Film: Rising from the Ashes

by MARK · April 11, 2013

Events

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Rising from the Ashes

April 2013

Here in the relative security of our western society, its mind blowing to try and understand what happened in the Rwandan genocide. Few of us will ever give it too much thought as it is the most horrific of events. Some ‘westerners’ though haven’t just thought about it, they went there to help the recovery. One of those people was American, ex-pro cyclist, Jock Boyer, who helped build the Rwandan cycling team. His story is being told in a new film – Rising from the Ashes.

A charity premiere for this award winning cycling documentary film, which is narrated by Forest Whitaker, will take place at the Odeon West End, in London’s Leicester Square, on May 9th at 7pm. The film follows Boyer in Rwanda where he sets out to help a group of struggling genocide survivors to pursue their dream of a national cycling team.

The aim of the event is to ‘change public opinion about Rwanda, for people to not just see it for the genocide of 1994 but for the positivity and power of cycling and how it brings individuals together, individuals who would have otherwise been in conflict.’

Clive Owen, the ambassador for the Aegis trust, which works to prevent crimes against humanity worldwide, will host the event and there’ll be a Q&A with the filmmaker, T.C. Johnstone, producers and members of Team Rwanda, including Adrien Niyonshuti, the first Rwandan to take part in the Olympics, who is featured in the documentary.