March 7, 2012 – Philadelphia, PA — Breaking Glass Pictures is proud to announce the May 1 DVD release of Kinyarwanda, an in-depth look at the tragic genocidal reality of the Rwandan people. Nominated for three NAACP Image Awards, Kinyarwanda takes audiences through an emotional voyage of fear and forgiveness, love and hate, death and rebirth.
Alrick Brown made his directorial debut with Kinyarwanda, which follows six different storylines of people struggling through the Rwandan genocide. Roger Ebert gave the film four stars, calling it “a powerful film.” The Village Voice hailed it as being “filled with moments both charming and horrifying, sometimes all at once.”
As Rwanda became a slaughterhouse, mosques became places of refuge where Muslims and Christians, Hutus and Tutsis came together to protect each other. Kinyarwanda is based on true accounts from survivors who took refuge at the Grand Mosque of Kigali and the Imams who opened their doors to give refuge to the Tutsi and to those Hutu who refused to participate in the killing. The story interweaves different tales together, which form one grand narrative, providing the most complex and real depiction yet presented of life and human resilience during the genocide. With an amalgamation of characters, Kinyarwanda pays homage to many, using the voices of a few.
Following its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Kinyarwanda has won numerous awards. These accolades include World Cinema Award at AFI and Sundance, the Official Heart Award at Heartland Film Festival, and the Grand Price Sunny D-Cinema Award at the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival, along with a plethora of audience awards from multiple festivals.
The DVD will come packed with heart-warming special features, such as a cast and crew commentary, The Making of Kinyarwanda, a Kinyarwanda Comes Home featurette, galleries, the shooting script, and more.
Chuck Conry
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