Just Touched Down in Winnipeg

Adam and I braved the head winds this morning and made our way to Western Canada where, starting tomorrow, we will screen Coexist at the Peace and Justice Studies Association Annual Conference.  This is PJSA's 8th Annual Conference and this year's theme is "Building Bridge, Crossing Borders: Gender, Identity, and Security in the Search for Peace."  We will screen the film three times: once at the conference for academics, K-12 teachers, and practitioners; at a high school in Winnipeg; and at the Conference's Youth Summit. The sun is still shining through the afternoon clouds and we will go explore the city, and register for the Conference.  From the little we have seen, the city spreads out quickly and spills into plains.  Adam said it certainly lacks the congestion of a typical US east coast city.  We are near the land of the Misipawistik Cree Nation.  Our taxi driver was Sikh, we passed a Greek/Jamaican Restaurant, a Hindu Temple, and the hotel staff are South Asian.  In other words, Winnipeg appears to be a multicultural city.

More tomorrow, as we are off to meet James from the Youth Summit.

Mishy Lesser, Upstander Director

Coexist accepted by Artivist Film Festival in Hollywood

We're excited to share some great news. Coexist has been accepted by the 2010 Artivist Film Festival. Our documentary will screen during the festival at the historic Egyptian theater in Hollywood, California. The festival runs from November 30th-December 4th. Our screening date is TBA. What's Artivist?

"The success of ARTIVIST can be attributed to its ambitious vision: “ARTIVIST” is the 1st international advocate film festival dedicated to addressing Human Rights, Children’s Advocacy, Animal Rights and Environmental Preservation through film and music. Its mission is to strengthen the voice of international advocate artists – “Artivists” – while raising public awareness for social global causes. In addition, Artivist has screened impressive LA and World Premieres in the past 6 years, such as the internationally recognized “Super Size Me”, “Fast Food Nation”, “Born Into Brothels”, “Trudell”, “Emmanuel’s Gift”, narrated by Oprah Winfrey, and dozens more. “Super Size Me” and “Born Into Brothels” received OSCAR nominations, making Artivist a top choice for filmmakers to screen their L.A. Premieres."

Screening Event!

On Tuesday, July 13th join us in Boston for the first public rough cut screening of Coexist. The film is nearly complete and this will be the last chance to see it before our premiere later this year. Coincidentally this is also the date that we departed for Rwanda last year to shoot Coexist. So much has happened since that day we traveled to the other side of the world with our project and in Rwanda. Everyone is welcome to join us on Tuesday to see what we've been working on all this time and have a discussion about transforming conflict, Rwanda, and documentary filmmaking. I hope to see you then.

-Adam Mazo, Director of Coexist

Here are the details:

Tuesday July 13th at 7pm

Temple Israel-Boston

477 Longwood Ave

More info is available here:

It doesn't happen overnight

At this moment in April with the Rwandan genocide hours from erupting, the reasons hundreds of thousands of innocent people would be slaughtered were not clear to outsiders. 16 years later it is clear the killings didn't break out because of a lone spark, or a plane crash. What prompts thousands of people to dehumanize their neighbors to the point that they can kill them? In many cases individuals just like you and me came to view their neighbors as somehow less than human, as the "other." The 1994 genocide was the result of decades of dehumanization. It doesn't happen overnight. Dehumanization is not unique to Rwanda. Check out the news and you'll learn about a 15 year-old Massachusetts teen bullied incessantly until she committed suicide. As Rwandans mark the anniversary of the genocide tomorrow, several of Phoebe Prince's classmates will be called to court to face criminal charges. The reporting suggests many people witnessed the teasing, bullying, and "othering" of Phoebe and failed to act. Reading the words of those closest to Phoebe you might realize they didn't even recognize how tormented she was. The insults and harassment escalated over many months either unnoticed or unreported, until she snapped. It doesn't happen overnight.

In our documentary film, Coexist we'll explore how Grace and Agnes , two women who are different in nearly every way try to move forward. Both suffered immeasurably during the Rwandan genocide. Agnes lost her husband, 3 children, and her dignity. Grace lost her parents and her sister-- her entire family. They both struggle with the reality of living with their trauma and living among killers who slaughtered their relatives. They are forced to figure out how they can possibly face this unfathomable situation. 16 years later, it's clear: it doesn't happen overnight.

-Adam Mazo, Director-Coexist -5 April 2010

Thank You!

We are truly thrilled to announce that Coexist has earned two major grants, beginning with a $25,000 challenge grant coming from the Germeshausen Foundation. The Boston-based foundation supports Harvard's Women and Public Policy Program, Boston's PBS affiliate WGBH-producer of shows including FRONTLINE, Yale University, and Peace Games. Matching a portion of that challenge is the Mass Humanities. Their board voted to fully fund our proposal for the maximum grant amount of $10,000. All of this serves to bring us much closer to completing our documentary film Coexist and continuing our work in the community to transform conflict in the lives of young people across Boston, the U.S. and the world. Finishing our film does not mean our work ends. Our team will be taking the film to schools, community groups, faith groups, homes and backyards to engage you in conversations about transforming conflict. We're crafting plans now to make that happen and measure just how big our impact is. These foundations have told us that their support is a result of the work we are already doing in schools. This is a team effort. We look to you to connect our communities making sure that students, teachers, parents and everyone facing conflict knows about Coexist and becomes involved. Watch our clips here on the site, tell friends, suggest they become fans on facebook, sign up for our mailing list, donate today! Tell us how we can help you in your community. We are here to work with you, so let's continue the conversation!

Why Coexist?

When hate persists, how will you coexist? It's a question each of us face in our lives whether dealing with name calling and bullying, teasing and harassment, hate crimes, or even genocide. In the documentary film, Coexist we aim to stimulate discussion among people everywhere about the need to coexist. Coexist, is the evolution of several years of exploration, research, and discussion about reconciliation, coexistence, and peace-building. In our film you will see how genocide survivors struggle to coexist with killers in Rwanda, as targeted killing continues regularly throughout the country.

Survivors & Killers Living Side by Side

Because there are killers and survivors in every village in Rwanda, they must live side by side. This has prompted the government to heavily promote reconciliation programs. We found few people even in the most remote villages who have not heard the government's message of reconciliation. But, as you might imagine, reconciling with a killer who murdered your family is impossible for some people.

The Complexity of Coexistence

We set out to explore the extent of reconciliation in Rwanda. We had seen and heard numerous examples of seemingly stunning success. What we found in our investigation in Rwanda is that many people have been able to rehumanize their former enemies. But healing after such extreme trauma can be a life long effort. Many people simply cannot reconcile. For everyone in Rwanda the ability to simply coexist is imperative. As the country's top official at the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, Fatuma Ndangiza told us, "Reconciliation is at different levels, some will reconcile others will coexist, and I think as long as it contributes to peace its all welcome."

A Feeling of Peace, as Killings Continue

The country is largely peaceful today. There is little danger for those willing to go about their business and keep quiet. But, some say peace is impossible. Because despite the relative peace murderers continue to kill genocide survivors today. The victims' families told us that survivors are being killed for testifying or preparing to testify against genocide offenders. Sometimes the murderers are related to the genocide offenders, and others are the genocide offenders themselves trying to protect other family members from going to prison.

What's Next?

Follow our progress here and share this story with your family, friends and colleagues. If you've visited our site before you'll find there are many new stories to read, pictures to view, information to check out and opportunities to interact. There are numerous ways to do that which we've outlined across our site. Become a fan on facebook, join our cause, send a link to our video on this page: http://upstanderproject.org, make a donation, tell teachers, professors, and administrators about Coexist.

In the coming months as we work to complete our film we will explore coexistence asking you:

"When hate persists, how will you you coexist?"

--Adam Mazo Director, Coexist

"They are still killing"

Huye, Rwanda 2 August 09

Domitilie breaks down into tears describing how she found the body of her husband Paul, hacked to death near their home in Huye, Rwanda. Paul Rutayisire survived the genocide that ended in 1994. A gang of murderers killed him in October 2007. After fighting back tears she said, " Whenever I think of how I found him dead and how they had cut him, sometimes I feel like running mad and running into the streets."

Domitilie believes Paul was murdered for his role on a local court, known as gacaca, organized to try hundreds of thousands of lower lever genocide perpetrators. Killers disagreed with verdicts passed down by Paul and the panel of judges.

They threatened him, then they killed him in the same brutal fashion nearly 1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the genocide.

Domitilie is left with her 8 children, ranging in age from 2 to 21. Paul's sister Elisabeth helps where she can to support Domitilie. Elisabeth lives 20 minutes away up a rutted red dirt road in Huye (formerly known as Butare), Rwanda's second largest city. After Paul's murder Elisabeth tried to help Domitlie move her family closer to the sector office for better protection.  Elisabeth says local officials refused, afraid that moving the family would scare the neighbors. Despite a government ban on formally identifying Hutus and Tutsis, today she feels unsafe at home and is worried about receiving visitors. She fears her neighbors will infer she is talking about Paul's murder. She said, "In prisons (the killers) accept what they did and they are forgiven, where they explain what they did, people they killed, all the bad things they did. And then they are forgiven and then they are brought back to where they lived, and they do it again. "

Like most Rwandan genocide survivors Domitilie says she has tried to reconcile with killers. But she firmly denies the positive results most others report, "Is it possible to reconcile with the suspects? We wanted to reconcile but they couldn't accept. Even now they don't want to reconcile with us. Instead they are still trying to kill us."

Paul is one of more than 150 genocide survivors to be murdered since 1995, one year after the genocide ended according to the survivors organization IBUKA, which means "remember" in Kinyarwanda. In recent years the killings have increased as more survivors have testified against neighbors who killed their families.

Domitiilie asserts passionately that many of her neighbors and people around the country are wrong, "They want to show the whole world that there's peace in Rwanda. But for sure there's no peace in Rwanda, cause the victims are still in danger. The hands that killed still have the intention to kill once again."

Inside a Rwandan Prison

Kigali, Rwanda Guards armed with semiautomatic weapons struggle to unlock a heavy steel door before finally opening it, unleashing a burst of joyful music from an all male chorus wearing bright orange and pink. A 5-piece band sounding much like Rusted Root tries vainly to excite the crowd full of thieves, killers and orchestrators of the Rwandan genocide. This is the image put forward to visitors by the Kigali Central prison. What goes on beyond the airplane hangar style hall is kept secret.

Among the crowd is Gregoire Nyilimanzi who admits leading thousands of Hutus in his area of Kigali and telling them to kill Tutsis. Unlike most he says that he is to blame for his crimes, not the government. Gregoire says, though the government encouraged killing, he bears the final responsibility for the deaths of more than 10,000 people killed in his sector. He has apologized and confessed with the hope that the government might reduce his sentence. Right now he is facing life in prison. He believes firmly that reconciliation is vital to the future of Rwanda and criticizes those who give false confessions to win early release. Like most he says that the government of unity is helping to lead people to reconcile.

Though he was lower ranking in the detailed and complex power structure, Gregoire takes more responsibility than Amuri Karekezi a former Kigali City Councilor. Karekezi says he has apologized for his crimes and admitted what he did, stoking hatred and dehumanizing Tutsis in the minds of Hutus. But this former government official blames the government for forcing him to commit these crimes. Despite admitting guilt he won't go into detail about his offenses. 13 years after being locked up, he says he has an appeal pending, as indicated by his bright orange short pants and pajama shirt. Karekezi wears a blue and white embroidered Muslim headcap, designer glasses, and blacks socks pulled up high with the word "Friday" at the top. Shoes, scarves, socks, and glasses are the only things prisoners can wear to stand out from one another. The hierarchy is clear loafers, boots, and sneakers like Nike and Adidas seem to separate the upper class prisoners from the others who merely wear flip flops.

Outside the jagged glass topped brick walls of the facility prisoners work continuously. Prisoners in pink and orange spend their days tending to crops in the fields, watering the dirt roads to keep down the dust, and repairing cars. Some carry the same machetes they may have used during the genocide.

As Gregoire points out, there are some killers who haven't changed and he believes some of them are living with impunity abroad. He pleas with foreign governments to hunt down genocide orchestrators so that Rwandans may live without fear.