Hotel Rwanda/Speaker-Imaculee

1.
Prior to last week I knew nothing about the genocides in Rwanda. From the movie I learned about the terrible genocide acts in Rwanda during the Rwandan Civil War. I learned about how nearly 1 million innocent people were slaughtered and a President killed immediately after signing a peace agreement. Hutus killed Tutsis just because of their ethnic background and Hutus who protected Tutsis were also killed.
Imaculee talked about how she hid in a bathroom for 91 days with 6 other women, I wouldn’t want to stand in a bathroom with six women for 91 seconds. Imaculee also talked about how prayer and God helped her make it through the terrible incident. Imaculee shared the story of how her and the other women were almost found and murdered until the soldiers gave up and left the preacher’s house. Imaculee said that the reason they were not found was because of God, her faith is inspiring. What I found to be a miracle was when Imaculee was kneeling with a gun to her head and a soldier recognized her as being his teacher’s daughter. Imaculee was so close to death and at the last minute God once again saved her life.
What I found to be extremely disappointing was when the movie and Imaculee shared that our United States government refused to help out during the genocide. I cannot believe that our government will send soldiers to Iraq for oil but they wouldn’t send soldiers to help stop the Rwandan genocide. It actually maddens me to think that not only did the US refuse but so did France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations. These countries did not move in and help until the genocide was almost over.
Imaculee talked about the horrific events of the genocide but focused on her faith. She said that throughout the genocide God listened to her and answered her prayers. After the genocide was over Imaculee continued to have faith in God and relied on Him to find a job. Imaculee said that she went to the United Nations almost ten times before she gave up and left but, as she walked out a man asked her to come back the next week for a job interview. Imaculee said that God introduced her to this man that would help to change her life forever.
It was nice to hear Imaculee speak about the genocide and see how wise and strong she has become. The movie was nice to watch before she spoke so that I knew the graphic detail of the genocide and had an idea of how the events occurred.

2.
On September 11, 2001, there were terrorist attacks made on the United States by al-Queda. On the same morning I was in a terrible car accident and ended up in the hospital, I had no idea what was going on with the terrorist attacks. I do not remember the first month that I was in the hospital and I didn’t find out about the attack until I was ready to go back to school (3 months later). Most people remember 9/11 and are sad or maybe angry about the lives that were lost, I remember 9/11 and I get sad because I was in so much pain at the time from my injuries and that 3 months of my childhood were taken away from me.
The first time that I heard about the attack was when a news station was talking about it. My parents were so overwhelmed with my condition that they didn’t think to tell me what had happened and my friends had never said anything. At first I changed the channel and told my family and friends I didn’t care to know the details nor did I want to. I guess I figured I had experienced enough pain and didn’t feel I needed to experience more.
Two years ago my significant other rented the movie about 9/11 and I decided to watch it. I was shocked when I saw the pictures and heard the witnesses talk about the experience, at first I didn’t want to believe what I heard or saw. Near the end of the movie I was crying as I watched footage of the plane crashing and the fireman running into the buildings. It was very hard for me to learn about 9/11 by watching the movie but it would not have been any different than learning about it on national television. It was very emotional to have everything thrown at me all at one time, I learned what happened, why it happened, and what the results were all in one setting. The thing I remember the most is watching a little girl crying as a firefighter was holding her by the burning building. I can’t describe how much I feel for those who lost mothers, fathers, grandparents, daughters, sons, and friends, it makes me very sad.
If I would have learned about the event in a different way I think that I may have been able to process the information a little better. I think that I am more sympathetic about the event because of learning about it in a documentary.

3.
I think that a director has a great responsibility to the truth about events that happened such as the Rwanda genocide. I think that when true life events are made into a movie they are dramatized a bit but they need to keep the core events realistic. In the movie “Hotel Rwanda” I think that the director did an excellent job sticking to portraying true events as best as he could. In a movie about real events a director needs to think about how much he/she can dramatize events or change things around because alterations in the truth can cause people (like Imaculee) great pain if they are not portrayed the right way. The director has a responsibility to respect people involved by telling the truth about an event. If a director does not tell the truth about events then people get the wrong idea and assume that it is right. When a director does stretch the truth then the director must state in the opening of the movie that events seen in the movie may not have actually happened but are based on true life events. Sometimes for a director to get a point across he needs to stretch the truth to get a good response out of audience.