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My wife watched Hotel Rwanda yesterday for the first time. When that movie first came out I refused to go watch and I refused to rent it (I didn’t watch it with her either). My reason: It’s a movie, it’s Hollywood.

For those of you who don’t know what happened: Two groups there – the Hutus and the Tutsis. During the colonial era, the Tutsis were given the power by Germany because they felt they “looked” more like them. When Belgium took over after WWI, things generally got worse, and when Belgium left, the Hutus came to power and began to flex on the Tutsis who were in power before.

Lots of Tutsis refugees in neighboring Uganda decided to try and make a move to get back into Rwanda by force, they were repelled and the tension there increased. Later the then President of Rwanda along with the President of Burundi were killed when a surface to air missile hit their plane as it was landing in Kigali. Add to this: a lot of Hutu media to dehumanize the Tutsis in the eyes of the Hutu. The Hutus then began to butcher ALL Tutsis, regardless if they were armed or not. Even Hutus who were thought to be assisting Tutsis were killed. The rebel Tutsis went in again during the genocide (100 days into it) and were able to put down the Hutu militia. The leader of the Tutsi group rebel group is now the President of the country. It is estimated that between 800,000 to 1.05 million people were killed.

There was NO refuge for anyone during this time. There were nuns (pictured below, click on the picture to go to the story) who were hiding some Tutsis, who then went to buy gasoline for the Hutu militia men to burn down the building – burning alive those inside, and killing those who tried to escape.

Some other people (like Paul Rusesabagina – the main character in Hotel Rwanda), and others tried to hide and save as many people as they could. One consistent place where many Rwandans found safety was in the hands of Muslims. There was an increase in number people turning to Islam in Rwanda after the end of the conflict and a cited article below – click on the picture to see the full story.

The movie was not a documentary. It had paid actors, directors, etc. who all made money off of it. They have some extras where they show the real Paul Rusesabagina touring Rwanda with a camera crew showing areas where mass killings took place and the corpses are still there, which is good since it’s a whole different effect to see REAL decaying bodies. In the movie, the cameraman played by Joaquin Phoenix says “I think if people see this footage, they’ll say Oh, my God, that’s horrible. And then they’ll go on eating their dinners.” When you watch a movie, it’s still a movie, it’s not real. When you watch a documentary, you see real people, hear real stories, and you don’t need special effects and dramatization to make it hit home. If you see a man lose his hand in a movie, you know he didn’t really lose his hand. When you watch a documentary about the blood diamonds and they interview children that had one hand shot or cut off, that child will never get that hand back

I would post pictures, but they’re extremely graphic. Bodies were littered in the streets, homes, everywhere. Imagine you’re 12 years old, and you’re reading and watching this on the TV – that’s how it was for me. That’s why I boycott this movie.