Commentaire
The Dead Are Alive (Rwanda, an eyewitness) is a behind the scenes documentary
based on the diary kept by Belgian journalist, Els De Temmerman. Beginning on
April 6th, 1994, the film covers a period of five months in which Els witnessed
the greatest human tragedy of the last 25 years: a carefully planned and
brutally executed genocide of a million people.
The Dead Are Alive is a powerful synthesis of more than hundred videotapes of
previously unreleased footage shot by Els and a number of amateur cameramen
throughout the endless night of the horror events.
The background: After covering the death of the Hutu President when his plane
was shot down, the international news agencies believed the Rwandan story had
"dried up" and recalled or reassigned their foreign correspondents. The real
story, however, has only just begun, with the massacre of thousands of Tutsi
Rwandans and no one was there to record the genocide. No one, that is, but Els
De Temmerman, the only working journalist who remained through all the horrific
events that followed. As a Belgian her life was in constant jeopardy. She
concealed her identity and ignored UN peacekeepers warnings, so great was her
determination to bear witness to the tragedy before her.
Tracking the story from the death of the Rwandan President to the establishment
of the sprawling refugee camps, "The Dead Are Alive" weaves the thread of
events into a coherent picture of horror on an almost unimaginable scale. Who
were the architects of the genocide? What are the powers at play? What was the
role of the international community, church, press?
Director Anna Van Der Wee, 1995
