He is known as one of the pioneers of Rwanda’s ever budding film industry and at one time, Hillywood, Rwanda’s own version of Hollywood or equivalence of Nigeria’s Nollywood, was touted as one of the most promising motion picture industries.
Twenty-eight years down the road, Rwanda’s film industry has grown by leaps and bounds for some while for others, it has stagnated. Nobody knows the story of Rwanda’s motion picture industry more than Eric Kabera.
For almost three decades now, Kabera has been the face of Rwanda’s film industry, almost seen as a father figure. The founder of Kwetu Film Institute and Rwanda Film Festival (RFF), a brainchild of Rwanda Cinema Centre, has been at the forefront of the movie industry in Rwanda.
A filmmaker himself, Kabera was able to carry Rwanda’s Hillywood story to Hollywood and in doing so, brought Hollywood to Rwanda. Rwanda’s post-Genocide movie industry blossomed at the time.
There were many stories to tell about the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Hollywood joined forces with Hillywood, Rwandan films and documentaries were screened in New York, Toronto, Berlin and Cannes.
Short stories done by young filmmakers won awards in Europe and North America. The future was promising. Kwetu Film Institute churned out youthful and seemingly passionate filmmakers, some of whom went on to shine on the global stage.
It was a rosy story. As years went on, the storyline started to become thinner and thinner. The passionate ones persisted. Others dropped off along the way. Many projects yet not enough sponsors.
As Kabera puts it himself, without making a windfall, some of the young people they trained got frustrated and thought "they lied to us”.
For Kabera, all this is part of the journey this has been. The ups and downs were expected.
"Filmmaking is a difficult process,” Kabera says, adding that one has to have a vision and passion to look at it as a vocation, a legacy they need to build and a commitment. In his case, it was a calling.
"I found filmmaking or the path of me making movies or training people to make movies or translating Rwandaful movies, as a vocation, as a passion,” Kabera said, which is why even today, he still produces movies, documentaries and features.
His latest project is dubbed ‘The Woman in me’, a feature documentary about Rwanda’s development and trajectory of success, seen in the eyes of women and girls.
The new project also looks at the policies, the challenges along the way -what have been the successes and the stumbling blocks towards women empowerment? To Kabera, filmmaking is about storytelling and forging partnerships.
For example, though his current project is about Rwanda, he is working with producers in Hollywood, for it to have a global reach. The aim is not just to tell Rwanda and Africa’s story, but also showcase the other side of the continent which many people don’t tend to know about.
Granted, this project can evolve into series and go to other parts of the world. That is what filmmaking is all about. However, to do all this, one has to invest heavily, without necessarily expecting to have a return on investment -which is where passion comes in.
A tough call
To sum up the past 28 years of Rwanda’s film industry, one has to look at the investment aspect. From Hollywood to Bollywood and the Asian movie industry, the boom is a direct result of investment.
Perhaps that is the biggest challenge filmmakers face not just in Rwanda but in Africa. The feeling of stagnation of the industry is also a direct result of lack of investment.
Either way, Kabera believes Rwanda’s film industry has come a long way. At the beginning, he hopped from one institution to another, selling the ideas and eventually the government bought into the vision.
The end result, he managed to train over 600 young men and women, of whom about 40 percent or so have been integrated into the media, audio-visual and film industry. This means that the efforts paid off. That does not mean however that the goal was achieved.
"We still have a long way to go, to actually label it as a film industry, because you need studios, you need huge investment, including from the banking sector.”
"We still need a government policy that will actually Implement that and give incentives to the local filmmakers and to foreign filmmakers, as well, who can come in and bring in a lot of films to produce and to employ local people,” says Kabera.
Not all hope is lost
He has hope that the policy will soon be put in place because the government knows the potential of the industry, which is why today the film office was set up at Rwanda Development Board (RDB) as well as other mechanisms that have been put in motion.
However, there is still a lot more to do in terms of infrastructure for the industry to take shape, including setting up a number of studios and incorporating high-level producing partners or producers to bring in the know-how.
The other positive is that thanks to the training, Rwanda currently has a local pool of technicians, good cameramen, sound engineers and very good young directors whose films have been projected internationally.
For things to really work, all of that needs to be accompanied by resources. He spent about one year in Los Angeles, trying to set up those kinds of mechanisms in terms of creating a bridge between North America and Africa in general, with the epicentre really being Rwanda.
"We've created something called the African Renaissance Collective, where we actually gather great minds of Africa and great minds of the U.S, to share ideas with the aim of creating a new narrative of Africa through storytelling.
For Kabera, the industry can only grow or evolve if such partnerships are built and that can’t happen overnight. It also requires storytelling skills that can appeal to the world. A good movie is a piece of history.
It sticks in the mind and stays forever. Mankind has always been influenced by storytelling and stories of mankind and all of humanity. This is something young filmmakers need to engrave on their minds if they are to be part of the growth.
Kabera believes there are so many good stories to tell about Rwanda, everywhere you look and with the social media revolution, there are many platforms to do it. You don’t have to wait to be screened at a festival when you can upload your short film on YouTube.
All these are opportunities to tap into without waiting to make it to the international stage. Storytelling is about people and being creative.
The bottom line of it all is investment. Countries like the U.S and India made deliberate decisions to invest in the film industry. Today they are reaping the benefits, making money from selling films globally.
Kabera says investing in the industry is not necessarily about getting returns but rather the bigger picture- selling yourself to the world and exporting your culture and influencing. There is no price to that.
He pointed out that though Rwanda has made progress in positioning the film industry, it needs to be followed by a heavy deployment of funds for it to make sense.
That is why Kwetu Film Institute shifted the approach. The institute is there according to Kabera. It moved from its old location to a much smaller location but with an aim of setting up its own studios where film students can train.
Kwetu moved from class-based teaching to developing filmmakers who are not just behind or in front of cameras but rather ones with hands-on skills and exposure, taught through filmmaking masterclasses.
The institute uses its connections to introduce them to mentors in the U.S or Asia, or even sends them abroad on exchange programs to learn from experience. The approach yields more positive results because they learn on the job and become all-round filmmakers.
At the end of the day they come up with filmmakers who have all skills, from production to filming, editing and directing as well as all the other skills such as lighting and sound management.
Like any other industry, the film industry got hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with activities grinding to a halt. However, those passionate about the industry are picking up the pieces.
While he was away in the U.S for one year, the Rwanda Cinema Centre (RCC) alumni felt the need to keep the fire burning. 12 of them came together and they are currently helping in organising the forthcoming Rwanda Film Festival.
The festival hadn’t happened in two years due to the pandemic. Kabera says they have received over 3, 000 films submitted from across the world and currently the team is figuring out the venues and locations as well as the logistics involved.
The festival is expected to return in September, running for two weeks, one week before the 18th edition of Kwita Izina and the second week after. The festival, which has been running for 18 years, is actually the source of the name ‘Hillywood’.
"It's a journey that has had its own satisfaction and it's a joy to witness. We hope the younger generation will continue with it,” says Kabera, adding that all this wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the government.
The father of three, who also proudly refers to himself as the ‘Preacher’s husband’, has etched his name on Rwanda’s film industry, not just as a pioneer but also as a film producer himself.
Coincidentally, we had the interview on his 52nd birthday, at least 27 of which he has dedicated to Rwanda’s film industry and still going.
He famously came to be known for co-producing ‘100 days’, one of the most captivating films about the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi released in 2001. Others include ‘Through my Eyes’ in 2006, ‘Africa United’ in 2010, ‘Finding Hillywood’ in 2013 and his most recent hit ‘Intore’ in 2014.