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HBO: What compelled you to make the film?
Kimberlee Acquaro: I was working at Life Magazine during the
genocide, and I was seeing pictures of what
was happening in Rwanda on the wires, but I
wasn't seeing them published anywhere,
which was disturbing and upsetting. I
followed the Rwanda story, and two years
later I read about Hutu and Tutsi women who
were working together to build schools and
homes, and do things women hadn't done
ever before in Rwanda.
I started pitching the story, but I didn't get
much interest until 2001 when I was
nominated for a Pew Fellowship in
international journalism. That fellowship was
for under-reported issues, and so my proposal
was for the story of the women in Rwanda.
In 2000 I went to Rwanda on my fellowship,
and began meeting and speaking with
survivors. And I realized that the real arc in
Rwanda was that of women who had lost
everything, and had emerged from the tragedy
to change their lives, and in doing so changed
their country in both personal and political
ways.
HBO: How did you find the woman in the film?
Kimberlee Acquaro: Before I began the film, I was working as a
photo journalist, and my first work in Rwanda
was writing articles and photo-journalism.
And I realized that although photographs and
stories are very powerful, hearing these
women tell their stories was so moving. And
the only way that I could let you hear their
voices was to make a film. I mentioned to a
friend, Stacy Sherman that I was planning on
going back to do this documentary. She had
read the stories, and was as moved by the
women as I was, and she said I'd love to go
with you, and so I decided right then and
there, let's go.
A few weeks later we were on a plane. During
my print reporting I had met and interviewed
or photographed over sixty women. And from
those women, we had to decide who would
represent the story we wanted to tell. We
chose these five women in the film because we
felt that they really represented a wide range
of women's experiences during the genocide,
and of their responses to everything from
very, very personal tragedies to very active
social change as leaders in their community.
Many of the stories are very sensitive because
issues like rape and AIDS are still very
difficult to speak about in Rwanda - although
there is more talk about them now because
AIDS education, and because so many of the
genocide victims suffered from rape and now
from AIDS.
I think the women trusted our intentions and
knew we were trying to represent them well,
and that their story was something good and
important.
HBO: Describe some of the ways Rwanda was
changed by the genocide.
Kimberlee Acquaro: After the genocide, the country was almost
70% female. And today it is still slightly
higher female than male. And what's
important about that is that traditionally
when men come back into society after wars,
or conflict, the women go back into their
traditional roles. But as the population has
equalized in Rwanda, gender-wise, women's
progress has continued twelve years later.
And that's very important because it shows
that it is, hopefully, lasting progress.
Before the genocide, women represented only
about five per cent of the government. Today
they are almost fifty per cent of the
parliament. That's the highest number of
women in parliament anywhere in the world.
And other things have changed through
legislation. Women's rights have been
protected in Rwanda's new constitution. The
inheritance law is a very good example. And
one of the young women in our film is very
representative of this. Before the genocide,
women were not allowed to do so many
things.
They couldn't have a bank account or get
funding without their husband's approval
generally. Some of it was cultural, some of it
legal. They weren't allowed to inherit their
family's property if their husband died. It
went to his family. All that has changed now.
So these kind of things are huge.
However legislation is easier to change than
attitudes. And the women certainly have to
deal with long held cultural attitudes; not just
men's but their own. And they've had to learn
that it is their right, not a privilege but their
right and their responsibility to have a voice
in these processes that govern their lives.
These are some of the changes that have
happened in the country because women
stood up and said we want to make our
children's lives better. We want to make our
own lives better. We don't want this to
happen again. We have to work together.
The other really great news is that the
government of Rwanda has been very active in
AIDS education and getting AIDS drugs to the
country. And now through a woman's
organization that we support through our
fundraising with the film, any woman who
enters this program can get AIDS medication.
Which will have an enormous impact.
HBO: What kind of reactions have you gotten to the
film, and what was it like receiving an
Academy Award® nomination?
Kimberlee Acquaro: The reactions have been amazing. And it's
been very rewarding for us to know that the
world has been as moved as we were by these
stories, and to be able to use the film to try to
help, in our small way, the women who
shared their lives with us.
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