AFP editor Chris Graham interviews filmmaker Rob Fruchtman about his documentary Sweet Dreams, which is being screened on Tuesday at the Wayne Theatre in Waynesboro.
About Sweet Dreams
“Sweet Dreams” picks up the story of the effort to begin healing in Rwanda with the creation of Ingoma Nshya, Rwanda’s first and only women’s drumming troupe, open to women from both sides of the conflict.
There was only one requirement, according to Kiki Katese, the pioneering Rwandan theater director who launched Ingoma Nshya: to leave the categories of the past at the gate.
Katese then came up with the idea to open Rwanda’s first and only ice cream shop, which led to natural questions among the members of the dance troupe, primarily, what was ice cream exactly, and how would they do it?
Katese invited Jennie Dundas and Alexis Miesen of Brooklyn’s Blue Marble Ice Cream to come to Rwanda to help the drummers open their shop, which they named Inzozi Nziza (Sweet Dreams).
“Sweet Dreams” follows this remarkable group of Rwandan women as they emerge from the devastation of the genocide to create a future of hope and possibility for themselves.
“What we knew of Rwanda was the devastation of 1994 genocide – 800,000 minority Tutsis killed in one hundred days, many by those they knew, neighbors and friends,” the Fruchtmans said. “How, we asked ourselves, was it possible for Rwandans to move forward from that? And how did drumming and ice cream fit in? We got on a plane to Rwanda to find out.”
On Screen/In Person is a program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation made possible through the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts.
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