Coexist in the Show Me Justice Film Festival
Check out Coexist at the Show Me Justice Film Festival in Warrensburg, Missouri on Saturday October 15th at 3:30pm. Schedule here: http://www.ucmo.edu/filmfest/schedule/
New Feedback on Coexist
What are viewers saying about Coexist?
Audience members yearn for more time to unpack the many messages of Coexist. Here are recent comments about both the film and the debriefing discussions facilitated by members of the Coexist team:
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"This is an excellent film. Of the various films I have seen on the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, this is the most truthful, the most real. It presents things as they are, not driven by the desire to show how wonderfully people reconcile. It shows the pain, the mistrust, with some glimmering of hope." -Professor Ervin Staub, author of Overcoming Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict and Terrorism (Oxford University Press, 2011) and Founding Director of the doctoral program in Psychology of Peace and Prevention of Violence, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
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Coexist was carefully and sensitively made, drawing in a variety of narratives, beliefs, and perceptions that underscore the complexity of mass violence. The video and educational programs serve as beneficial learning tools for American adults and young people who may not know much about Rwanda and have not been faced with the need for social healing and reconciliation after genocide. I especially appreciate the film for not offering simplistic remedies to the profound questions of how people live together, and live with themselves, after such atrocity. The film reminds us that we each face ourselves and manage our recovery differently, and that human beings have an astounding resilience." - Dr. Paula Green, founder, Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, and CONTACT Program, SIT (School for International Training Graduate Institute)
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"The power of the film and Mishy's way of inviting us to experience it deeply has Saturday evening still reverberating in me. So many levels of engagement arose as the evening progressed, with Mishy setting the context, with the brief history presented, with Mishy’s inviting and facilitating comments from the audience." - Sarah Conn, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist and Co-Founder, Earth Circles
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"Coexist is outstanding, in part because it brings up for viewers so many profound thoughts and feelings. The film underscores our capacity as humans for evil and betrayal and injustice. And Mishy's welcoming, context-setting, and facilitation of the debriefing were terrific." - Robert Ryan, Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness Consultant/Coach
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"Coexist is so evocative; it crushes the heart because it is so real and tells the truth about what did happen and what could happen. I feel edified by having seen it." - Brett Litz, Ph.D., VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University
New Film Fest Selection
Coexist has just been selected to screen at the Central Florida Film Festival in Orlando. The screening will be held on Labor Day weekend. More details to come...
African Movie Academy Award Nominee!
Coexist is now nominated for Best Documentary at the African Movie Academy Awards! Winners will be revealed live in Bayelsa Nigeria on Sunday March 27th. Director Adam Mazo has been invited to attend and will report news from Nigeria here on our site.
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From Rwanda to Libya: Who's Calling Whom a Cockroach Now?
"Cockroaches" the very term used by radio hosts to dehumanize Tutsi in Rwanda on the cusp of the hundred-day slaughter in 1994. How could people turn on their friends and neighbors, and murder them?
“Recently in the news is political cult leader Muammar Gaddafi calling the Libyan people "cockroaches" -- the very term used by radio hosts to dehumanize Tutsi in Rwanda on the cusp of the hundred-day slaughter in 1994. How could people turn on their friends and neighbors, and murder them?
I recently saw a brilliant new documentary film by Adam Mazo called Coexist, which tells the story of victims, perpetrators, and survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and what they face as they try to rebuild shattered trust in their country. A key theme in the film is the government-mandated process of reconciliation, and the need to break the cycle of violence so today's victims don't become tomorrow's perpetrators.”
Continue reading at Huff Post.
Movie helps students learn how to ‘Coexist’
Hear how our film is helping students in the classroom learn to coexist.
“The perpetrators and victims of the Rwandan genocide lingered in the mind of 13-year-old Irena Manukian as she fell asleep Monday night.
Earlier that day at school, Irena, an eighth-grader at Innovation Academy Charter School, and her classmates, had become among the first middle-school students in the state to view Coexist, a 40-minute documentary on the 100-day period in 1994 when a half-million people were slaughtered in Rwanda, an east African country the size of Massachusetts.
The film, directed by Adam Mazo, a former TV news producer at Boston’s Channel 7, shows interviews Mazo conducted with dozens of survivors of the genocide — admitted killers and victims — who the current Rwandan government has ordered to reconcile and coexist.”
Continue reading at The Lowell Sun.
Metropolitan Film Festival of New York
Coexist has just been awarded an Honorable Mention in the documentary category at the Metropolitan Film Festival of New York!
Through Coexist we want audiences to become activists in their communities. We hope Coexist inspires dialogue with friends, family, and most importantly strangers and the "other". We encourage you to explore our site to learn more about our educational mission that we are working to achieve.
The World Premiere of Coexist
400+ guests gathered for the World Premiere of Coexist at Temple Israel in Boston on Saturday November 6th. They saw the 40-minute film which tells the stories of Rwandan genocide survivors, perpetrators, and bystanders. Reverend Hurmon Hamilton of Roxbury Presbyterian introduced the film saying that it is as much about "them" as it is about "us". Through Coexist we want audiences to become activists in their communities. We hope Coexist inspires dialogue with friends, family, and most importantly strangers and the "other". We encourage you to explore our site to learn more about our educational mission that we are working to achieve.
