Submarine Channel

“Musekeweya made them see it was better to forgive than to stay angry.’’

 

April 7th 2014, twenty years ago to the day since the beginning of the genocide in Rwanda saw the launch of Love Radio: Episodes of Love & Hate – a new transmedia documentary that explores the process of reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda.

The documentary Love Radio tells the story of the popular radio soap Musekeweya, or ‘New Dawn’, which is trying to promote reconciliation and prevent new outbursts of violence. Through the documentary we discover the story of the soap’s creators, its actors and audience through film, photography and text. It is a story of the impact of mass media and the thin line between fact and fiction, violence and reconciliation, guilt and innocence.

We speak with Eefje Blankevoort and Anoek Steketee, the creators of Love Radio about the real story of Musekeweya that inspired them to make this web documentary. We address the creative process behind creating a documentary that echoes both the fictionalized struggles of the soap’s characters and the very real stories of reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda.

You can follow Love Radio, stay up-to-date with the documentary episodes and more by following the Love Radio Twitter,Love Radio Facebook and by signing up for the mailing list over at www.loveradio-rwanda.org

 

Eefje Blankevoort (Montreal, 1978) is a co-founder of the journalism production company Prospektor. She writes articles and books and makes (multimedia) documentaries. She has published Stiekem kan hier alles (‘Secretly every­thing is possible here’), about Iran, De Vluchtelingenjackpot (‘The Refugee Jackpot’, with photographer Karijn Kakebeeke) and Dream City (with photographer Anoek Steketee). The interactive music documentary Hidden Wounds (IDFA Doclab, Reflecting Images 2013) and the two-part radio documentary Men don’t cry (OVT, VPRO), about veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, were recently released.

Anoek Steketee (The Netherlands, 1974) studied photo­graphy at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and the Post-St. Joost in Breda. Her work has been featured at national and international festivals and exhibitions in Amsterdam, Madrid, Boston, Prague, Berlin, Lagos, China and New Zealand, solo exhibitions in the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam and more recently in ROSPHOTO State Museum in St Petersburg and the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.