"Sometimes in April" on PBS tonight (HBO film about Rwanda)

[southlandshari]

I saw this film a month or two ago when it premeiered on HBO, and remember several threads about this film and Hotel Rwanda. Heads up - it's on at 8:00 pm CST tonight on my Alabama Public TV station. Very powerful movie, especially its focus on the role that "hate radio" played in fueling the fire under the genocide. More info here:

http://www.hbo.com/films/sometimesinapril/?ntrack_para1=leftnav_category4_show1

Excerpt:

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

In April 1994, one of the most heinous genocides in world history began in the African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of 100 days, close to one million people were killed in a terrifying purge by Hutu nationalists against their Tutsi countrymen. This harrowing HBO Films drama focuses on the almost indescribable human atrocities that took place a decade ago through the story of two Hutu brothers - one in the military, one a radio personality - whose relationship and private lives were forever changed in the midst of the genocide. Written and directed by Raoul Peck (HBO Films' "Lumumba"), the movie is the first large-scale film about the 100 days of the 1994 Rwandan genocide to be shot in Rwanda, in the locations where the real-life events transpired.

Both an edge-of-the-seat thriller and a chilling reminder of man's incomprehensible capacity for cruelty, Sometimes in April is an epic story of courage in the face of daunting odds, as well as an exposé of the West's inaction as nearly a million Rwandans were being killed. The plot focuses on two brothers embroiled in the 1994 conflict between the Hutu majority (who had ruled Rwanda since 1959) and the Tutsi minority who had received favored treatment when the country was ruled by Belgium. The protagonists (both Hutus) are reluctant soldier Augustin Muganza (Idris Elba), married to a Tutsi and father to three, and his brother Honoré (Oris Erhuero), a popular public figure espousing Hutu propaganda from a powerful pulpit: Radio RTLM in Rwanda...

[stevedeshazer]

1. Thanks, we saw Hotel Rwanda this weekend

I knew I'd be shocked, but I had no idea. :(

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

2. I saw both movies last month.

They both blew me away.

[Pilgrim4Progress]

3. Thank-you so much for posting this

Such a heartbreaking story. We so need to understand the enormity of this tragedy.

[southlandshari]

4. Kick - 15 minute alert

Just wanted to make sure anyone who might be interested in the film sees this heads up.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

5. Watching it right now

well done so far.