ArticlePopular Narratives

The Things We Don’t Say

Ornella Mutoni, our PopChange Producer, has released her first documentary film.

The Things We Don’t Say, a documentary by Ornella Mutoni, has been released on The Guardian’s online platform and is available now for free.

It focuses on complex stories of healing in Rwanda following the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, which Ornella survived.

Ornella has also published an accompanying article in The Guardian describing the background to the film.

“On the surface,” she writes, “Rwanda seems to have managed to do the unthinkable: live in relative peace after approximately one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed from April to July 1994. Survivors and perpetrators live side by side, in a country that sets an example for reconciliation. But sitting in a healing circle and listening to these women’s stories, I saw another side of reconciliation: many people are still in pain from what happened to them in 1994. In this group, I witnessed the power of sharing these burdens in a safe space. A space where they didn’t have to put on a brave face and act as though they had been able to move on.”

Ornella works for Counterpoints as a producer on our PopChange strand, exploring how the power of pop culture can be harnessed to shift the way we talk, think and feel about migration and displacement.

In her article, she continues: “Too often there is a tendency in documentary film to glorify trauma or poverty, which perpetuates stereotypes about Africa and Rwanda. While pitching this film, one production company asked me to change the narrative in favour of a more extreme story. This feedback was the main reason I went on to make this film independently. I needed the freedom to break away from this narrative. I wanted to focus instead on the complexities of modern life – where love and lightness persist even within fractured, painful relationships, and what the possibility of healing looks like.”

The Things We Don’t Say is also available to watch on YouTube.

Information

Types

Themes

Share