Hiccups

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.