn’t push it on my SLC friends more…