Sean Stone interviews journalist Milton Allimadi about the hidden genocide taking place in Uganda and Ebony Butler’s feature documentary, A Brilliant Genocide’.
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Uganda: Pressure To Investigate Kasese After RT Broadcasts “Brilliant Genocide” | Black Star News
Excerpt from article:
“Recently Russian authorities were pressured by Gen. Museveni from screening “A Brilliant Genocide” on RT (Russia Today) television network, the hard-hitting documentary by Australian filmmaker Ebony Atlanta Butler about the genocide committed by Gen. Museveni in the Northern part of Uganda.
The Russians rejected Gen. Museveni’s pleas after concluding that he was beyond saving after the Kasese massacres.
Because of Russia’s major role in the conflict in Syria, RT is monitored at the United Nations headquarters in New York, by the U.S. Department of State, by The White House, and by 10 Downing Street.”
Written by
Dr Vincent Magombe
Free Uganda Secretary U.K.
Worldwide TV & Web Broadcast: Dec 9-11 on RT News and RT.com
WE ARE LIVE – This weekend only! Worldwide TV and web broadcast of A Brilliant Genocide is on the RT website at rt.com or on the RT News TV network if you have cable or satellite Television!
A Brilliant Genocide is being aired in two parts and twice a day over the weekend, to a global audience. (Dec 9 – 11)
Please tune in or watch it live online on rt.com if you don’t have Foxtel or cable!
Broadcast and online streaming schedule is available at http://www.rt.com/schedule (please check regularly as times may change)
Streaming of the film is only available at the same time as the TV broadcast. Please go to www.RT.com / RT News and click ‘Live‘ for the stream.
RT is where real news lives. A place where stories like our can be heard. Unlike mainstream media, RT or Russia Today, is a broadcaster that is not afraid of speaking the truth.
Note: RT is a 24 hour news network and so major stories will affect the time films are aired. Also all times listed on the schedule are in GMT time. Click the LIVE button at the top of RT.com to stream live TV at the time of the broadcast.
Thank you. Please follow us on facebook and twitter for the up to date broadcast news, information or simply to share your thoughts and join the discussion.
A Brilliant Genocide – Check out this ‘User Review’ on our IMDb message board from someone who was victimised by the Ugandan regime and grew up during the war.
Please try not to miss the international TV premiere of A Brilliant Genocide this weekend!
Airing on RT News, December 9-11! (TV & internet streaming available) See www.rt.com
The broadcast schedule will available after 12:00am on the day at www.rt.com/schedule
#EndTheSilence
WORLWIDE TV BROADCAST STARTS THIS FRIDAY DECEMBER 9 on RT!
Finally, worldwide TV broadcast of our film A Brilliant Genocide! THIS WEEKEND for those who have missed the 5o+ film festival screenings we have had in 2016!
TV broadcast currently scheduled in the U.K. and Australia this weekend on the 9th, 10th and the 11th of December on RT / Russia Today TV (Foxtel channel 658 in Australia and Channel 135 in the U.K)
If you don’t have Foxtel/Cable it will also be streamed on RT.com !
If you are outside of the UK and Australia please check with RT to see what dates it will be screened in your country.
Follow us for regular updates and to join the conversation on Facebook at ABRILLIANTGENOCIDE; Twitter or Instagram!
#EndTheSilence #ABrilliantGenocide
Former United Nations Ambassador and UPC President Olara Otunnu with A Brilliant Genocide director Ebony Butler
Another Round of Champagne in Defiance – The Panoptic
On this Remembrance Sunday, when we commemorate those that lost their lives in conflict, much of the world is mourning the election of a demagogue to the White House. Please spare a thought for Uganda in its thirtieth year of dictatorship under Museveni, and the millions dead from his genocidal machinations.
A Brilliant Genocide is the best place to start. Today it is being awarded Best Film and Best Human Rights Film at the We The Peoples Film Festival. Such plaudits are thoroughly deserved and particularly special to the survivors as their struggle continues. Their dignity and strength in pursuing justice serves as a gold standard in how such causes should be fought.
“THEIR DIGNITY AND STRENGTH IN PURSUING JUSTICE SERVES AS A GOLD STANDARD IN HOW SUCH CAUSES SHOULD BE FOUGHT”
Museveni’s regime shows no sign of abating and he remains in rude health. As tempting and cathartic it may be to set fire to trash cans in Portland, the actual coalface work of holding power to account is far less exciting. Yet it needs to be done.
Again I implore you to watch A Brilliant Genocide to gain a greater understanding and frankly base awareness of the ethnic cleansing in Acholiland. It may not be as blunt as it once was, with concentration camps and scorched earth, but it still continues through political disenfranchisement, denial of public services, and the strangling of economic life.
A petition is available at https://abrilliantgenocide.com/.
Unfortunately it is addressed to the President of the United States so do not expect a sympathetic ear any time soon. However, the campaign can and should be broadened to include Europe, where fingers crossed there will be an actual response, and to African countries, the ones where signing such petitions will not end up with a bullet in the back of the head and a shallow grave. My friends in Southern Uganda, whilst disgusted by Museveni and his slaughter, do not feel safe in speaking out in fear of being disappeared. I cannot blame them. I guarantee I would do the same. But we in our places of safety need to do more, far more than we are. It may not be glamorous but raising awareness, writing to representatives, and supporting the survivors needs to be done.
My sincerest congratulations to Ebony Butler for her success at the We The Peoples Film Festival. My undying respect and support to the survivors of the genocide as they continue on in their fight with their customary grace.
Julius L. Geertz
Review: A Brilliant Genocide
Champagne in Defiance: An evening with survivors of Museveni’s Genocide
https://thepanoptic.co.uk/2016/11/13/another-round-of-champagne-in-defiance/
We the People’s Film Festival UK
We are honoured to be a part of the 11th We The People’s Film Festival in London! Over the weekend we had another sell out event and hosted a great panel talk after the screening at Hackney Picturehouse. Unfortunately we were unable to respond to everyone who had questions but we will endeavour to get back to all as soon as possible! (Thanks Belinda!) But all in all it was a very successful screening, and not the last in London that’s for sure!
This morning we received a surprise call asking if we would allow A Brilliant Genocide to be screened again, this time for the awards ceremony which takes place tonight in London at the British Film Institute.
Of course we said yes! What an honour and great opportunity we were offered! We want as many people as possible seeing this film, signing our petition and learning about the tragic and silenced past of so many people from northern Uganda, at the hands of their own government.
Wish us luck ahead of this evenings event! Our amazing UK team and organisers have been incredible, working tirelessly and taking control over the marketing and promotion of our film and all other areas of organisation for the festival. Essentially it is their story and they want to be actively involved in getting out out there. I am so very proud! Seeing our documentary grow the way it is, especially having some key characters in the film itself helping to drive its success and build its audience, is an incredibly rewarding experience.
A special thanks to my brothers Joseph Ochien, Bosco Nyeko and my sister Belinda Atim! Wonderful people with huge hearts, and a long and untold story to tell. So please try and see it, listen to it, learn from it and help us demand justice and an end to the silence that has now gone on for some 30 years. The TV version of the film is screening on RT / Russia Today over the next 5 months – so please look out for it in your country or online at rt.com!
Your voice also counts and you can help make a difference. Please if you can spare a few minutes sign and share our petition on change.org: www.bit.ly/STOPM7
Thank you so very much! We hope to be back with more news soon! #EndTheSilence
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We the People’s Film Festival is a United Nations Association Westminster Branch organized event.
To find out more visit their website: WWW.UNAWESTMINSTER.ORG.UK
2016 Critical Forum Film at the Document Film Festival #Docu2016
A Brilliant Genocide screening today at 1pm at the Document International Human Rights Film Festival… Thank you Glasgow Living for including A Brilliant Genocide in the top 5 films to see at this years incredible human rights festival!
Remember being shocked by the Kony video of 2012? Forget to ask what happened next?
A Brilliant Genocide uncovers some uncomfortable and shocking truths, that could only be made worse by a refusal to acknowledge them.
This Scottish premiere screening is followed by a thought-provoking discussion panel asking about truth in the documentary, and whose responsibility it is to check facts and test the boundaries of this factual but inherently subjective medium.
THE PANOPTIC: A BRILLIANT GENOCIDE FILM REVIEW
Contextualising genocide is difficult. The millions (billions?) of words written on the Holocaust attest to the challenge. A Brilliant Genocide manages to successfully tell the story of the most neglected humanitarian crisis since the formation of the United Nations. The salient facts are brought to the fore to create a cohesive narrative of the Acholi genocide that does not shy away from any of the guilty parties, be they government or rebel. Both Museveni and Kony face documentary reckoning.
This is a brave film, not least because it faces the very real possibility of getting people killed. That is not a criticism. There is no other way to tell the truth without risk. I do not want to recount here what happened in Northern Uganda over the past three decades, Ebony Butler does a better job of that than I could, I want people to see the film for themselves. A Brilliant Genocide allows the survivors, politicians, academics, and soldiers to speak for themselves, to tell their own stories. In doing so, the war is humanised in a way that is not possible through any other medium. The visceral emotion of men and women discussing the atrocities they endured is not lost as it may be if they are just read about. Their accounts are supplemented by archive footage and Hieronymus Bosch-like depictions of torture and violence. All this is done in an unobtrusive style, understanding that no rhetorical device can match simple truth telling.
“TO REITERATE: FIND A WAY OF WATCHING THIS FILM”
Butler must be especially commended (I can think of no other word) for securing interviews with male survivors of rape. A taboo subject everywhere, but particularly in Uganda. It is not known for LGBT rights and homophobic attacks are commonplace. All of the survivors who appear in the film speak with dignity and measure. At no point does it descend into calls for retribution, no matter how tempting that must have been sometimes. I honestly do not know what more I can say about this documentary. It frankly should not have needed to be made. The Acholi genocide should be ranked alongside the killing fields and Rwanda in the worst excesses of the past century. That so few are knowledgeable is tragic.
A Brilliant Genocide is a stunning exemplar of what film is capable of. I hope that a wider release can be secured through streaming services or even just free on Youtube. It needs to be watched. The survivors need to be heard. I do not know if the film can find justice for the Acholi or even the peace they deserve. However, I do know that the more people that are aware of the genocide, the more uncomfortable it will be for the perpetrators. The spotlight will take away their hiding spaces. To reiterate: find a way of watching this film. If you cannot then please try and read about the war. It has taken 100 years for the Armenian genocide to be fully recognised and acknowledged. The Acholi do not have that long.
Julius L. Geertz (The Panoptic UK)
https://thepanoptic.co.uk/2016/10/01/a-brilliant-genocide/
Upcoming Film Festival Screenings:
21st October at the Document Human Rights Film Festival in Glasgow
22nd and 23rd October at the 36th Cambridge International Film Festival
9th of November at the We The People’s Film Festival in London
10th November at the Lone Star Film Festival, Sundance Square Fort Worth
One World News UK: Ugandan Government Accused of ‘The Perfect Crime’
A documentary accusing President Museveni and the Uganda army of genocide against the Acholi people in the north is being used to lobby for an end to US aid to Uganda.
By Daniel Nelson
A Brilliant Genocide argues that Museveni exploited atrocities by a rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), as a cover for his own “reign of terror” against the Acholis.
The film’s website carries a petition asking the US President to cut arms supplies and non-humanitarian aid, to ensure Museveni and others face justice, and to use sanctions and diplomacy to force the Uganda government to compensate victims of army violence.
After a film festival screening in London last Friday, Olara Otunnu, a Uganda politician, diplomat and former UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, insisted that Acholi culture and civilisation faced “existential annihilation.
“We must address how to resuscitate [this culture] gather the pieces – a Marshall Plan is not big enough for Acholiland today,” he said.
The crisis had been written about and been the subject of reports, but all had been “studiously ignored and brushed under the carpet”.
Director Ebony Butler has said that she started making a film about Joseph Kony, the LRA and the use of child soldiers in 2009 but “along our six-year journey we found some completely untold ‘hidden’ stories that we felt were even more important to bring to light …”
Those responsible for these massive human rights abuses were still in office today, she has written, and continue to enjoy “complete impunity for their crimes”.
Why the title? As an interviewee in the film says: “No food, no hydration, sexual violence from the soldiers who were meant to protect them. That’s why this was a ‘brilliant genocide’ – a silent genocide: perfect crime.”
http://oneworld.org/2016/10/03/uganda-government-accused-of-the-perfect-crime/
Sign the petition here: www.bit.ly/STOPM7
A BRILLIANT GENOCIDE 