Three-hundred-and-fifty hours of footage shot in Rwanda between 2000 and 2009 by
French-American filmmaker Anne Aghion, while working on the four Gacaca films she
made in the country, have been acquired by the INA (Institute National de
L’audiovisuel) in France.
“This is big news and a huge relief for me! It means that the 550 plus tapes now have
a permanent home and will be preserved and made accessible,’ said Aghion.
As part of the agreement, INA will provide her with a full copy of the footage for
presentation to the Iriba Center for Multimedia Heritage, which she co-founded in
Rwanda last year.
INA will digitise and enhance the archive and provide global access to some 550
tapes, making up 350 hours of footage.
Material was shot primarily in a single rural village, as the Rwandan government put
in place the Gacaca, a system of community based tribunals established to judge
crimes dating to the 1994 genocide, which claimed 800,000 lives over the course of
three months.
Footage is mainly in the Kinyarwanda language, as well as in English and French. The
material is fully translated into English and indexed to time codes every 10 to 15
seconds at most.
The agreement with Aghion is part of INA’s policy to expand its collection, and to
engage in international cooperation for the preservation of audiovisual heritage.
