This is Congo

Date: Monday, February 12, 2018 Time: 7pm Location: Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA Director: Daniel McCabe Film Details: 1 hour 31 minutes, 2017, USA/Canada/DRC/Qatar, color, in English, French, Swahili and Lingala with English subtitles Film Website | Facebook Event | Tickets World Premiere at the 2017 Venice Film Festival. Official Selection of the Camden International Film Festival, IDFA, and DOC NYC Filmmakers Daniel McCabe and Horeb Bulambo Shindano will attend in person for discussion! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WfWODjDYAk About the Film: This is Congo is a highly-immersive look into one of the longest conflicts in the world. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has seen more than five million conflict-related deaths, multiple regime changes and the wholesale impoverishment of its people in the past two decades. This is Congo immerses the viewer onto the frontlines of battle with key players including a whistleblower and military commanders to provide a truly unfiltered and unique look into the conflict plaguing Congo. Director’s Statement: Congo has been caught in a cycle of conflict for over two decades. Working there as a photographer I experienced the complexities of the situation firsthand. I drafted a conceptual film project that explored the root causes and their relationship to today’s Congo. In 2011 we cast a wide net across the mineral rich Kivu region, searching for stories that described the conditions that perpetuated this conflict. A year later, during the M23 rebellion, we gained access to displacement camps, rebel groups and the controversial National Army. During this period we met the four characters who would form the backbone of the film. What developed became a universal story of hope, struggle and corruption. About the Filmmakers: Daniel McCabe (Director, Producer, DP) is a  New York based photographer and director. His work has appeared in National Geographic, the New York Times, BBC, Al Jazeera and CNN among others. This is Congo is Daniel’s first feature-length documentary. Geoff McLean (Producer) has produced hundreds of commercial and music video projects. In 2010 Geoff was nominated for a Grammy for his work on Feist’s “1,2,3,4” which went on to become recognized as an essential work in Canadian Cinema History by TIFF. He has also served as an Executive Producer on short films such as Code 8, which broke crowd-funding records raising over $1.7m USD on Indiegogo and feature films such as Extraterrestrial and Grave Encounters, which both premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and were sold in 80+ countries. Along with This is Congo, Geoff also produced Hondros, a feature documentary which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2017, winning the audience award. Hondros was acquired by Bold Films and Executive Produced by Jake Gyllenhaal. Alyse Ardell Spiegel (Editor, Producer) is an award-winning documentary film, television and commercial editor based in New York. Her credits include Joe Berlinger’s Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (HBO), which was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2012 Academy Awards. Her first feature as an editor, the award-winning Crude, also directed by Berlinger, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Her other feature work includes The Project (2013 Tribeca Film Festival) and Unraveled (Showtime). Spiegel’s television credits include the Emmy-nominated series Oprah’s Masterclass (OWN), Demi Lovato: Stay Strong (MTV), and Tope Ten Monks (HBO). A fluent Spanish speaker, she has worked in Cuba, South Africa, and across North America. Horeb Bulambo Shindano (Field Producer) is a communications specialist, reporter and filmmaker. Horeb attended College Mwanga, majoring in Literature and Philosophy, and the Uganda School of Media, majoring in Photography and Video Production. He has worked for the Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund World Vision as a Communications Officer, specializing in hostile environments, MONUSCO (UN peacekeeping mission to the DR Congo) as lead television reporter and as a field producer for numerous news and media organizations including National Geographic, New York Times, Vice News, CNN and Netflix. Horeb has directed and produced over 10 films including Racial Prejudice which won Best Narrative Film in 2008 at the Picha Film Festival in Lubumbashi, DRC. Horeb is the father of three, speaks eight languages including French, English, and Latin and has worked in every major DRC conflict zone since 1996. Screens with: MUANA MBOKA 1999 | 14 minutes Directed by Jean-Michel Kibushi Ndjate Wooto (also known as Kibushi Ndjate Wooto and Jean-Michel Kibushi) a pioneer of African animation, and widely considered to be the first Congolese animator. Courtesy of Documentary Educational Resources.