Understanding Rwandan Cinema With Mutinga Wa Nkunda

Mutinga Wa Nkunda is one of the few working Rwandan filmmakers. Trained as a journalist, the filmmaker’s interest in cinema, though etched from childhood, found expression when he started writing about cinema for a local press outfit upon graduating university. In his stint as a journalist, he discovered Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and since then his appetite for cinema kept expanding. This hunger for cinema has made him one of the dominant forces in the Rwandan film industry. 

In this interview with Culture Custodian, he recounts his journey into filmmaking, thoughts about the Rwandan film industry, its challenges and the developing new generation talents and the place of foreign funds and grants in contemporary African cinema conversations. 

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. 

Your latest project, Phiona, A Girl From Madrid was shot during the COVID-19 period. Can you walk us through shooting in a period where physical intimacy was prohibited? 

I made the film after finishing my feature film, Nameless, which was a very brutal process and treats a brutal subject. The film was depressing and making Phiona, A Girl From Madrid with limited exposition and conflict served as an antidepressant. The idea for Phiona… came, in 2019, after discussing with a friend who recounted talking for hours, in a single location, with their family relations. I imagined what kind of film I could make if I had hidden a camera in the room as they converse. That idea interested me and I decided to make a film around it. 

Then COVID-19 came in 2020 with lockdown. When, in January 2021, we went on set, the restriction measures associated with COVID-19 had relaxed in Rwanda. Physical intimacy was still banned but, in making the film, I was trying to cheat the system because I wanted to shoot the film in the heart of this COVID. The film’s timing is important because as a story that takes place over the course of a day with three people talking, it made sense to shoot the film during the COVID-19 period. I shot and edited the film consecutively as the story unfolded for two days. After this, I wasn’t convinced of the rough cut we had and went back to set immediately the second lockdown was lifted in February. The weather, with constant rain, delayed the production. 

What initially drew you to filmmaking, and were there specific African or international filmmakers who influenced your interest? 

My filmmaking journey, like anyone who grew up in a country with no formal film infrastructures, was dramatic. I grew up in the post-genocide Rwanda and experienced, at a young age, the country in ruins. Growing up, there were small cinemas established in Uganda which screened predominately Hollywood titles. These films, in 1995, were my first contact with cinema and Hollywood titles about the Vietnamese war, Rambo and Commando, Chinese films and other films were the staple. Disco Dancer, a Bollywood film about a young boy’s relationship with his mother, was the first time I felt seen and represented onscreen. The film reminded me of me and my single mother who had survived the Rwandan genocide and had to care for her children. 

I worked as a journalist for a local news website after graduating where I discovered true cinema. Years later, during a workshop someone showed us Ousmane Sembene’s Black Girl and it introduced me to African filmmakers. Sembene, to me, is a revolutionary similar to Thomas Sankara and Patrick Lumumba. The difference is that cinema was his own revolutionary medium. I believe Sembene’s films should be made compulsory to watch in every African school of the continent to be truly independent. The African mind is still mentally colonized. Colonization isn’t with guns and violence but through cultural dominance. And Sembene’s films could act as a counter narrative to these cultural and mental domination. 

Phiona… is a  homage to Sembene’s Moolade because it’s a story of female resistance.  

What factors do you think enforces this cultural imperialism? 

The world is now globalized. But, in cultural production, African countries are more consumer than manufacturer. We haven’t taken up spaces. As Sembene said,  we are the sun not the sunflower. But,  why isn’t this the case? The answer lies in the African political leadership. The problem with Africa lies with the continent’s rulers. During the COVID-19 period, many African leaders brokered deals with European pharmaceutical companies to test COVID-19 vaccines on Africans. That was really insulting and denigrating. Sembene has mentioned that Africa is the sun in an old interview. That Africa hasn’t claimed this prophetic and metaphorical identity is rooted in the political decisions of African leaders. Culturally, we are not emancipated. The African youths are now decolonized. But, there aren’t cultural and national institutions to further motivate this decolonial process.

You are a constant presence at FESPACO. What do you think is the place of FESPACO’s programming and curation in countering this cultural dominance? And, how does FESPACO help define Africa cinema? 

I am an advocate of what FESPACO has been able to do for the past 50 years. Despite the many political problems and coup d’etat in Burkina Faso, the host country, FESPACO still stands tall. This is a good sign that the host country understands the cultural movement that FESPACO represents. The festival, every two years, curates films across the continent. This year’s curation featured films that treated the subject of colonization and independence. African filmmakers and youths, as I have said earlier, now understand the need to have conversation on colonization. And the many films at FESPACO this year points at that need at having our own cultural revolution.  

FESPACO is important in the fight against cultural imperialism. It’s the only festival on the continent that bridges national gaps and barriers making it possible for continent exchange and cultural differences. At the festival, you see films from different parts of the continent. The only challenge it needs to overcome is making its programming more language inclusive for non-French speakers. Africa is a continent with various cultural identities. And FESPACO, with its programming constantly emphasizes that by bringing together different filmmakers that represent varying African cultural identities. 

I have always criticized people who treat the continent and filmmakers from the continent as belonging to a single country. It’s a colonial, diminishing and degrading mindset.  African cinema doesn’t have a single identity and FESPACO’s curation of films from Southern, Western, Northern and Eastern Africa is a way of re-emphasizing this multifaceted nature of African cinema

The Rwandan film industry has been growing after the genocide. How will you describe the Rwandan film industry and what are its immediate challenges? 

The history of Rwandan cinema isn’t older than 25 years traceable to the early 2000s when 100 Years was produced by Nick Hughes and Eric Kabera, a Rwandan filmmaker. But, in the past 25 years, the Rwandan film industry has been a very fast moving train. There is an emergence of young filmmakers hungry to tell their Rwandan stories from various perspectives. I focus on contemporary Rwandan society while others focus on the memory of the genocide and relieving history. Despite this fast-paced movement, we have about ten working filmmakers. It’s important to note that these filmmakers, including me, are self taught. There are no national film institutes or film schools in Rwanda. 

Unmindful of these limitations, we are telling our stories. And, that is a very Rwandan spirit. The remaining problems are infrastructural and structural. And, this is a challenge common throughout the continent. We have two cinemas: CanalOlympia and Century Cinema. These cinemas screen only Hollywood titles. This poses an undeniable challenge for the young Rwandan filmmakers. This infrastructural challenge is being  solved with the presence of Ciné Mayaka, an old cinema space being revived by young filmmakers in Kigali. Rwandan audiences love Rwandan stories. I was reminded of this when I did the national premiere of my film, Phiona… at  Ciné Mayaka. The enthusiastic purchase of tickets and responses to the film was a hopeful sign that if Rwandan filmmakers continue to dream and make films, the audiences are waiting. 

As one of the filmmakers concerned about teaching next generation of Rwandan filmmakers and critics. How do you see the talent pool in Rwanda evolving, particularly for actors, writers, and technical crew? Is there enough infrastructure to support emerging filmmakers?

Filmmakers in my generation are always complaining that the younger generations don’t care about films. And the reason is due to the advances in technology. AI is now taking over, making many lazy. Now, as a mentor, I am trying to share what I have gotten from elder Rwandan filmmakers.  I am an avid cinephile who is passionate about the form. But, from my observation, the younger generation aren’t that interested in learning but hungry in making. That’s the challenge, but it’s also fun. This concerning challenge, which is global, makes it an interesting time in Rwanda to share with the younger generation what filmmakers in my generation know. 

What do you think are the additional contributions to this disinterest you have spoken about especially in realization that there aren’t formal learning institutions in Rwanda and cinema that screen Rwandana and African films?

The first factor is the easy access to technology. In 2013, it was very hard to get access to films. But now, it’s much easier. Streaming platforms like Netflix, with its library of not-so-good-films, is a concerning factor too. A lot of people believe Netflix is the centre of the world but I don’t share that opinion. There is also the obsession with social media and the need to be likeable. 

African filmmakers are increasingly telling stories that challenge stereotypes and offer nuanced perspectives. How do you see this trend evolving, and what stories do you believe need to be told more urgently?

Western cultural institutions are interested in setting up the funds for African films and filmmakers. I consider this problematic because most of these funds come with restrictive conditions which kills creative independence. The films are made to service the agenda of the institutions providing the funding. If you look at contemporary African films that have passed through international workshops, the labs, and acquired funds, the technical quality might be there but artistically, they are lacking. This is because there’s no freedom in creating the work. 

Personally, I make films on my terms and encourage others to do so. to be entangled with funding restrictions. I am certain Sembene wouldn’t have made Black Girl if he had been funded by the French government or cultural institutions. The reality of the contemporary African filmmaker is that they’re making films that fulfill the funders’ agenda and forgetting to make films that talk about their own realities. Accepting Western funds and grants and upholding their agenda is a way of continuing the colonization of Africa. And, this is why I salute Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s groundbreaking films. He understands the need to tell African films on our terms and not one that fits into a colonial perspective. 

With your concern and critique of Western funding and realization that there are scanty national funds and grants for contemporary African filmmakers, where does this place the contemporary African filmmakers like yourself? 

African countries and decision makers need to set up national funding opportunities for filmmakers. Across the continent, you have European cultural institutions. Although they appear as cooperations, it’s a new form of colonialism because they get to decide which project is worth funding and not. Senegal has Film and Audiovisual Industry Promotion Fund Call For Projects(FOPICA) providing funding for projects. This is a good project that other African countries can emulate. I have always said that cinema is like Noah’s Ark because it has the capacity to save a country’s economy through its contribution to GDP.  Culturally, cinema can contribute to national and cultural rebuilding. If we have African leaders set up national funds, African filmmakers won’t have to look for external, European funds. These funds often come with the condition to shoot a project with a foreign crew. In a situation where this persists, how do we build and develop the talent and expertise of the local crew members? We need local talents and technicians to develop our industries and we can only do this if we tell our stories with our resources.