The Dead Are Alive, Rwanda An Eye Witness

A very personal, involved kind of journalism from a young woman, fragile, blonde and Belgian in the middle of the Ruandese holocaust. For her diary-style comments she was awarded the title 'Woman Of The Year' and an important press award. Tracking the story from the death of the Rwandan president to the establishment of the sprawling refugee camps, 'The Dead Are Alive' weaves the threads of events into a coherent picture of horror on an almost unimaginable scale. Who where the architects of the genocide? What are the powers at play? What was the role of the international community, church, press? These are just a few of the questions addressed in this gripping documentary. Fragments of her diary are read, illustrated with the images she realised on that moment for television. Specially composed music is used in the editing. The director (also a woman) tried to assemble a personal, subjective view of the tragedy. In the meantime the documentary is highly informative for an audience wanting to understand and to feel, rather than just to know.