Tomorrow, the public can begin to vote to select stories they’d like Video Journalists around the world to produce. We posted our pitch about the genocide widow who achieved financial stability by starting a funeral business. Your vote will ensure that this story gets made. Vote here.
Ever since editor’s notes came back to the team producing the story about Rwanda’s deaf community, they have been struggling to find a strong story angle, one that will resonate not only with Rwandan audiences but also with the international community. Last week they found what they were looking for.
Here is their new pitch:
Until 2008, the deaf community of Rwanda learned the sign language in the language of the donor community who sponsored a school for the deaf. For instance, in the northern province, one deaf person might speak Italian sign language while in the southern province, they might speak French sign language. The sign language language they spoke was purely based on which country was providing aid money to that region. At conferences for the deaf, the attendees struggled to communicate with each other without a standardized language.
In 2006 that began to change. The deaf union of Rwanda began to create a sign language dictionary in the local language of Kinyarwanda – it’s one of the only places in Africa where there is a sign language in the local language. In 2009, the dictionary was published and Kinyarwanda sign language is now taught in all ten deaf schools throughout Rwanda.
This film will follow two young deaf men who speak Kinyarwanda sign language. Edouard attends a school for the deaf in the southern province. When he first began school he spoke French sign language, but since the switch to kinyarwawnda sign language he has been thriving.
Pio, however, never had the opportunity to attend deaf school because the fees were too high for his poor family. To communicate with his friends and family, he has created a sign language – also in Kinyarwanda. But his signs are different than the standardized signs. Still he is able to communicate with his friends and family.
The film will examine the nuance that Kinyarwanda sign language captures about the local culture
I arranged to meet Liza at Bourbon Coffee. She is the producer of the team telling a story about a 27 year old genocide orphan who returned to primary school. They completed their first day of production. I asked to screen the tapes with her to make sure they were following all the production rules that we had discussed in class.
We watched footage of Segahinga attending a genocide commemoration event at the National University of Rwanda. We watch Segahinga walking down a grassy hill to his childhood home. He points to where his house once stood before it was destroyed in 1994. I watched footage of Segahinga sitting in silence during the drive back to Butare.
There was not enough light on Segahinga’s face during the interview. I point out to Liza that the footage is so dark we can’t even see his eyes. But the audio is good and I reassure her that we can find verite footage to cover Segahinga’s interview.
We come to the end of tape one. Then tape two.
“That’s it?” I ask. “I thought you interviewed Segahinga’s childhood friend.”
“We did,” Liza says.
We fast forward. We rewind. Scouring the tape for the missing footage. All we find are five seconds at the beginning of the missing interview.
“Did you press stop instead of record?” I ask, searching for an explanation.
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” Liza says, shaking her head in disbelief. “it was such a good interview. He was so open.”
It’s hard to find people willing to talk openly in Rwanda and they had traveled far for the interview.
I suggest that they have the friend travel to Butare to re-record the interview. The re-record it. But Liza assures me she’ll never make that mistake again.
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