“A Brilliant Genocide,” the award-winning documentary about atrocities committed against civilians in the northern part of Uganda by Gen. Yoweri Museveni’s military and the Lord’s Resistance Army during 20 years of conflict screens at the WILLiFEST film festival in New York on September 11.
The film has been described as the “counterbalance” to KONY2012 the controversial docu-video on the notorious LRA leader which had 100 million views in 2012. A panel discussion follows the screening which is Sunday at the Knitting Factory at 361 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, 11211, from 4.30pm to 6.30pm. “A Brilliant Genocide” won the Best Feature Documentary prize at the LA Women’s International Film Festival in March, 2016. The film includes interviews with survivors of atrocities, including torture victims as well as both female and male rape victims.
Directed by Australian filmmaker Ebony Butler, “A Brilliant Genocide” (Trailer) film is described in promotional materials as “an expose of the brutal campaigns by the Yoweri Museveni regime to wipe out Uganda’s Acholi people under the guise of crushing a rebellion by The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). It lays bare the atrocities committed by Museveni’s army since 1986 when he seized power. while courting political leaders worldwide.”
The film includes an interview with Dr. Kizza Besigye, and other prominent Ugandan political, academic, and military figures like: Gen. David Sejusa, who commanded some of the military operations in Acholi region; Olara Otunnu and Norbert Mao, both former Uganda presidential candidates; Dr. Adam Branch, an American scholar who has taught in Uganda; Prof. Amii Omara-Otunnu, who teaches at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, and the author of several books about militarism in Africa; and a Human Rights Watch official.
Dr. Besigye is widely believed to have won Uganda’s disputed February 2016 election. After he declared victory and was sworn in as president on May 11, Dr. Besigye was arrested and charged with treason which in Uganda is punishable by death. When Gen. Museveni, who has been in power for 30 years with U.S. financial and military backing, denounced the International Criminal Court (ICC) as “a bunch of useless people” during his own swearing in May 12, the U.S. ambassador Deborah Maloc walked off from the event.
In 2006 The Wall Street Journal reported that the ICC had opened an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Gen. Museveni’s army in neighboring Congo. Also interviewed in the documentary is Milton Allimadi the Ugandan-born New York-based publisher of The Black Star News www.blackstarnews.com who will appear on the panel, with a Q-and-A after the film. The film is produced by Jason Byrne and has a running time of 82 minutes. In addition to the LA Women’s International Film Festival it has also screened at: The Palm Beach International Film Festival (April 7, 2016, Nominated—Best Feature Documentary); Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards (March 12, 2016, Won—Best Feature Documentary); and DC Independent Film Festival (March 11 2016, world premiere).
WILLiFEST spotlights independent filmmakers from around the world.
