A quartet of powerful, hard-hitting short films that lay bare the disturbing reality of everyday life in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

by Dieudo Hamadi, Divita Wa Lusala, Patrick Ken Kalala, Kiripi Katembo Siku, Democratic Republic of Congo/South Africa, 2010, 72 min, French, Lingala, Bashi with English subtitles, 35mm

As the "Heart of Darkness", Congo remains to this day a huge space onto which the rest of the world can project certain ideas. With this film, young Congolese directors react to these projections by offering an inside view. Their cameras delve into different microcosms. The film begins with the absurd everyday life of a maternity ward. Many mothers cannot leave the hospital after giving birth because they cannot pay the bill. Right from the start of their new life, these women and their babies are trapped in the clutches of poverty and bureaucracy. A journey through the breathtaking labyrinth of Kinshasa's transformed infrastructure follows. The life of a young female journalist, whose father - a government opponent - was murdered, is portrayed. Grace Ngyke continues the fight for freedom of speech in the changed, but no less complicated, present. The film ends in one of the many haunting mining towns to which Congo owes its immense wealth. A woman and children, who can barely walk, work like Sisyphus and break stones. With Congo in Four Acts, the filmmakers have successfully completed their experiment to win back a space onto which others project ideas and turned it into a screen.
Dorothee Wenner, Berlinale 2010

Without a contrived feel
These films are the product of a training process we have been through, where we have learned skills in all aspects of filmmaking. The main goal of the film is to look at democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most films that have been made in the DRC are produced and directed by foreigners who parachute in for short periods of time and take a snapshot of our society, mainly looking at the horrors of war and deprivation. We have become frustrated with this image of our country. We set out to make films that are about ordinary people and their struggle for existence and survival. How do you cope in a society that has many problems? How do you find your way, often against all odds, to keep afloat amongst the chaos?

We felt it was important to make personal films, without commentary
or manipulation. We avoided using any music or flashy editing in the films in true cinéma vérité style. We wanted to make films where the characters speak for themselves. Through these characters, we hope to learn about broader society. The DRC is notorious for difficult filming conditions. As young filmmakers, we gained an intimate trust with our subjects that allowed them to look beyond the camera and allow us into their private spaces, mental and otherwise, and therefore we managed to avoid the contrived feel of many other films made in the DRC. In a country that has lived through dictatorship and war for most of its existence, we feel it is important for us as storytellers to make films that go beyond the headlines or 30-second news clips that shape the world's perception of us. We are committed to telling smaller stories that speak to our society and help shape a broader understanding of who we are and where we are going. This year, 2010, the DRC will hold many official celebrations to mark its 50th year of independence. We hope these films will go some way towards changing the perception of our country, beyond the pomp and ceremony of the celebrations, in forcing us to face the reality of contemporary life in the DRC.
Kiripi Katembo Siku, Dieudo Hamadi, Patrick Ken Kalala, Divita Wa Lusala

Ladies in Waiting

Director: Divita wa Lusala & Dieudo Hamadi
In a run-down maternity hospital, a ward of women who have recently had their babies wait to be allowed to leave. The problem? They cannot pay the hospital fees. A long-suffering manager must negotiate collateral with them so they will return and pay in full: a celebration dress, a pair of earrings, a suitcase. The film eloquently exposes both the squalid hospital system and the endemic poverty of Congo without, thankfully, pointing fingers, leaving that instead to the viewer.

Symphony Kinshasa
Director: Kiripi Katembo Siku
Take a hard-hitting tour through Congo's capital city and discover the consequences of graft, neglect and poverty, as Siku's film reveals Kinshasa'a imploding infrastructure. Malaria is rife, fresh water is as rare as flood water is common, electricity cables lie bare and live in the street, garbage is everywhere and as a priest notes "living in the capital is like living in a village. The services are the same, non-existent." It's not pretty but it's revelatory.

Zero Tolerance
Director: Dieudo Hamadi
Rape as a weapon of war has had much press, most notably in the recent Congo wars. Less discussed is the legacy it has left behind; a desensitised acceptance of the abuse of women at the hands of criminals, opportunists and most worryingly, ordinary men. Hamadi's short documentary film aims to get right to heart of the matter by following the Head of the Sexual Violence Unit, in Bukavu, Eastern DRC, she arrests two teenage brothers who rape a women returning from the shops and a man who rapes a women because he thinks she is a witch. Hamadi's focus is on an Eastern DRC town where political correctness holds no sway, and in so doing he attempts to show both the depth of the problem and the attempts by authorities to reset the national moral code. The film's unexpected triumph is its honesty - both in the depiction of poverty and the community's burgeoning anger at the endemic abuse.

After the Mine
Director: Kiripi Katembo Siku
Kipushi is a mining town, one of thousands keeping Congo's elite in extreme wealth. But for those who live in the shadow of its toxic fallout, it is a very different life, one where tainted water and contaminated soil are realities. Siku's film tells the very personal stories of those trapped in such a deadly environment.
Shorts

Ladies in Waiting
Director: Divita wa Lusala & Dieudo Hamadi

Symphony Kinshasa
Director: Kiripi Katembo Siku

Zero Tolerance
Director: Dieudo Hamadi

After the Mine
Director: Kiripi Katembo Siku


Festivals

World premiere - Berlinale 2010

Officially selected for IDFA - International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam, 2010

Officially selected for Hot Docs - 2010

Officially selected for African Film Festival of Milan 2010

Officially selected for Africa in Motion Film Festival 2010
International Festival Signes de Nuit, France, 2010

Hot Docs, Canada, 2010

Rwanda Film Festival, 2010
Open Doek Film Festival, Belgium, 2010

DOK.FEST, Germany, 2010 
Norweigan Short Film Festival, Norway, 2010


Zanzibar International Film Festival, 2010

Bala Bala Cine, Democartic Republic of Congo, 2010

Durban International Film Festival, South Africa, 2010

Encounters Documnetary Festival, South Africa, 2010


Fair - Forum for African Investivitive Reporters, 
Zimbabwe International Film Festival, 2010

My World Images Festival, Denmark, 2010


FIFAI, Reunion Island, 2010
DocLisboa, Portugal, 2010 


Kenya International Film Festival, 2010

Carthage Film Festival, Tunisia, 2010


Amakula Kampala International Film Festival, Uganda, Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, Czech Republic, Africa in Motion Film Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2010

Ethiopian International Film Festival, 2010


Senegal Festival du Film de Dakar, 2010


The Village Doc Festival Milan, Italy, 2010


Watch Docs, Poland, 2010


Benin Quintessance 2011


Doc Point, Helsinki, Finland, 2011


FIPA (sub fesival of Cannes) Biarritz, France 2011
Black Movie Film Festival, Geneva, Switzerland, 2011


FESPACO, Burkina Faso, 2011(26 FEB -5 MAR ‘11)
Bradford International Film Festival, UK, 2011 


Fribourg International Film Festival, Switzerland, 2011


Ljubjana Documentary Film Festival, Slovenia, 2011

Planete Doc Film Festival, Warsaw, Poland, 2011

Festival de Cine Africano de Tarifa, Tangers, 2011 


Dockanema Documenatry Film Festival, Maputo, Mozambique, 2011


Tri Continents Film Festival, 2011


One World Kyrgyzstan International Film Festival, 2011


Namur International Festival of Francophone, Belgium, 2011


Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival, Germany, 
Ânûû- rû Âboro Film Festival, New Caledonia, South Pacific, 2011 Â) 
International Short Film Festival Winterthur, Switzerland, 2011


Women of the Sun Unite Film Festival, South Africa, 2011 
Manya Human Rights International Film Festival, Uganda, 2011


The African Movie Festival of Cordoba - FCAT, Spain, 2011
Africa Hoje Film Festival, Brazil, 2012
LESS

Awards
* Jury Award - Vienna International Human World Film Festival 2010
* The Pierre And Yolande Perrault Grant at Cinema Du Reel ("Ladies In Waiting")
* Prize Winner - Fica, Ivory Coast 2010
* Best Short Documentary - Africa Movie Academy Awards 2011 ("After The Mine")
* The Grand Prix - One World Kyrgyzstan International Film Festival 2011

_________________________________________

Als „Herz der Finsternis"ist der Kongo für den Rest der Welt bis heute eine riesige Projektionsfläche geblieben. Dem setzen junge kongolesische Regisseure mit diesem Film eine Innenansicht gegenüber. Sie erforschen mit der Kamera unterschiedliche Mikrokosmen: Der Film beginnt mit dem absurden Alltag in einer Entbindungsstation. Nach der Geburt können viele der Mütter dieses Hospital nicht verlassen, weil sie die Rechnungen nicht bezahlen können. Die Frauen und ihre Babys stecken ganz zu Beginn des neuen Lebens fest in den Fängen von Armut und Bürokratie. Dann folgt eine Reise durch das atemberaubende Labyrinth, in das sich Kinshasas Infrastruktur verwandelt hat. Eine junge Journalistin wird porträtiert, deren Vater als Regierungsgegner ermordet wurde, Grace Ngyke setzt den Kampf für freie Meinungsäußerung in einer veränderten, aber nicht weniger komplizierten Gegenwart fort. Der Film endet in einer der vielen gespenstischen Minenstädte, denen der Kongo seinen ungeheuren Reichtum verdankt. Eine Frau und Kinder, die noch kaum laufen können, arbeiten wie Sisyphos und klopfen Steine. Congo in Four Acts funktioniert als das gelungene Experiment der Filmemacher, sich die Projektionsfläche der anderen als Leinwand zurückzuerobern.
Dorothee Wenner, Berlinale 2010

Demokratische Republik Kongo/ZAF, 2010

Land: Demokratische Republik Kongo, Südafrika 2010. Produktion: Suka! Production, Kapstadt, Südafrika. Regie: Kiripi Katembo Siku, Dieudo Hamadi, Patrick Ken Kalala, Divita Wa Lusala. Produzenten: Djo Tunda Wa Munga, Steven Markovitz.

Ladies in Waiting
The absurd everyday life of a maternity ward. Many mothers cannot leave the hospital after giving birth because they cannot pay the bill. Right from the start of their new life, these women and their babies are trapped in the clutches of poverty and bureaucracy. A journey through the breathtaking labyrinth of Kinshasa's transformed infrastructure follows. (Dorothee Wenner, Berlinale 2010)
Regie: Dieudo Hamadi, Divita Wa Lusala. Kamera: Divita Wa Lusala. Ton: Michel Kabeya Kalala. Schnitt: Divita Wa Lusala, Ronelle Loots.

Shrinking Press
The life of a young female journalist, whose father - a government opponent - was murdered, is portrayed. Grace Ngyke continues the fight for freedom of speech in the changed, but no less complicated, present. (Dorothee Wenner, Berlinale 2010)
Regie: Patrick Ken Kalala. Kamera: Deschamps Matala, Divita Wa Lusala. Ton: Michel Kabeya Kalala. Schnitt: Frédéric Massiot, Divita Wa Lusala, Ronelle Loots.

Symphony Kinshasa
Regie: Kiripi Katembo Siku. Kamera: Deschamps Matala. Ton: Michel Kabeya Kalala. Schnitt: Divita Wa Lusala, Ronelle Loots.

After the Mine
One of the many haunting mining towns to which Congo owes its immense wealth. A woman and children, who can barely walk, work like Sisyphus and break stones. (Dorothee Wenner, Berlinale 2010)
Regie: Kiripi Katembo Siku. Kamera: Deschamps Matala. Ton: Michel Kabeya Kalala. Schnitt: Divita Wa Lusala, Ronelle Loots.

Format: DVCam (gedreht auf Beta SP), 4:3, Farbe. Länge: 72 Minuten, 25 Bilder/Sekunde. Originalsprachen: Französisch, Englisch. Uraufführung: 18. Februar 2010, Internationales Forum, Berlin.

Weltvertrieb: Suka! Production, Steven Markovitz (Cape Town,
Südafrika).

2010 | 60th Berlinale
* Section: Forum


_______________

Il film, composto di quattro cortometraggi documentari realizzati da filmakers congolesi, è il risultato di un workshop di produzione, regia e montaggio. Al centro, la vita quotidiana nella Repubblica Democratica del Congo. Ladies in Waiting descrive il dramma di madri che hanno partorito e non possono lasciare l'ospedale perché non sono in grado di pagare le spese. Simphony Kinshasa è un viaggio nelle disastrose condizioni delle infrastrutture nella capitale del Congo. Shrinking Press, attraverso la lotta di una giornalista, figlia di un giornalista ucciso per le sue opinioni, racconta le limitazioni della libertà di parola in Congo. After the Mine mostra le condizioni di estrema povertà e malattia in cui vivono gli abitanti della città mineraria di Kipushi.

RDC/Sudafrica - 2009
Regia: Patrick Ken Kalala, Kiripi Katembo Siku Divita Wa Lusala, Dieudo Hamadi
Sceneggiatura: Patrick Ken Kalala, Kiripi Katembo Siku, Divita Wa Lusala, Dieudo Hamadi
Fotografia: Deschamps Matala, Divita Wa Lusala
Montaggio: Divita Wa Lusala, Ronelle Loots, Frederic Massiot
Suono: Stash Couvaras
Formato: Video
Durata: 72 min.
Versione originale: Francese, Inglese

Produzione: Suka! Production
Distribuzione : Big World, tel. +27 214654686