Media Release:
Hillywood movies praised in KIE public lecture

12 February 2010, by Shirley Randell

Rwandan cinema Hillywood provides more sensitive and positive images of masculinity and femininity than Hollywood and even Nollywood, according to Professor Gerise Herndon, visiting lecturer at the Centre for Gender, Culture and Development (CGCD) at the Kigali Institute of Education (KIE).

Prof Herndon was speaking at a KIE public lecture sponsored by CGCD on ‘Gender, Sex, and Violence: Africa on Screen’.

Herndon addressed questions about the image that Americans have of Rwanda and the image Rwanda shows itself in mass media. She showed clips from West African and Hillywood films that are more complex and thoughtful alternatives to US images of Rwanda as desperately needing a savior.

Herndon highlighted the work of Eric Kabera, particularly 100 Days, Keepers of Memory, Through My Eyes and Iseta: Beyond the Roadblock. These Rwandan films show the complex history and aftermath of the Tutsi genocide as opposed to the inaccurate Hollywood drama Hotel Rwanda.

In commenting, Vice Rector Academic, Professor James Vuningoma noted that while US audiences responded positively to Hotel Rwanda, Rwandans were scandalized by the inaccuracies in the movie. “US viewers need access to accurate information about Rwanda, instead of seeing dramas as though they were factual documentaries”, he said.

Herndon asked her audience of 500 KIE students, staff and the general public, including members of the Rwanda Association of University Women, why we watch media images of violence and unhealthy sexuality.

A lively discussion ensued where members of the audience asked probing questions and made comments about how media affects women’s images of themselves, viewers’ desensitization to violent imagery, and even our moral conscience.

Spending her sabbatical in Rwanda until the month of June, Herndon is working with Prof. Shirley Randell who is launching the new Master’s degree in Gender, Culture and Development Studies at KIE, the first such program in Rwanda.

Herndon is also researching Rwandan women’s laudable distinction as the first country in the world to elect a majority of women to Parliament. She hopes to analyze what lessons the US can import about gender and power.

Herndon is Director of the Gender Studies program at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, NE, USA. She first came to Rwanda in July 2009 under the auspices of the Interdisciplinary Genocide Studies Center.

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