Ghosts of Rwanda

Ghosts of Rwanda was a documentary about the Rwandan genocide of 1994. There are scenes from the real sites of massacres by the Hutu extremists, and extensive interviews with UN, United States, and Red Cross officials. It was a very conflicting look at the officials' opinions about their inaction, and as we know, hindsight is 20/20. The fight between humanitarianism and national interests was never more apparent than when the interviews with important officials in the United States Department of Defence. There is a lot of deference to authority when we hear these officials speak. Every single one of them claims that they did not have enough power to effect change, so they did nothing.

As well, we see how different aid organizations responded to the effort, and how much of a difference having support makes. The head of the Red Cross mission to Rwanda was much more calm and did not have any of the negative after-effects that Romeo Dallaire experienced, being backed by the UN. The head of the Red Cross did his job, which was to save lives, and experienced just as much horror if not more than Romeo Dallaire did, being up close and personal with thousands of victims. Even through these experiences, the help that his organization gave him made the difference between coming back from Rwanda shaken but mentally stable, and coming back from Rwanda with post-traumatic stress disorder and suffering from self-blame and suicidal thoughts.

I believe that this documentary provided a lot of professional insight that we did not receive from the Hollywood-produced movies, although they were surprisingly accurate. It may not have been thrilling and moving in the way Hotel Rwanda was, but it carried a lot of weight and was an excellent film in its own right.