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A Brilliant Genocide director Ebony Butler and her London based collaborator Belinda Atim spoke with Joseph Ochieno on Talking Africa (Resonance 104.4fm) yesterday afternoon about our documentary, the conspiracy of silence around the war in Uganda and the largely untold story of state sponsored atrocities in the north and east of the country. Belinda starts off the interview discussing the recent news of Uganda and the U.S stopping the six year man hunt for rebel leader and supposed most wanted man in Africa, and top 10 most wanted in the world, Joseph Kony. The question of whether or not A Brilliant Genocide had anything to do with the decision did come up, as many people seem to believe our film was a cause for the unexpected change of heart regarding the massive man hunt for Joseph Kony which has to date cost close to if not over one billion US dollars. I bet the US taxpayers aren’t aware of that – nor that the money was largely looted and used for other purposes, oppression, invasions and to help build one of the strongest armies in East Africa…. to essentially help entrench the dictator in power for longer. (31 years years is a long time in power, but it seems Museveni can’t get enough)

One other thing that was stressed in the interview was the importance of the petition that is attached to our documentary, primarily calling for US to stop funding and military support to the Ugandan regime. You can help end the silence by signing and sharing the petition here: www.bit.ly/STOPM7  Thank you!

#EndTheSilence 

How to Tune in Next Time:

If you have the internet  you can tune in live from anywhere in the world on Resonance 104.4FM in London – but best to come back the same time next week (Thursday, pm-2pm GMT) for the Talking Africa program… I’m sure we will be back for a few more shows as there is so much to cover and we only scratched the very tip pf the iceberg yesterday!

‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ 

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LIVE WEB AND WORLDWIDE CANBLE TV  BROADCAST OF A BRILLIANT GENOCIDE TODAY AND THIS WEEKEND ONLY with RT News / Russia Today 

Watch it online here if you don’t have Foxtel or cable TV:

https://www.rt.com/on-air

Please check www.rt.com/schedule for updates over the weekend to confirm our airing times.  All times are in GMT! You can watch live from the website or phone app, or on Cable / Foxtel on the RT (Russia Today Global News Channel).
Todays Screening on RT – March 3:
10:30am GMT  – Part Two
9.30pm Australia (AEST)
12:30am Uganda
6:30am – New York
3:30pm GMT (Part One – Fingers Crossed!)
2:30am – Australia – AEST
6:30pm Uganda
11:30am – New York
5:30pm GMT  (Part Two – Fingers Crossed!)
04:30am – Australia AEST
08:30pm Uganda
1:30pm – New York
March 4 Broadcast Times in GMT 
(times are likely to change slightly so please check www.rt.com/schedule tomorrow)
01:30am (Aus 12:30pm) Part 1 (we hope)
06:30am (Aus 5:30pm) Part 2 (we hope)
08:30am (Aus7:30pm)
9:30am (Aus 8:30pm)
14:30pm (Aus 01:30am)
19:30pm (Aus 08:30am)

NOTE: GMT Times (+11 hours AEST – Melbourne etc; Uganda is +3 hours; LA -7 hours; NY is -4 hours )

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The International Uganda Convention in the Hague, Netherlands, in conjunction with the Hague Peace Projects and the Ugandan Diaspora P10, will be screening our documentary A Brilliant Genocide during the 3 day event, on February 24th at 7.30pm.

See http://www.bit.ly/UGANDACONVENTION for more information.

ABG POSTER Black Uganda Convention 03.jpg

ABOUT THE CONVENTION

The “International Conference on Uganda” scheduled from 23rd- 26th February 2017 in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The three days’ convention aims at arriving at a consensus on the roadmap for a; United, Decisive Constitutional Reforms, Electoral Reforms, the Peaceful transition of power in Uganda, and vulnerable minorities.

The three days’ convention will bring together stakeholders in the political, social and economic development of Uganda e.g. but not limited to members of the ruling government party, opposition leaders, Members of Parliament (MPs), Representative from Uganda’s: Judiciary, Civic Society Organizations (CSOs), Religious Leaders, Cultural Leaders who form the nexus of Uganda’s peace, stability and development.

In addition, we have invited distinguished international, local and Diaspora based pro-democracy and pro-human rights intelligentsia as well as a representative from International Criminal Court (ICC) European Union (EU) the Dutch government. and Uganda’s strategic development partners.

Under the Conference theme the following shall be the main areas of discussion:

  1. The Role and Unity of the pro-democracy and good governance activists (tools of change – drivers of change)
  2. Consensus on the benchmarks for sustainable political stability and democracy.
  3. Consensus on whether Uganda is a democracy or the country needs political reforms and free and fair elections
  4. The Role of Uganda Diaspora Uganda’s in the Political, social and economic development of Uganda Diaspora in the development of democracy and good governance in Uganda with particular emphasis on the Uganda Diaspora Right to vote and direct representatives in the Uganda Parliament.
  5. The Ruwenzori Crisis; focusing on prevention of genocide, military conflicts and demilitarising Uganda’s politics once and for all.
  6. Uganda’s strategic role to stability in the Great Lakes and IGAAD and Great Regions.
  7. The human rights situation in Uganda with particular emphasis on the right to choose leaders in free and fair elections, freedom of assembly and demonstration.
  8. Good governance. Zero tolerance for corruption and abuse of public resources and affairs, a sound and steady economic growth with clear agenda.
  9. See www.bit.ly/UGANDACONVENTION for more information.

ABOUT UGANDA DISAPORA P10 GROUP

We are a group of pro-change Ugandans living in the Diaspora – Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, and parts of Africa. We Ugandans in alliance with friends of Uganda are united with the purpose of causing a legitimate and peaceful change of governance in Uganda. As Ugandans in the Diaspora, we embrace diversity and acknowledge that we contribute substantively to the Ugandan economy, and to the development of human resources, as well as enhancing the quality of life of many Ugandans.

Our financial contributions to the economy should have guaranteed us a special status representation in the Parliament of Uganda, voting from our foreign missions abroad, and participating in other organs of the state. Nonetheless, we have remained largely marginalized in that regard. We have therefore decided to become part of the force for change in Uganda and view the 2016 General Elections as a realistic opportunity that offers hope for change in the current political climate.

The P10 Diaspora is the civil response to the call by the FDC Presidential Flag Bearer, Col (Rtd) Dr Kizza Besigye for grass-root mobilization structure to canvass support, and protect the votes meant for Dr. Besigye on polling day. Its purpose is to generate awareness about how people can effectively exercise “peoples’ power” to cause the desired change, and to eliminate the attendant fears associated with the NRM violence during elections.

https://www.ugandadiasporap10.org

http://www.bit.ly/UGANDACONVENTION

http://www.thehaguepeace.org
Please sign the petition: http://www.bit.ly/STOPM7

#ENDTHESILENCE

The Hague Peace Projects

uganda-convention-eventbriteThe Uganda Diaspora, The Hague Peace Projects and other organizations, are organizing an “International Conference on Uganda” scheduled from 23rd- 26th February 2017 in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The three days’ convention aims at arriving at a consensus on the roadmap for a; United, Decisive Constitutional Reforms, Electoral Reforms, the Peaceful transition of power in Uganda, and vulnerable minorities.

The three days’ convention will bring together stakeholders in the political, social and economic development of Uganda e.g. but not limited to members of the ruling government party, opposition leaders, Members of Parliament (MPs), Representative from Uganda’s: Judiciary, Civic Society Organizations (CSOs), Religious Leaders, Cultural Leaders who form the nexus of Uganda’s peace, stability and development.

In addition, we have invited distinguished international, local and Diaspora based pro-democracy and pro-human rights intelligentsia as well as a representative from International Criminal Court (ICC) European Union (EU) the Dutch government. and Uganda’s strategic…

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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

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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

————————

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

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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.

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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

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Our U.K Premiere at Raindance Film Festival was a huge success with booked out screenings and week long celebrations to mark the beginning of and end to the silence around the genocide in Uganda.

Our major premiere screening took place in London on Friday night (Sept. 27) at Vue Cinemas on Regent Street and was followed by an expert panel discussion with hosts traveling from other parts of the world just to take part in the event. 

Ambassador Olara Otunnu (UPC Party President) flew in from Uganda and Milton Allimadi (Black Star News) travelled from New York  just hours before the screening to host our panel.

Here is one of many reviews of our film, this time from George Okello who attended one of our screenings at Raindance:

George Okello

A Brilliant Genocide Film Documentary was screened yesterday evening at at Piccadilly Circus, London. The event was sold out, and I met a few of the UAH members, including Joseph Ochieno, Milton Alimadi, John Latigo and plenty of others.

Otunnu made a very powerful address, on the Genocide that happened in northern Uganda, specifically aimed at wiping out the Acholi as a people. Otunnu contended it was the deliberate intention and policy of Rwandan outlaw Kayibanda Museveni and the NRA gangster movement to wipe out an entire people, only the first time it had been attempted since the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. He distinguished the NRA progroms from others before it, in that genocides like in Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Iraq etc tended to be sudden, concentrated bursts of violence that lasted a short duration of probably 2-3 years, whereas the one in Acholi was drawn out over 20 years, and was systematic, carefully planned, assiduously orchestrated following a pre-determined pattern aimed at delivering a Final Solution; ie the total elimination of the Acholi people;

1. First Kill the Acholi people.

2. Take away their Land

3. Destroy their culture and identity as a people and Make Them Slaves.

Otunnu said Kayibanda has in fact almost succeeded in his mission of wiping out the Acholi people. He contended the Acholi of old is almost dead- her rich cultural heritage reduced to ashes, her people deliberately marginalised and removed from all positions of power and authority; and her land is now being systematically grabbed by Kayibanda and given away to foreigners. 20 years of brutal encampment have almost destroyed the Acholi traditional systems of governance and completely corrupted the culture that had kept the society together for centuries.

Otunnu painted a very bleak picture of what would amount to one of the greatest crimes ever committed in the history of humanity and human civilisation, and that this crime took place in the full glare of the world without anybody doing anything to stop it. Kayibanda was given free reign to implement one of the worst episodes of barbarity ever inflicted on human beings anywhere in the world.

Dr Adam Branch, who is probably the only western academic to document the suffering of the Acholi people, and the holocaust they went through also gave testimony. Other panelists included Dr Vincent Magombe (Free Uganda).

The Documentary itself is a very powerful rendition of the darkness of man’s heart, how a very cruel and sadistic maniac, obsessed with power, was allowed to run amok among a totally defenceless people and set about murdering them just for fun.

There was not much chance for debate, because of time limitation. My only criticism is that being a mainly victim narrative, the political explanation for Kayibanda Museveni’s grosteque violence and savagery remains largely unexplained. Secondly, the suffering of the Acholi people is made to be unique to the Acholi people, whereas kayibanda Museveni’s barbarity and Rwandan occupation of our country has inflicted harm and suffering all across Uganda, and Eastern Uganda in particular Teso.

The Documentary is a valuable contribution to the unmasking of the brutality of Rwandan outlaw Kayibanda Museveni, and is one of the many attempts Ugandans will use to bring world attention to their suffering. The world can not surely turn a blind eye anymore to the suffering of Ugandans. 

The Documentary is also a reminder that we will bring Kayibanda Museveni and his henchmen to justice, no matter how long it will take. He will be be punished and should have no illusions about our determination.

October 1 at 10:46pm

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It is with pleasure and excitement that I announce the new title of our feature documentary… ‘A Brilliant Genocide‘.

ABG Logo 1
Pre-release teaser video from A Brilliant Genocide (scroll down) 

After 6 years filming, researching and editing this film, it has naturally evolved and transformed into a much different film that we set out to make in 2009 when it all began. 

We spent 3 years on the Joseph Kony / child soldier path – and the issue of children / child soldiers and other related  human rights abuses that are of much interest to us – we condemn the use of children in war, and the abuse of any child in any way, in any part of the world. 

However, the film is no longer 100% focused on the issue of children at war and Joseph Kony’s war in northern Uganda. The film remains very much connected with Kony and his use of child soldiers- but along our 6 year journey we found some completely untold ‘hidden’ stories that we felt were even more important to bring to light.

What we discovered and continue to discover, is that the world has been fooled, as I was 6 years ago, about Joseph Kony and his war in northern Uganda. There’s another side to this story that has never been told, and we have been on a journey for the past few years to find out the truth and the backstory that has received zero media attention – and even worse than that – the people responsible for these concealed human rights abuses, are those who have been supported by the west for 30 years, and who are still in office today. And the West is still today supporting the regime, while the regime continues to enjoy complete impunity for their crimes. 

We have discovered that Kony, although blamed for the war and the suffering, is just the tip of the ice-berg. We have found that Kony did have a reason, a very legitimate reason, for his rebellion, and although his acts of violence and child abductions are deplorable, and in no way justified – he has a reason for what he has done, and in his mind his actions are justified. The truth that no one who knows will admit – will bring many people – the bigger criminals and the puppeteers who have orchestrated this war and allowed it to continue – to account. The people we have spoken with call the situation in Uganda ‘a global conspiracy of silence’. And what we will be showing in our film is that indeed it has been, and sadly continues to be so today. 

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