list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Hotel Rwanda on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Hotel_Rwanda/242928/default.aspx Title: Hotel Rwanda
Year: 2004
Director: Terry George
Plot: Hotel Rwanda tackles one of the most horrifically ugly events in recent history, when the Hutu extremists of Rwanda initiated a terrifying campaign of genocide, massacring hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsis (who had been given power by the departed Belgian colonists), while the rest of the world looked on and did nothing. Don Cheadle stars as Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager at the fancy Les Milles Collines hotel in Kigali. Paul is a Hutu, and a very successful businessman who smoothly greases the wheels, making powerful connections in all strata of Rwandan life. His wife, Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo of Aeon Flux), is a Tutsi. She urges Paul to use his influence to help local Tutsis, who are being harassed and beaten with increasing frequency, but Paul will only use the political capital he's built up to help his own family, if and when they need it. Soon enough, the violence escalates, and the Hutus begin their genocide of the Tutsis. European guests and staff at the hotel are flown out of the country, and Paul is left in charge. He finds that his conscience won't allow him to watch as the innocent are slaughtered, and before long, the hotel has become a well-appointed refugee camp. Paul is seen as a traitor by some, putting his life in danger, and the predicament of his "guests" grows more precarious every day, but despite good intentions on the part of a journalist (Joaquin Phoenix) and a UN peacekeeping colonel (Nick Nolte), the rest of the world is not eager to intervene and stop the massacre. Hotel Rwanda was directed by Irish filmmaker Terry George (Some Mother's Son), who co-wrote the script with Keir Pearson. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 84
Number of Lists: 49
Number of blog posts: 6
Number of discussion threads: 3
SpoutRating: 4
]]>Tue, 12 May 2009 03:44:25 GMTHotel Rwanda2004Terry GeorgeHotel Rwanda tackles one of the most horrifically ugly events in recent history, when the Hutu extremists of Rwanda initiated a terrifying campaign of genocide, massacring hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsis (who had been given power by the departed Belgian colonists), while the rest of the world looked on and did nothing. <a href="/players/P____12587/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Don Cheadle</a> stars as Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager at the fancy Les Milles Collines hotel in Kigali. Paul is a Hutu, and a very successful businessman who smoothly greases the wheels, making powerful connections in all strata of Rwandan life. His wife, Tatiana (<a href="/players/P____53909/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Sophie Okonedo</a> of <a href=/films/243104/default.aspx style='text-decoration:underline'>Aeon Flux</a>), is a Tutsi. She urges Paul to use his influence to help local Tutsis, who are being harassed and beaten with increasing frequency, but Paul will only use the political capital he's built up to help his own family, if and when they need it. Soon enough, the violence escalates, and the Hutus begin their genocide of the Tutsis. European guests and staff at the hotel are flown out of the country, and Paul is left in charge. He finds that his conscience won't allow him to watch as the innocent are slaughtered, and before long, the hotel has become a well-appointed refugee camp. Paul is seen as a traitor by some, putting his life in danger, and the predicament of his "guests" grows more precarious every day, but despite good intentions on the part of a journalist (<a href="/players/P___199220/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Joaquin Phoenix</a>) and a UN peacekeeping colonel (<a href="/players/P____52916/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Nick Nolte</a>), the rest of the world is not eager to intervene and stop the massacre. Hotel Rwanda was directed by Irish filmmaker Terry George (<a href=/films/93599/default.aspx style='text-decoration:underline'>Some Mother's Son</a>), who co-wrote the script with Keir Pearson. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide84Tag Target (>10)49634http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t56604t2kmg.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Hotel_Rwanda/242928/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_March_23_Hotels_Motels_Inns/625/41239/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 3/25/2009 2:01:25 PM
Body: The first movie I thought of was a movie I've only seen about five minutes of, Wim Wenders' The Million Dollar Hotel. Has anyone here seen all of it? [quote user="leeroy711"] Barton Fink and Dirty Pretty Things are a couple of my faves that I think everyone should take a gander at. The hotel in Barton Fink is pretty much a character itself.[/quote] [quote user="mercurial"] Undoubtedly my favorite film taking place in a hotel is The Shining. From beginning to end I love every frame of this flick.[/quote] [quote user="mercurial"] Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a non-stop romp from hotel to hotel, trashing each room beyond all recognition.[/quote] These are some of my favorites as well! Good selections! Fear and Loathing really allows me to live out my vicarious experience of totally trashing a hotel room along with the fear accompanying such manic behavior without actually putting myself in danger. Has anyone seen. I would also like to mention Mystery Train from the great Jim Jarmusch! Several different stories all taking place around the same time in a hotel. Another funny one with multiple stories in different rooms in the same hotel, each story done by a different director is Four Rooms. It gets better as it goes. Hotel Rwanda is another obvious one with the name in the title. Hotels often being ominous places in movies I've found, this one is actually a sort of sactuary (although still dangerous) Although if you really want to get away and relax, take a trip with Monsieur Hulot on his holiday with a resort hotel full of quirky people. Or just scam your way into a luxery New York hotel with a tape recorded and some of your dad's credit cards like Kevin McCallister did in Home Alone 2. Bergman's The Silence takes place entirely within a hotel as well I believe. Hotels in movies are often interesting little microcosms. Sometimes these microcosms are seen in apartment complexes as well. Has anyone seen The Decalogue?
]]>Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:01:25 GMTRisseladaWeekly Theme3/25/2009 2:01:25 PMThe first movie I thought of was a movie I've only seen about five minutes of, Wim Wenders' The Million Dollar Hotel. Has anyone here seen all of it? [quote user="leeroy711"] Barton Fink and Dirty Pretty Things are a couple of my faves that I think everyone should take a gander at. The hotel in Barton Fink is pretty much a character itself.[/quote] [quote user="mercurial"] Undoubtedly my favorite film taking place in a hotel is The Shining. From beginning to end I love every frame of this flick.[/quote] [quote user="mercurial"] Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a non-stop romp from hotel to hotel, trashing each room beyond all recognition.[/quote] These are some of my favorites as well! Good selections! Fear and Loathing really allows me to live out my vicarious experience of totally trashing a hotel room along with the fear accompanying such manic behavior without actually putting myself in danger. Has anyone seen. I would also like to mention Mystery Train from the great Jim Jarmusch! Several different stories all taking place around the same time in a hotel. Another funny one with multiple stories in different rooms in the same hotel, each story done by a different director is Four Rooms. It gets better as it goes. Hotel Rwanda is another obvious one with the name in the title. Hotels often being ominous places in movies I've found, this one is actually a sort of sactuary (although still dangerous) Although if you really want to get away and relax, take a trip with Monsieur Hulot on his holiday with a resort hotel full of quirky people. Or just scam your way into a luxery New York hotel with a tape recorded and some of your dad's credit cards like Kevin McCallister did in Home Alone 2. Bergman's The Silence takes place entirely within a hotel as well I believe. Hotels in movies are often interesting little microcosms. Sometimes these microcosms are seen in apartment complexes as well. Has anyone seen The Decalogue? http://www.spout.com/blogs/pippin06/archive/2008/11/24/37599.aspx Post By: pippin06
Post To: Reel Thoughts
Post Date: 11/24/2008 10:26:07 PM
Body: What's the AFI Project, you ask? For more information, or if you just enjoy my bemused ramblings, read here: http://www.spout.com/blogs/pippin06/archive/2008/3/1/25756.aspx Hotel Rwanda is on the following AFI list: 100 Most Inspiring Movies (#90) Hotel Rwanda is the third Africa message movie to appear in my weekly red envelope in the past couple of months. Don Cheadle, another actor I like in just about everything he does, was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, and, for some reason, I've never been able to see this film until this past week, on my day off after a long weekend of technical rehearsals for "A Wonderful Life" at the Grand Rapids Civic Theater (buy a ticket today!). As it turns out, it also happens to be an AFI movie! The sneaky AFI decided that the film was worthy enough to make the 100 Cheers list, the list they deemed to be the 100 most inspirational films in American film history, which was published the year of the film's release. I think that's a fair cop - after all, Hotel Rwanda tells the truly inspiring story of one man's selflessness in the face of insurmountable odds. It was an incredibly moving motion picture, moreso than similar films I've watched in recent memory. Based on true events, Cheadle plays Paul Rusesabagina, manager of the Hotel Les Milles Collines in Kigali. The hotel is a swanky arm of a Belgian corporation, which generally serves rich (White) Westerners, high-powered African officials, and journalists. As the movie explains, through some very compelling storytelling by peripheral characters, including an American journalist (Joaquin Phoenix), Rwanda once colonially belonged to Belgium, and those in power decided to divide and designate the Rwandan people according to look, such that some are considered Hutu while others are considered Tutsi. The Tutsis, which I guess were traditionally lighter skinned and perhaps more European looking, and also were in the minority, were given power upon Belgium's exodus from the country. Thus, Hutu extremists, traditionally oppressed along these tribal lines, initiated a mass genocide of Tutsis in the late 90s. At first, Paul, who is Hutu and is married to a Tutsi woman, Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo), is content to use his uncanny talent for sweet talk, charm, and salesmanship, and his steadily acquired political and financial capital, to preserve his family's safety, but as he witnesses a rise in the murder of innocent Tutsi men, women, and children, he realizes he cannot ignore their plight. He manages to house several Tutsi refugees in the hotel, while visitors to Rwanda are deported or rescued and Hutu loyalists commit increasing acts of violence with the intention of purging their country of Tutsis. Paul is left in charge and must fight to protect the people hidden in his hotel as powerful Hutu sects seek to attack it, and as United Nations peacekeepers, including one played by Nick Nolte, attempt to protect the people, hoping in this act of futility that Western countries will intervene. I loved this movie because it was so moving. First, it adequately explained and provided the historical context of this civil war and did so in a way that did not feel like I, as the viewer, was being pandered to; in fact, I doubt that many people realize the source of this conflict, even if they were aware of the conflict itself. This film provided a powerful historical mirror to look back and examine an otherwise little-known but ugly chapter in world political history. In fact, the real life Mr. Rusesabagina was a consultant on the film, so the story being told was compelling because it was a true story based on real events, told from the perspective of the person who was actually involved. Second, Cheadle gave an incredibly nuanced, resonant, and powerful performance as Rusesabagina. The range of emotions displayed as this character ran the gamut from pure fright, to indignant anger, to relieved joy, to commisserating sadness and empathy. It was tour de force, and his sincerity and, in many ways, naked compassion were incredibly touching. I cried at this film; in fact, the story and his performance moved me far more than the last two Africa message movies I consumed. I think the most impressive part of this movie is how the director and filmmakers did not resort to showing the most graphic of the violent acts to paint the picture. Instead, the film was punctuated by disturbing images, including bodies lining the streets and blood on children to provide just enough of the story to grab hold of the viewer and actually tug at those heartstrings, without doing so in a manipulative or, as I indicated, graphic way. There was just enough imagery to reach a conclusion, that the atrocities were undeniable, without totally glorifying one tribe or demonizing the other one. The film's focus was the human interest angle and the actions of one man, but it was also an examination of the results of segregation and discrimination that provided an interesting parallel to many conflicts throughout the world, including race conflicts in America. In that way, I've read in many places that this film is "sort of an African Schindler's LIst." There are many similarities that can be gleaned from the two films, especially given the similarlity between Oskar Schindler's evolving sense of selfishness turned selflessness to Paul Rusesabagina's evolving sense of self-protection turned protection of people with whom he has nothing in common. To make that comparison and call it all a day's work is too easy and too trite, however. It's a different time, a different conflict, a different people being depicted, and the only lesson in deriving such a comparison is, perhaps, the idea that history repeats itself, often cyclically. My feeling after reading this description was to dismiss it; after all, there may be similarities between the two men in focus, but that only gives me hope that if the bad stuff in history repeats, so too does the good stuff. Schindler's List is an artistically better directed film anyway. That's not to say that the film is perfect. In fact, there are two points in the story, two scenes, that render the film less than perfect for me and made me wonder whether it really happened that way or whether it was a license taken by the filmmakers to try to force high drama in an already intense and dramatic motion picture. For one, there is a scene in which Nick Nolte's character explains to Rusesabagina that no one will come to help the refugees or the Rwandans because they are merely African - yet the dialogue uses a somewhat tasteless racial slur that seems so out of place, even if the point is meant to describe Africa as the forgotten continent and its countrymen as forgotten people. The other scene is when Paul tries to convince his wife that it would be better if she and their children, including their traumatized son, jumped from the roof of the hotel rather than be shot by any Hutu soliders that overrun it. I guess his argument is that the children would, in that event, not be able to see their mother or parents die first or vice versa, but it seemed like a tall and implausible request, even in those extreme, life-threatening circumstances (though it was more likely to have happened and made more sense than the other needless scene). Still, I think Paul Rusesabagina's story is truly inspiring, and I loved the movie because the story was complete, the suspension of disbelief was complete, the performances were excellent, and my heart was officially filled with horror, hope, sadness, and joy, which is about as much as you can hope for from a drama of this type. I think the film deserves an 8.5 rating, between minor flaws and very good (given the couple of less-than-palatable or sense-making scenes) and perfectly entertaining. As for the test, I'm not sure about this one. I don't own Schindler's List, which is a superior film that I've seen a number of times; I mean, I just don't see pulling out Hotel Rwanda for a giggle when I'm merely looking for a movie to watch. Even if the test is not a pass, though, I still highly recommend this movie because I can't imagine anyone not being moved by the inspirational story it tells, making it a deserving entry on its one AFI list.
]]>Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:26:07 GMTpippin06Reel Thoughts11/24/2008 10:26:07 PMWhat's the AFI Project, you ask? For more information, or if you just enjoy my bemused ramblings, read here: http://www.spout.com/blogs/pippin06/archive/2008/3/1/25756.aspx Hotel Rwanda is on the following AFI list: 100 Most Inspiring Movies (#90) Hotel Rwanda is the third Africa message movie to appear in my weekly red envelope in the past couple of months. Don Cheadle, another actor I like in just about everything he does, was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, and, for some reason, I've never been able to see this film until this past week, on my day off after a long weekend of technical rehearsals for "A Wonderful Life" at the Grand Rapids Civic Theater (buy a ticket today!). As it turns out, it also happens to be an AFI movie! The sneaky AFI decided that the film was worthy enough to make the 100 Cheers list, the list they deemed to be the 100 most inspirational films in American film history, which was published the year of the film's release. I think that's a fair cop - after all, Hotel Rwanda tells the truly inspiring story of one man's selflessness in the face of insurmountable odds. It was an incredibly moving motion picture, moreso than similar films I've watched in recent memory. Based on true events, Cheadle plays Paul Rusesabagina, manager of the Hotel Les Milles Collines in Kigali. The hotel is a swanky arm of a Belgian corporation, which generally serves rich (White) Westerners, high-powered African officials, and journalists. As the movie explains, through some very compelling storytelling by peripheral characters, including an American journalist (Joaquin Phoenix), Rwanda once colonially belonged to Belgium, and those in power decided to divide and designate the Rwandan people according to look, such that some are considered Hutu while others are considered Tutsi. The Tutsis, which I guess were traditionally lighter skinned and perhaps more European looking, and also were in the minority, were given power upon Belgium's exodus from the country. Thus, Hutu extremists, traditionally oppressed along these tribal lines, initiated a mass genocide of Tutsis in the late 90s. At first, Paul, who is Hutu and is married to a Tutsi woman, Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo), is content to use his uncanny talent for sweet talk, charm, and salesmanship, and his steadily acquired political and financial capital, to preserve his family's safety, but as he witnesses a rise in the murder of innocent Tutsi men, women, and children, he realizes he cannot ignore their plight. He manages to house several Tutsi refugees in the hotel, while visitors to Rwanda are deported or rescued and Hutu loyalists commit increasing acts of violence with the intention of purging their country of Tutsis. Paul is left in charge and must fight to protect the people hidden in his hotel as powerful Hutu sects seek to attack it, and as United Nations peacekeepers, including one played by Nick Nolte, attempt to protect the people, hoping in this act of futility that Western countries will intervene. I loved this movie because it was so moving. First, it adequately explained and provided the historical context of this civil war and did so in a way that did not feel like I, as the viewer, was being pandered to; in fact, I doubt that many people realize the source of this conflict, even if they were aware of the conflict itself. This film provided a powerful historical mirror to look back and examine an otherwise little-known but ugly chapter in world political history. In fact, the real life Mr. Rusesabagina was a consultant on the film, so the story being told was compelling because it was a true story based on real events, told from the perspective of the person who was actually involved. Second, Cheadle gave an incredibly nuanced, resonant, and powerful performance as Rusesabagina. The range of emotions displayed as this character ran the gamut from pure fright, to indignant anger, to relieved joy, to commisserating sadness and empathy. It was tour de force, and his sincerity and, in many ways, naked compassion were incredibly touching. I cried at this film; in fact, the story and his performance moved me far more than the last two Africa message movies I consumed. I think the most impressive part of this movie is how the director and filmmakers did not resort to showing the most graphic of the violent acts to paint the picture. Instead, the film was punctuated by disturbing images, including bodies lining the streets and blood on children to provide just enough of the story to grab hold of the viewer and actually tug at those heartstrings, without doing so in a manipulative or, as I indicated, graphic way. There was just enough imagery to reach a conclusion, that the atrocities were undeniable, without totally glorifying one tribe or demonizing the other one. The film's focus was the human interest angle and the actions of one man, but it was also an examination of the results of segregation and discrimination that provided an interesting parallel to many conflicts throughout the world, including race conflicts in America. In that way, I've read in many places that this film is "sort of an African Schindler's LIst." There are many similarities that can be gleaned from the two films, especially given the similarlity between Oskar Schindler's evolving sense of selfishness turned selflessness to Paul Rusesabagina's evolving sense of self-protection turned protection of people with whom he has nothing in common. To make that comparison and call it all a day's work is too easy and too trite, however. It's a different time, a different conflict, a different people being depicted, and the only lesson in deriving such a comparison is, perhaps, the idea that history repeats itself, often cyclically. My feeling after reading this description was to dismiss it; after all, there may be similarities between the two men in focus, but that only gives me hope that if the bad stuff in history repeats, so too does the good stuff. Schindler's List is an artistically better directed film anyway. That's not to say that the film is perfect. In fact, there are two points in the story, two scenes, that render the film less than perfect for me and made me wonder whether it really happened that way or whether it was a license taken by the filmmakers to try to force high drama in an already intense and dramatic motion picture. For one, there is a scene in which Nick Nolte's character explains to Rusesabagina that no one will come to help the refugees or the Rwandans because they are merely African - yet the dialogue uses a somewhat tasteless racial slur that seems so out of place, even if the point is meant to describe Africa as the forgotten continent and its countrymen as forgotten people. The other scene is when Paul tries to convince his wife that it would be better if she and their children, including their traumatized son, jumped from the roof of the hotel rather than be shot by any Hutu soliders that overrun it. I guess his argument is that the children would, in that event, not be able to see their mother or parents die first or vice versa, but it seemed like a tall and implausible request, even in those extreme, life-threatening circumstances (though it was more likely to have happened and made more sense than the other needless scene). Still, I think Paul Rusesabagina's story is truly inspiring, and I loved the movie because the story was complete, the suspension of disbelief was complete, the performances were excellent, and my heart was officially filled with horror, hope, sadness, and joy, which is about as much as you can hope for from a drama of this type. I think the film deserves an 8.5 rating, between minor flaws and very good (given the couple of less-than-palatable or sense-making scenes) and perfectly entertaining. As for the test, I'm not sure about this one. I don't own Schindler's List, which is a superior film that I've seen a number of times; I mean, I just don't see pulling out Hotel Rwanda for a giggle when I'm merely looking for a movie to watch. Even if the test is not a pass, though, I still highly recommend this movie because I can't imagine anyone not being moved by the inspirational story it tells, making it a deserving entry on its one AFI list. http://www.spout.com/blogs/cinemarian/archive/2008/5/13/28978.aspx Post By: CinemaRian
Post To: CinemaRian Blog
Post Date: 5/13/2008 7:55:40 PM
Body: There wasn't enough room in the subject line for me to say this is a British, Italian and South African co-production. Hotel Rwanda was released with close to unanimous critical acclaim, and many selected it as the best film of 2004. While it does have some impressive elements, I admired it more for its content then its form. One cineaste I know called it Schindlers List in Africa, but it lacks the ideas of that film (restrain yourself, Edwin, you havent seen it). In a way, it is a well made two-hour public service announcement for Amnesty International, a great organization, yes, but better films have been made about mans depravity to other men. The premise of the two films, both of which are based on true events, is the same: a man caught up in a war risks everything to try to save the lives of complete strangers at risk of genocide, while he himself is of the majority group and would be safe if he left quietly alone. The man here is Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), a manger at the Milles Collines hotel in Kigali, Rwanda in 1994. Things look very good for the country at the start of the film: after years of civil war, a peace deal has brokered between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis. Chaos breaks out when the Hutu president is assassinated by Tutsi forces, apparently the peace deal was ruse. The Hutu army comes up with a simple solution- kill every Tutsi in the country, so that there will be no next generation to fight. Paul is Hutu, but his wife, children and many of his friends are Tutsi, so he hides them in the hotel after it has been evacuated. The news goes from bad to worse when the local UN commander (Nick Nolte) informs him that the Americans and Europeans will not interfere to stop the genocide. Pauls death and the murder of everyone in the hotel seems sure. By far the strongest element in the movie is the powerhouse performance by Cheadle, who was nominated for on Oscar and deserved to win, over Jamie Foxx. We see the complete meltdown of an ordinary guy who has to live through a nightmare and try to keep his composure so he can think, for one small error will mean the death of his entire family and over a thousand people at the hotel. Where the movie goes wrong is that is preachy. The Canadian U.N. General (Nick Nolte) gives a long sermon about how the Americans and Europeans dont care what happens to Africans. This is sadly true, but I dont like being lectured by a movie. There some groan moments of obvious screenwriting (such as the last line). Beyond that, I felt oddly detached emotionally from the atrocities, perhaps the problem is that Terry George uses cinematic techniques such as music to tell us that genocide is bad, when we know it is already. The comparison between Schindlers List is inevitable. Although I feel Spielbergs film is overrated (too long and too confusing, especially towards the beginning), the last ten or fifteen minuets of that film were among the best scenes I have ever seen in a movie, with something deep to say about goodness and guilt. This movie essentially says that genocide is bad. Well, it is, but this movie cheats and doesnt show us how bad it really is, nor does it say much beyond that statement. Nevertheless, this movie is worth seeing just for Cheadles brilliant performance, and because teach some things about a political conflict that few Westerners know about. But because of the importance of the tragedy, this should have been a great film, or maybe a documentary. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
]]>Tue, 13 May 2008 23:55:40 GMTCinemaRianCinemaRian Blog5/13/2008 7:55:40 PMThere wasn't enough room in the subject line for me to say this is a British, Italian and South African co-production. Hotel Rwanda was released with close to unanimous critical acclaim, and many selected it as the best film of 2004. While it does have some impressive elements, I admired it more for its content then its form. One cineaste I know called it Schindlers List in Africa, but it lacks the ideas of that film (restrain yourself, Edwin, you havent seen it). In a way, it is a well made two-hour public service announcement for Amnesty International, a great organization, yes, but better films have been made about mans depravity to other men. The premise of the two films, both of which are based on true events, is the same: a man caught up in a war risks everything to try to save the lives of complete strangers at risk of genocide, while he himself is of the majority group and would be safe if he left quietly alone. The man here is Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), a manger at the Milles Collines hotel in Kigali, Rwanda in 1994. Things look very good for the country at the start of the film: after years of civil war, a peace deal has brokered between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis. Chaos breaks out when the Hutu president is assassinated by Tutsi forces, apparently the peace deal was ruse. The Hutu army comes up with a simple solution- kill every Tutsi in the country, so that there will be no next generation to fight. Paul is Hutu, but his wife, children and many of his friends are Tutsi, so he hides them in the hotel after it has been evacuated. The news goes from bad to worse when the local UN commander (Nick Nolte) informs him that the Americans and Europeans will not interfere to stop the genocide. Pauls death and the murder of everyone in the hotel seems sure. By far the strongest element in the movie is the powerhouse performance by Cheadle, who was nominated for on Oscar and deserved to win, over Jamie Foxx. We see the complete meltdown of an ordinary guy who has to live through a nightmare and try to keep his composure so he can think, for one small error will mean the death of his entire family and over a thousand people at the hotel. Where the movie goes wrong is that is preachy. The Canadian U.N. General (Nick Nolte) gives a long sermon about how the Americans and Europeans dont care what happens to Africans. This is sadly true, but I dont like being lectured by a movie. There some groan moments of obvious screenwriting (such as the last line). Beyond that, I felt oddly detached emotionally from the atrocities, perhaps the problem is that Terry George uses cinematic techniques such as music to tell us that genocide is bad, when we know it is already. The comparison between Schindlers List is inevitable. Although I feel Spielbergs film is overrated (too long and too confusing, especially towards the beginning), the last ten or fifteen minuets of that film were among the best scenes I have ever seen in a movie, with something deep to say about goodness and guilt. This movie essentially says that genocide is bad. Well, it is, but this movie cheats and doesnt show us how bad it really is, nor does it say much beyond that statement. Nevertheless, this movie is worth seeing just for Cheadles brilliant performance, and because teach some things about a political conflict that few Westerners know about. But because of the importance of the tragedy, this should have been a great film, or maybe a documentary. Hotel Rwanda (2004) http://www.spout.com/blogs/jakestevens/archive/2007/11/20/21832.aspx Post By: JakeStevens
Post To: JakeStevens Blog
Post Date: 11/20/2007 12:54:08 AM
Body: An incredibly moving tale of one man's courage and his ability to step up to the plate, even when everything else is telling him to run. Don Cheadle is flawless as Paul Rusesabagina, and for most of the film, I forgot that he doesn't actually have an accent. This is an important to see, even if you don't care for this type of film. This film makes it in my top 20 films of all time list, for sure.
]]>Tue, 20 Nov 2007 05:54:08 GMTJakeStevensJakeStevens Blog11/20/2007 12:54:08 AMAn incredibly moving tale of one man&#39;s courage and his ability to step up to the plate, even when everything else is telling him to run. Don Cheadle is flawless as Paul Rusesabagina, and for most of the film, I forgot that he doesn&#39;t actually have an accent. This is an important to see, even if you don&#39;t care for this type of film. This film makes it in my top 20 films of all time list, for sure. http://www.spout.com/blogs/jimbell/archive/2007/4/15/7098.aspx Post By: JimBell
Post To: JimBell Blog
Post Date: 4/15/2007 4:43:00 PM
Body: Hotel Rwanda (British/South African/Italian co-production) is a gripping and moving true story of attempted genocide in Rwanda. The strength of the film is that Paul, the hotel manager and main character, is a lot like us, except black and living in Africa. The action is more terrifying for being indirect. We see the conflict between Hutu and Tutsi from the perspective of the manager of a swanky hotel—who gives refuge to 1236 people after the whites are airlifted and Rwandans left to slaughter themselves. The acting is top notch: Nick Nolte is fine as an amalgam of Romeo Delare and other UN officers (he has a Canadian flag arm patch and an American accent); Cara Seymour is perfect as the haggard British Red Cross worker; and the stars, Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo, have no trouble creating believable and likeable characters through all the turmoil. This was a movie worth making, and it was made well. It is also one I thought about for some time after.Jim Bell
]]>Sun, 15 Apr 2007 20:43:00 GMTJimBellJimBell Blog4/15/2007 4:43:00 PMHotel Rwanda (British/South African/Italian co-production) is a gripping and moving true story of attempted genocide in Rwanda. The strength of the film is that Paul, the hotel manager and main character, is a lot like us, except black and living in Africa. The action is more terrifying for being indirect. We see the conflict between Hutu and Tutsi from the perspective of the manager of a swanky hotel&mdash;who gives refuge to 1236 people after the whites are airlifted and Rwandans left to slaughter themselves. The acting is top notch: Nick Nolte is fine as an amalgam of Romeo Delare and other UN officers (he has a Canadian flag arm patch and an American accent); Cara Seymour is perfect as the haggard British Red Cross worker; and the stars, Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo, have no trouble creating believable and likeable characters through all the turmoil. This was a movie worth making, and it was made well. It is also one I thought about for some time after.Jim Bell http://www.spout.com/groups/Top_5/Re_Top_War_Films/190/3862/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Top 5
Post Date: 11/28/2006 5:30:10 PM
Body: [quote user="SkyPilot"] 1. The Thin Red Line--I've never been in the military but the movement of the film feels very realistic, a hurry-up-and-wait situation. But since it's Malick, it's often slow-down-and-wait, too. 2. The Deer Hunter--By now we probably all know that there is no evidence for the Viet Cong forcing their prisoners to play Russian roulette. Fine. It's still one of the most compelling scenes in cinema history. 3. Apocalypse Now--not the Redux, in which the scenes had some interesting points or themes, but I don't think most of the scenes helped the movie. Except maybe the scene where Kurtz comes to the guys' cell and reads to him from--Time magazine was it? Still, you have a trade-off because that's the only time you see Kurtz in the daylight, and I like how in the original he's always in the dark of the temple. 4. Saving Private Ryan--UPPUM WILL YOU GET UP THAT F***ING STAIRCASE! It still does it to me every time. 5. Platoon--I don't have much to say about this one, but I'm not just tacking it on for no good reason. I guess I feel like I could've been there with guys more than any of the other ones. The guys are more childlike than the soldiers of the other films, but they're still capable of shocking violence and depravity. Elias is the kind of Sergeant I would follow. [/quote] All highly conventional choices Adam. I guess I can't argue with them too much though. I always find Spielberg a bit too senimental though. The Deer Hunter is intense and affecting, but sheesh just too long and depressing. I think the industrial town they live in is more depressing than the war. I just saw The Thin Red Line after seeing it not long after it first came out. I've seen Days of Heaven once and Badlands about half a dozen times since then. I was excited to see it again, but although it's shot beautifully, I found it to be not quite the perfect piece of poetry I had sculpted it to be in my memory or re-expectations if you will. It seemed kind of thin. [quote user="paul"]War.It's such a popular genre and, therefore, is usually done poorly, like romance. So, I'm asking myself which films I feel really showed me something about war besides the usual hero vs. villain stuff. The Thin Red Line (for reasons stated above) The New World - although not a designated "war," I still thought there was a war between the colonists and indians. Even such a small war had reprecussions that changed the world. Hotel Rwanda - showed me how a country can cave in on itself without the rest of the world having a clue. It also showed me how much war is about emotions with no regard for reason. Legends of the Fall and Tae Guk Gi - It's amazing how war completely mangles and reinvents a bond between brothers. Chihwaseon - Usually, in war movie you have to watch the war from one side--the hero's side--looking at the other. This movie's hero refuses to choose sides as war after war goes on around him. Something about that perspective really, for me, showed the futility of war. [/quote] I guess I'm still pretty excited to see The New World. Hotel Rwanda was so moving and not like the war movies we are used to in America, which even when lamenting the tragedies of war seem pretty self centered. Ooooh, I've been interested in seeing Chihwaseon for awhile, but haven't heard anyone I actually sort of knew recommend it. Alright, here's my list. 1. KUBRICK! Full Metal Jacket; Paths of Glory; Dr. Strangelove; Barry Lyndon; Ok, I have done this with most of my top 5 lists, but I’m surprised to see I seem to have a favorite filmmaker for many different genres and categories. What can I say about Kubrick but he knew how to portray man’s folly, and where is that more abundant than in war? 2. The General. (1927). Is this a war movie? IMDB says it is. Even in my war movies list, I have to cram in as many comedies as I can. 3. Buffalo Soldiers. (2001). I'm not sure how many of you have seen this? I saw it sort of accidentally. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival just days before 9/11. After that it could not get a wide distribution at movie theaters due to the fear that people would be upset by a movie that seemed to criticize the US military. It doesn't really do that however. I'm not sure if it would have been more well known otherwise, but it's unfortunate more people didn't get a chance to see it. It basically suggests that human beings always strive to be in some sort of state of war and will create their own smaller wars if there is no official one to participate in. Really funny as well! 4. No Man's Land. (2001). Examines many aspects of war, including the damaging impact the pervasive media organizations can play in recent times. 5. The Red and the White. (1967). I can't count the number of thoughtless execusion style killings, and after a while you forget which side is which and it doesn't even matter. and I would also like to mention Little Dieter Needs to Fly, a Herzog documentary which contains some pretty astounding and heroing anectodes from the title character about his experiences in the Vietnam war and a POW camp.
]]>Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:30:10 GMTRisseladaTop 511/28/2006 5:30:10 PM[quote user="SkyPilot"] 1. The Thin Red Line--I've never been in the military but the movement of the film feels very realistic, a hurry-up-and-wait situation. But since it's Malick, it's often slow-down-and-wait, too. 2. The Deer Hunter--By now we probably all know that there is no evidence for the Viet Cong forcing their prisoners to play Russian roulette. Fine. It's still one of the most compelling scenes in cinema history. 3. Apocalypse Now--not the Redux, in which the scenes had some interesting points or themes, but I don't think most of the scenes helped the movie. Except maybe the scene where Kurtz comes to the guys' cell and reads to him from--Time magazine was it? Still, you have a trade-off because that's the only time you see Kurtz in the daylight, and I like how in the original he's always in the dark of the temple. 4. Saving Private Ryan--UPPUM WILL YOU GET UP THAT F***ING STAIRCASE! It still does it to me every time. 5. Platoon--I don't have much to say about this one, but I'm not just tacking it on for no good reason. I guess I feel like I could've been there with guys more than any of the other ones. The guys are more childlike than the soldiers of the other films, but they're still capable of shocking violence and depravity. Elias is the kind of Sergeant I would follow. [/quote] All highly conventional choices Adam. I guess I can't argue with them too much though. I always find Spielberg a bit too senimental though. The Deer Hunter is intense and affecting, but sheesh just too long and depressing. I think the industrial town they live in is more depressing than the war. I just saw The Thin Red Line after seeing it not long after it first came out. I've seen Days of Heaven once and Badlands about half a dozen times since then. I was excited to see it again, but although it's shot beautifully, I found it to be not quite the perfect piece of poetry I had sculpted it to be in my memory or re-expectations if you will. It seemed kind of thin. [quote user="paul"]War.It's such a popular genre and, therefore, is usually done poorly, like romance. So, I'm asking myself which films I feel really showed me something about war besides the usual hero vs. villain stuff. The Thin Red Line (for reasons stated above) The New World - although not a designated "war," I still thought there was a war between the colonists and indians. Even such a small war had reprecussions that changed the world. Hotel Rwanda - showed me how a country can cave in on itself without the rest of the world having a clue. It also showed me how much war is about emotions with no regard for reason. Legends of the Fall and Tae Guk Gi - It's amazing how war completely mangles and reinvents a bond between brothers. Chihwaseon - Usually, in war movie you have to watch the war from one side--the hero's side--looking at the other. This movie's hero refuses to choose sides as war after war goes on around him. Something about that perspective really, for me, showed the futility of war. [/quote] I guess I'm still pretty excited to see The New World. Hotel Rwanda was so moving and not like the war movies we are used to in America, which even when lamenting the tragedies of war seem pretty self centered. Ooooh, I've been interested in seeing Chihwaseon for awhile, but haven't heard anyone I actually sort of knew recommend it. Alright, here's my list. 1. KUBRICK! Full Metal Jacket; Paths of Glory; Dr. Strangelove; Barry Lyndon; Ok, I have done this with most of my top 5 lists, but I’m surprised to see I seem to have a favorite filmmaker for many different genres and categories. What can I say about Kubrick but he knew how to portray man’s folly, and where is that more abundant than in war? 2. The General. (1927). Is this a war movie? IMDB says it is. Even in my war movies list, I have to cram in as many comedies as I can. 3. Buffalo Soldiers. (2001). I'm not sure how many of you have seen this? I saw it sort of accidentally. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival just days before 9/11. After that it could not get a wide distribution at movie theaters due to the fear that people would be upset by a movie that seemed to criticize the US military. It doesn't really do that however. I'm not sure if it would have been more well known otherwise, but it's unfortunate more people didn't get a chance to see it. It basically suggests that human beings always strive to be in some sort of state of war and will create their own smaller wars if there is no official one to participate in. Really funny as well! 4. No Man's Land. (2001). Examines many aspects of war, including the damaging impact the pervasive media organizations can play in recent times. 5. The Red and the White. (1967). I can't count the number of thoughtless execusion style killings, and after a while you forget which side is which and it doesn't even matter. and I would also like to mention Little Dieter Needs to Fly, a Herzog documentary which contains some pretty astounding and heroing anectodes from the title character about his experiences in the Vietnam war and a POW camp. http://www.spout.com/groups/Top_5/Re_Top_War_Films/190/3805/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: paul
Post To: Top 5
Post Date: 11/27/2006 4:35:29 PM
Body: War.It's such a popular genre and, therefore, is usually done poorly, like romance. So, I'm asking myself which films I feel really showed me something about war besides the usual hero vs. villain stuff.The Thin Red Line (for reasons stated above)The New World - although not a designated "war," I still thought there was a war between the colonists and indians. Even such a small war had reprecussions that changed the world.Hotel Rwanda - showed me how a country can cave in on itself without the rest of the world having a clue. It also showed me how much war is about emotions with no regard for reason.Legends of the Fall and Tae Guk Gi - It's amazing how war completely mangles and reinvents a bond between brothers.Chihwaseon - Usually, in war movie you have to watch the war from one side--the hero's side--looking at the other. This movie's hero refuses to choose sides as war after war goes on around him. Something about that perspective really, for me, showed the futility of war.
]]>Mon, 27 Nov 2006 21:35:29 GMTpaulTop 511/27/2006 4:35:29 PMWar.It's such a popular genre and, therefore, is usually done poorly, like romance. So, I'm asking myself which films I feel really showed me something about war besides the usual hero vs. villain stuff.The Thin Red Line (for reasons stated above)The New World - although not a designated "war," I still thought there was a war between the colonists and indians. Even such a small war had reprecussions that changed the world.Hotel Rwanda - showed me how a country can cave in on itself without the rest of the world having a clue. It also showed me how much war is about emotions with no regard for reason.Legends of the Fall and Tae Guk Gi - It's amazing how war completely mangles and reinvents a bond between brothers.Chihwaseon - Usually, in war movie you have to watch the war from one side--the hero's side--looking at the other. This movie's hero refuses to choose sides as war after war goes on around him. Something about that perspective really, for me, showed the futility of war. http://www.spout.com/blogs/mikeperry/archive/2006/4/7/834.aspx Post By: MikePerry
Post To: MikePerry Blog
Post Date: 4/7/2006 8:00:00 PM
Body: Hello all - here is my daily log from my trip to Rwanda last summer, ill post some pics later this month. 6/15 The flights from Grand Rapids to Minneapolis to Amsterdam went well, with the layover in Amsterdam being the most interesting because hardly. The layover in Minneapolis was only 1:30. In Amsterdam we had a real short layover. There was a guy who slipped in some puke right before the terminal. He fell right into it and then couldn’t get up because it was so slippery. I would imagine that he got a free flight or something. 6/16 The city was real dark and the ride there was interesting because all the cars and trucks spew out smoke pretty good. There was pretty tight security outside the hotel because it is right down the road from a place that was actually bombed a few years ago. The hotel was pretty nice, and there was a nice restaurant where we ate dinner and breakfast. I roomed with a guy from mars hill – and during the night he woke up and thought I was a local sleeping in the other bed so he got up and shook me and yelled ‘why are you in here?’. I slept through the whole deal and we got a laugh out of it in the morning. 6/17 On the 17th, we ate breakfast and headed for the airport at around 9 – we took off at 10. The plane was kind of old looking and it smelled like BO. I had to switch with a bigger man who was sitting next to the emergency exit and was too big to fit out of it in case of an emergency. The flight went good, jus kind of smelly at times. When we got out of the plane, I immediately realized that we were in Africa (I was wondering for a bit because the weather was so mild in Kenya). In the sun it is real hot, but in the shade it is pretty nice. We arrived at world relief today at 2:20 (Rwanda time, which is 6 hours ahead of Grand Rapids). It is a really nice building, with a beautiful view of Rwanda. It is a lot more beautiful than the city in Kenya we stayed in. So far, we have just settled in and now we are just starting to work on setting up the equipment. We set stuff up for around 5 hours or so and then took a tea break, as the custom is to take a tea break 2 times a day. We then went to a Presbyterian guest house for the night and went to a restaurant for dinner. We ate some African food including a dish that had bananas in it. The bananas were not sweet though because it was a weird kind of banana so it tasted like potatoes. 6/18 The next morning we ate at the hotel and had eggs, toast and pineapple. After we ate we set up some more equipment and set up some things on the server. At this time I started feeling sick and light headed a little bit. I’ve been drinking a lot of water and taking the malaria and asadufalous so hopefully these symptoms are from the medicine rather than from some sickness. We then went to the ‘Gorilla’ hotel and had a meeting and lunch with The staff of World Relief and some other missionaries from some Wesleyan church. In the meeting I learned what all World Relief does. I was amazed to see that World relief does children service, microfinance, AIDS relief. After that, we went to the Rwanda Genocide memorial. Even though I’m a pretty unemotional guy, this place moved me. It is kind of cool seeing the actual streets and buildings that were in the movie as well. We then went to the guest house for World Relief – it was as nice as or nicer than the typical house in the US. We ate dinner there and watched an episode of Lost – which I brought. 06/19 Last night I slept like a log, except for when I had a mosquito buzzing by my ear. This morning I took a shower in a shower that had no shower curtains or shower walls so water got everywhere. As I got out of the shower and walked into my room, I heard singing and some sort of band playing in the distance. Apparently there is an African summit happening this weekend, and I think around 3 or 4 African leaders are attending. One of the world relief guys said that when political things like this happen, fighting can break out, but he doesn’t expect it to this time around. Went to the Rwandan church for church today and the service was in Rwandan, so we had interpreters there to interpret the service. About 15 minutes into the service I felt light headed so I went into the bathroom – which was conveniently located to the right of where the pastor was preaching from. Because I was white, I think I drew a lot of attention to myself, and I think even the pastor paused for a second. There was a lady sitting next to the bathroom and she let me in. The toilet was basically a hole in the floor that you aim for. I don’t think I did a very good job. I was going to fill my water bottle up with water from the sink, but I asked a boy (who was probably like 8 or so) and he shook his hand vehemently and laughed. When I got back from the bathroom I felt even more lightheaded, and I asked for someone’s water who was sitting next to me. Johno’s wife (Johno works for world relief and his wife is from the UK and is a missionary in Rwanda) saw that I was pale and sick looking and offered to take me to her office for water and to rest. I was so thankful she was there because I would have passed out in church. When we got to her office, she had a boy that does errands for them go and get some water for me. We talked while we were waiting for water, and she said that it is common for foreigners to get sick because of the high altitude and lack of water. After church the team went to Johno’s house and had drinks and talked. After that we went back to the guest house and ate some lunch. We then worked like dogs in the hot Africa sun till 7:55 Rwanda time. After we decided that it was time to call it quits for the night, I went online and sent Jen and mom/dad an email about what’s been going on in Africa. I then talked with Jen online for a little bit (too short) and we then all headed to the guest house to eat. We had grilled cheese and vegetable soup. We ate, chatted and called it a night. 6/20 Today we worked on the network pretty much all day. We ate lunch at the guest house, and ate dinner at a really nice pizza place. It was called the new cactus, and it was almost as nice as a nice restaurant at home, in the middle of poverty. Outside as we were leaving, there were people selling African masks. 6/21 Today the teams split up, I am going to Burundi, and another team is going to Goma, Congo a city with a volcano right above it. A few years back there was an eruption, sending lava through the city. We took off from Kigali international airport at 11:00am for Bujumbura, Burundi. The flight wasn’t too bad, it lasted only 1 hour. We had the same flight crew as when we went from Kenya to Kigali, Rwanda. We went to the office right from the airport. This place is much more rural than Rwanda. People were burning the grass in front of their houses instead of cutting it. On the way to the office, I kept my laptop bag in the bed of the pickup truck we drove in. About halfway through the trip, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that a motorcycle was driving very close to our truck. Just then the kid (13 years of age maybe) riding on the back of the bike reached out to grab my bag. In a panic I opened the window in the cab and the kid got scared and backed off. That bike trailed for around a mile and then we lost them. If I would have lost that bag, I would be in the middle of a civil war ridden east African country with no passport, money, computer or vaccination papers. That was close. We went to the office for around 4 hours and set up the wireless access point and some of the computers. After that we had a guy who spoke little English take us to the Sweedish Mission where we were staying for the duration of the Burundi stay. I have never felt so alone as the first 30 minutes in the place where we were staying. The driver pretty much dropped us off and said ‘bye’. Everyone around us didn’t speak English, and we had no idea where we were, no idea who to contact, and no idea what to do. There was a UN guy staying in the same building, he was from Korea. After a while a few guys from the World Relief training seminar who knew English came and talked with us. I showed them a picture of jen and there were muy impressed. We ate dinner at the eating building. At night we heard some gun shots, about 5 shots from a rifle I think. 6/22 Today we worked on the office all day. We got almost it all done except for mapping some network drives. We shared the dial up connection among 12 computers on the wireless lan that we set up. We then ate at Dan Brose’s house for dinner. His house reminded me of a south American drug cartel’s house. They talked a lot about the World Relief stuff and the visit Laura Bush is doing in August. 6/23 There were no gunshots last night. We got up and ate breakfast at the eating building. We then went to the office for a few hours to get some last stuff done. We were hard pressed for time, and we pretty much ran out the door 30 minutes before the flight. The flight was not too smooth, as soon the plane was off the ground, it banked hard to the right. After a bumpy 13 minutes, the jet started descending. The flight took a total of 30 minutes. When we got back, we ate at the guest house for lunch. After that, we went to the Kigali office to finish stuff up there and then we ate at Johnos house. We then crashed at the guest house. 6/24/05 Today we went to the national park and saw many wild animals in their natural habitat. We were guided by a ranger. The ride up to the range took about 2 and a half hours, and the sights on the way were beautiful. I don’t think ive seen any banana trees in my life before, but I saw them today, by the thousands. There were very little modern looking buildings, most of the buildings were made of clay and had sticks as the support structure. There were some brick farmers that made bricks for a living. Any kids we saw on the streets were elated to see us.
]]>Sat, 08 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMTMikePerryMikePerry Blog4/7/2006 8:00:00 PMHello all - here is my daily log from my trip to Rwanda last summer, ill post some pics later this month. 6/15 The flights from Grand Rapids to Minneapolis to Amsterdam went well, with the layover in Amsterdam being the most interesting because hardly. The layover in Minneapolis was only 1:30. In Amsterdam we had a real short layover. There was a guy who slipped in some puke right before the terminal. He fell right into it and then couldn’t get up because it was so slippery. I would imagine that he got a free flight or something. 6/16 The city was real dark and the ride there was interesting because all the cars and trucks spew out smoke pretty good. There was pretty tight security outside the hotel because it is right down the road from a place that was actually bombed a few years ago. The hotel was pretty nice, and there was a nice restaurant where we ate dinner and breakfast. I roomed with a guy from mars hill – and during the night he woke up and thought I was a local sleeping in the other bed so he got up and shook me and yelled ‘why are you in here?’. I slept through the whole deal and we got a laugh out of it in the morning. 6/17 On the 17th, we ate breakfast and headed for the airport at around 9 – we took off at 10. The plane was kind of old looking and it smelled like BO. I had to switch with a bigger man who was sitting next to the emergency exit and was too big to fit out of it in case of an emergency. The flight went good, jus kind of smelly at times. When we got out of the plane, I immediately realized that we were in Africa (I was wondering for a bit because the weather was so mild in Kenya). In the sun it is real hot, but in the shade it is pretty nice. We arrived at world relief today at 2:20 (Rwanda time, which is 6 hours ahead of Grand Rapids). It is a really nice building, with a beautiful view of Rwanda. It is a lot more beautiful than the city in Kenya we stayed in. So far, we have just settled in and now we are just starting to work on setting up the equipment. We set stuff up for around 5 hours or so and then took a tea break, as the custom is to take a tea break 2 times a day. We then went to a Presbyterian guest house for the night and went to a restaurant for dinner. We ate some African food including a dish that had bananas in it. The bananas were not sweet though because it was a weird kind of banana so it tasted like potatoes. 6/18 The next morning we ate at the hotel and had eggs, toast and pineapple. After we ate we set up some more equipment and set up some things on the server. At this time I started feeling sick and light headed a little bit. I’ve been drinking a lot of water and taking the malaria and asadufalous so hopefully these symptoms are from the medicine rather than from some sickness. We then went to the ‘Gorilla’ hotel and had a meeting and lunch with The staff of World Relief and some other missionaries from some Wesleyan church. In the meeting I learned what all World Relief does. I was amazed to see that World relief does children service, microfinance, AIDS relief. After that, we went to the Rwanda Genocide memorial. Even though I’m a pretty unemotional guy, this place moved me. It is kind of cool seeing the actual streets and buildings that were in the movie as well. We then went to the guest house for World Relief – it was as nice as or nicer than the typical house in the US. We ate dinner there and watched an episode of Lost – which I brought. 06/19 Last night I slept like a log, except for when I had a mosquito buzzing by my ear. This morning I took a shower in a shower that had no shower curtains or shower walls so water got everywhere. As I got out of the shower and walked into my room, I heard singing and some sort of band playing in the distance. Apparently there is an African summit happening this weekend, and I think around 3 or 4 African leaders are attending. One of the world relief guys said that when political things like this happen, fighting can break out, but he doesn’t expect it to this time around. Went to the Rwandan church for church today and the service was in Rwandan, so we had interpreters there to interpret the service. About 15 minutes into the service I felt light headed so I went into the bathroom – which was conveniently located to the right of where the pastor was preaching from. Because I was white, I think I drew a lot of attention to myself, and I think even the pastor paused for a second. There was a lady sitting next to the bathroom and she let me in. The toilet was basically a hole in the floor that you aim for. I don’t think I did a very good job. I was going to fill my water bottle up with water from the sink, but I asked a boy (who was probably like 8 or so) and he shook his hand vehemently and laughed. When I got back from the bathroom I felt even more lightheaded, and I asked for someone’s water who was sitting next to me. Johno’s wife (Johno works for world relief and his wife is from the UK and is a missionary in Rwanda) saw that I was pale and sick looking and offered to take me to her office for water and to rest. I was so thankful she was there because I would have passed out in church. When we got to her office, she had a boy that does errands for them go and get some water for me. We talked while we were waiting for water, and she said that it is common for foreigners to get sick because of the high altitude and lack of water. After church the team went to Johno’s house and had drinks and talked. After that we went back to the guest house and ate some lunch. We then worked like dogs in the hot Africa sun till 7:55 Rwanda time. After we decided that it was time to call it quits for the night, I went online and sent Jen and mom/dad an email about what’s been going on in Africa. I then talked with Jen online for a little bit (too short) and we then all headed to the guest house to eat. We had grilled cheese and vegetable soup. We ate, chatted and called it a night. 6/20 Today we worked on the network pretty much all day. We ate lunch at the guest house, and ate dinner at a really nice pizza place. It was called the new cactus, and it was almost as nice as a nice restaurant at home, in the middle of poverty. Outside as we were leaving, there were people selling African masks. 6/21 Today the teams split up, I am going to Burundi, and another team is going to Goma, Congo a city with a volcano right above it. A few years back there was an eruption, sending lava through the city. We took off from Kigali international airport at 11:00am for Bujumbura, Burundi. The flight wasn’t too bad, it lasted only 1 hour. We had the same flight crew as when we went from Kenya to Kigali, Rwanda. We went to the office right from the airport. This place is much more rural than Rwanda. People were burning the grass in front of their houses instead of cutting it. On the way to the office, I kept my laptop bag in the bed of the pickup truck we drove in. About halfway through the trip, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that a motorcycle was driving very close to our truck. Just then the kid (13 years of age maybe) riding on the back of the bike reached out to grab my bag. In a panic I opened the window in the cab and the kid got scared and backed off. That bike trailed for around a mile and then we lost them. If I would have lost that bag, I would be in the middle of a civil war ridden east African country with no passport, money, computer or vaccination papers. That was close. We went to the office for around 4 hours and set up the wireless access point and some of the computers. After that we had a guy who spoke little English take us to the Sweedish Mission where we were staying for the duration of the Burundi stay. I have never felt so alone as the first 30 minutes in the place where we were staying. The driver pretty much dropped us off and said ‘bye’. Everyone around us didn’t speak English, and we had no idea where we were, no idea who to contact, and no idea what to do. There was a UN guy staying in the same building, he was from Korea. After a while a few guys from the World Relief training seminar who knew English came and talked with us. I showed them a picture of jen and there were muy impressed. We ate dinner at the eating building. At night we heard some gun shots, about 5 shots from a rifle I think. 6/22 Today we worked on the office all day. We got almost it all done except for mapping some network drives. We shared the dial up connection among 12 computers on the wireless lan that we set up. We then ate at Dan Brose’s house for dinner. His house reminded me of a south American drug cartel’s house. They talked a lot about the World Relief stuff and the visit Laura Bush is doing in August. 6/23 There were no gunshots last night. We got up and ate breakfast at the eating building. We then went to the office for a few hours to get some last stuff done. We were hard pressed for time, and we pretty much ran out the door 30 minutes before the flight. The flight was not too smooth, as soon the plane was off the ground, it banked hard to the right. After a bumpy 13 minutes, the jet started descending. The flight took a total of 30 minutes. When we got back, we ate at the guest house for lunch. After that, we went to the Kigali office to finish stuff up there and then we ate at Johnos house. We then crashed at the guest house. 6/24/05 Today we went to the national park and saw many wild animals in their natural habitat. We were guided by a ranger. The ride up to the range took about 2 and a half hours, and the sights on the way were beautiful. I don’t think ive seen any banana trees in my life before, but I saw them today, by the thousands. There were very little modern looking buildings, most of the buildings were made of clay and had sticks as the support structure. There were some brick farmers that made bricks for a living. Any kids we saw on the streets were elated to see us. http://www.spout.com/blogs/mikeperry/archive/2005/12/30/114.aspx Post By: MikePerry
Post To: MikePerry Blog
Post Date: 12/30/2005 4:45:00 PM
Body: Hotel Rwanda This is a very good movie, as it displays the horror and devistation of the Rwandian genocide in the early 1990s. This film is especially moving to me, as I actually visited Kigali, Rwanda (as well as some other small east African countries) in 2005 with World Relief. The hotel in the movie looks alot different than the one actually in Kigali, but this movie makes up for it by being accurate on larger details. Send me a msg if you want more details or pics from my trip:)
]]>Fri, 30 Dec 2005 21:45:00 GMTMikePerryMikePerry Blog12/30/2005 4:45:00 PMHotel Rwanda This is a very good movie, as it displays the horror and devistation of the Rwandian genocide in the early 1990s. This film is especially moving to me, as I actually visited Kigali, Rwanda (as well as some other small east African countries) in 2005 with World Relief. The hotel in the movie looks alot different than the one actually in Kigali, but this movie makes up for it by being accurate on larger details. Send me a msg if you want more details or pics from my trip:) http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/Loved-It/MemberTagFilms.aspxLoved-It
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