In Rwanda, filmmaking is still in its infancy, but like everywhere else, everything starts somewhere.
Filmmaking suffers from lack of art schools, conservatories, appropriate material, well trained and experienced artists and technicians, and funds for productions. So far the newly introduced cinema is designed and directed mostly by men in this country where women play minor roles, while in ordinary life they have been brave, raising and educating children, struggling to survive and main contributors to this country.
CineFEMMES RWANDA highlights the fact that Women should be at the vanguard also in the socio- cultural field, and its implication goes into promoting talents of women filmmakers, women film technicians
and filmmaking as a new means to express the views and situation of women and for generating income for talented Rwandan women.
CineFEMMES RWANDA strives to increase the number of women filmmakers and film technicians through capacity building, support to production and promotional services as its ultimate objective is to support Rwandan women to successfully develop their interest and career in the filmmaking industry, while at the same time paying more attention to the situation and problems of women and promoting gender equality. From this perspective, URUSARO International Women Film Festival was created.
URUSARO International Women Film Festival started its first edition in December 2015. It was marked by a starting point of a new and long journey, as it was the main project with a perspective of an annual continuity that CineFEMMES R W ANDA launched. It hig hlighted different categories of celebrations most especially by awarding actors and actresses, directors on national short fiction, national documentary and a particular recognition to filmmakers who have decided to create a kind of "mini-market" for local films.
The second edition had the same approach and took place in March 2017. This has allowed the organizers to trust themselves as it proved courage and determination.
The Third, like the second, took place in March 2018. This edition gave place to a great step of thinking wide by inviting some African women filmmakers to the festival. Among them was Pauline NVELE, a woman filmmaker from Gabon and Maimouna NDIAYE, an actress from Burkina Faso, great faces of the African female filmmaking. They contributed to increase the capacity of Rwandan women filmmaker in sharing about their careers and driving workshops to increase motivation and technical skills.
Talking about the very previous, the fourth edition has offered space to creativity, team working and long time partnerships. Organizers came up with an establishment of the month dedicated to the festival and October has been tackled on. Its planning, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation followed the rules of a successful work in its kind. Main documents to present with this are our catalog, festival's report, a short video highlighting activities and a flickr link for more pictures.
| Name of partner | Type of entity |
|---|---|
Ministry of Youth and Culture
| Public Sector
|
Rwanda Academy of Language and culture
| Public Sector
|