By: Michael Bamesberger
Source: http://www.omaha.com
Category: Film School Online
LINCOLN — When Natalia Ledford was 14, she saw a documentary about Uganda's civil war and was shocked by the brutality that occurred halfway around the world.
Later, while working on an assignment for her high school newspaper, she interviewed a fellow student, a Sudanese refugee, who had escaped that African nation's conflict by fleeing barefoot with his mother.
"The weight of these atrocities became much more tangible for me once I realized my peers had been through them," Ledford said.
Then a senior at Lincoln High School, Ledford was so moved by the experiences of her Sudanese classmates that she borrowed her father's video camera and spent the year filming and editing a documentary about their lives as refugees. The film earned her a $50,000 national scholarship, and the documentary aired in June 2009 on Nebraska Educational TV.
Ledford, now a 21-year-old junior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is wrapping up her second documentary, a National Geographic-funded project she co-directed with Emmanuel Habimana, a Rwandan genocide survivor.
"The Children Who Lived; Orphans of the Tutsi Genocide," tells the story of the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people — many of them members of the Tutsi minority — in the East African nation of Rwanda, and the complicated peace that exists there today. An unfinished, 50-minute version of the documentary was shown last week at a UNL event.
Ledford and Habimana met in 2009 during Ledford's three-week, UNL-sponsored visit to Rwanda.
"When I found out Natalia made a documentary about the Sudanese, I asked her if she would come back and make a documentary about Rwanda," said Habimana, who attended "The Children Who Lived" showing in Lincoln.
Habimana, 26, was 9 years old during the Hutu attacks on the Tutsis. Eight of his relatives, including his father, were killed.
Ledford's documentary is a way to tell the story of the thousands of Rwandan children who, like himself, were orphaned, Habimana said.
Ledford knew she wanted to pursue the project. "There's something special about Rwanda that I haven't found anywhere else."
She obtained nearly $12,000 in funding from National Geographic.
"The grants really opened doors for us and allowed us to pursue the story on the level we wanted," Ledford said.
In 2010, Ledford and Habimana spent seven months in Rwanda shooting and researching the project while Ledford took her UNL classes online. The two interviewed perpetrators and survivors, with Habimana asking the questions and Ledford filming interviews.
Ledford said the most interesting interview was with a man who was part of a group that killed 12 people but who has now asked his victims' relatives for forgiveness.
"He had been brainwashed by the government — not like that is an excuse. It was a horrific story," Ledford said.
Today in Rwanda, survivors live alongside those who committed the violence. And while news accounts often highlight the stories of reconciliation, the scars of genocide run deep, Ledford said.
"We met a man named Celestine who is still harassed daily by the people who murdered his family," she said.
Still, Ledford was struck by Rwandans' willingness to forgive.
"Through interviews with survivors, I really understood how universal and human that necessity to forgive is."
Ledford and Habimana also interviewed a number of Americans, including Carl Wilkens, an aid worker who remained in Rwanda during the genocide and persuaded the country's prime minister to spare the lives of 400 children at an orphanage.
The film is nearing completion, and Ledford plans to spend the next few months acquiring stock footage and doing final edits at NET studios in Lincoln. Broadcast plans have not been determined yet.
"She is so highly self-motivated and highly self-directed," said Mike Farrell, an NET production manager who supervised the editing of her first documentary. "I guess she's unusual in that sense."
Ledford has a year of school left before she receives degrees in broadcast journalism and international studies. After graduation, she would like to pursue another film project or go to graduate school.
Whatever her future, those who know her have high hopes.
"She'll have a major impact on whatever subject she works on," Farrell said. "I expect someday she'll become a major American documentary filmmaker."
Source: http://www.omaha.com/article/20111206/NEWS01/712069923
Source: http://www.omaha.com
Category: Film School Online
LINCOLN — When Natalia Ledford was 14, she saw a documentary about Uganda's civil war and was shocked by the brutality that occurred halfway around the world.
Later, while working on an assignment for her high school newspaper, she interviewed a fellow student, a Sudanese refugee, who had escaped that African nation's conflict by fleeing barefoot with his mother.
"The weight of these atrocities became much more tangible for me once I realized my peers had been through them," Ledford said.
Then a senior at Lincoln High School, Ledford was so moved by the experiences of her Sudanese classmates that she borrowed her father's video camera and spent the year filming and editing a documentary about their lives as refugees. The film earned her a $50,000 national scholarship, and the documentary aired in June 2009 on Nebraska Educational TV.
Ledford, now a 21-year-old junior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is wrapping up her second documentary, a National Geographic-funded project she co-directed with Emmanuel Habimana, a Rwandan genocide survivor.
"The Children Who Lived; Orphans of the Tutsi Genocide," tells the story of the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people — many of them members of the Tutsi minority — in the East African nation of Rwanda, and the complicated peace that exists there today. An unfinished, 50-minute version of the documentary was shown last week at a UNL event.
Ledford and Habimana met in 2009 during Ledford's three-week, UNL-sponsored visit to Rwanda.
"When I found out Natalia made a documentary about the Sudanese, I asked her if she would come back and make a documentary about Rwanda," said Habimana, who attended "The Children Who Lived" showing in Lincoln.
Habimana, 26, was 9 years old during the Hutu attacks on the Tutsis. Eight of his relatives, including his father, were killed.
Ledford's documentary is a way to tell the story of the thousands of Rwandan children who, like himself, were orphaned, Habimana said.
Ledford knew she wanted to pursue the project. "There's something special about Rwanda that I haven't found anywhere else."
She obtained nearly $12,000 in funding from National Geographic.
"The grants really opened doors for us and allowed us to pursue the story on the level we wanted," Ledford said.
In 2010, Ledford and Habimana spent seven months in Rwanda shooting and researching the project while Ledford took her UNL classes online. The two interviewed perpetrators and survivors, with Habimana asking the questions and Ledford filming interviews.
Ledford said the most interesting interview was with a man who was part of a group that killed 12 people but who has now asked his victims' relatives for forgiveness.
"He had been brainwashed by the government — not like that is an excuse. It was a horrific story," Ledford said.
Today in Rwanda, survivors live alongside those who committed the violence. And while news accounts often highlight the stories of reconciliation, the scars of genocide run deep, Ledford said.
"We met a man named Celestine who is still harassed daily by the people who murdered his family," she said.
Still, Ledford was struck by Rwandans' willingness to forgive.
"Through interviews with survivors, I really understood how universal and human that necessity to forgive is."
Ledford and Habimana also interviewed a number of Americans, including Carl Wilkens, an aid worker who remained in Rwanda during the genocide and persuaded the country's prime minister to spare the lives of 400 children at an orphanage.
The film is nearing completion, and Ledford plans to spend the next few months acquiring stock footage and doing final edits at NET studios in Lincoln. Broadcast plans have not been determined yet.
"She is so highly self-motivated and highly self-directed," said Mike Farrell, an NET production manager who supervised the editing of her first documentary. "I guess she's unusual in that sense."
Ledford has a year of school left before she receives degrees in broadcast journalism and international studies. After graduation, she would like to pursue another film project or go to graduate school.
Whatever her future, those who know her have high hopes.
"She'll have a major impact on whatever subject she works on," Farrell said. "I expect someday she'll become a major American documentary filmmaker."
Source: http://www.omaha.com/article/20111206/NEWS01/712069923
