Sitting on a Volcano

In April 1994, the international community sat by and watched while a million Tutsi men, women and children were massacred in the central African nation of Rwanda. Hand of God, Hand of the Devil, the second volume in the three-part Rwanda series, explores Canada's role in the development of the genocidal ideology that took root in Rwanda, which was considered the "jewel" of Canadian aid in Africa. This video focuses on the murder of two Canadian missionaries, killed for having protested against corruption and human rights violations. Brother François Cardinal, who worked at the controversial Rwandan college, funded by Canadian aid money to the Rwandan president's advisors. Like countless others in Rwanda, his killers were never found. Father Claude Simard, the only Canadian to have stayed in Rwanda during the 100 days of genocide, was murdered in 1994--after the regime responsible for the massacre of Tutsis had been overthrown. Since Simard had risked his life to rescue Tutsis, the Canadian government concluded that his killers must have been Hutus who feared being identified for their crimes. However, the video uncovers evidence that Simard died at the hands of the new government, upset by the Canadian priest's objections to its reprisal killings of innocent Hutus. Hand of God, Hand of the Devil raises disturbing questions about Canada's role in Rwanda. Having assisted the former regime, will Canadian aid now sow the seeds for a new crop of killers? Volume 1 of the series.

The cornerstone of The Rwanda Series, this volume in three parts recounts a horrifying crime that could have been prevented by the international community and international law. Shot over three years, Chronicle of a Genocide Foretold follows several Rwandans before, during and after the genocide. Following the genocide, the Hutu majority is subjected to crimes against humanity perpetrated this time by the new Rwandan government led by Tutsi extremists. This documentary records the search for justice in a land where reconciliation is still a long way off. Part 3 of Volume 3 of the series.

The cornerstone of The Rwanda Series, this volume in three parts recounts a horrifying crime that could have been prevented by the international community and international law. Shot over three years, Chronicle of a Genocide Foretold follows several Rwandans before, during and after the genocide. Part 1 explores the genesis of the genocide in two key regions of Rwanda, Kibuye and the Bugesera, where "blood was flowing like a river" and "Rwandans will never again be the same."

The cornerstone of The Rwanda Series, this volume in three parts recounts a horrifying crime that could have been prevented by the international community and international law. Shot over three years, Chronicle of a Genocide Foretold follows several Rwandans before, during and after the genocide. This documentary examines how and why the international community abandoned Rwandans to their killers. Focussing on the largest massacre in Kigali and featuring unique footage shot by a UN peacekeeper, this part looks at the experiences of UN soldiers who pulled out of Kigali, and of the victims who were left behind. Part 2 of Volume 3 of the series.

Shot in cinema-vérité style, this feature doc immerses us in the sights and sounds of the world's largest field hospital, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sudan. The ICRC allowed filmmakers David Christensen and Damien Lewis unprecedented access to the surgical hospital and local medical staff as they care for wounded Sudanese soldiers and women and children, all casualties of the civil war.

With no narrator and minimal explanation, War Hospital simply and powerfully captures the joy and sadness of life and death.

In this documentary, Paul Cowan delivers unprecedented access to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping, and the determined and often desperate manoeuvres to avert another Rwandan disaster, this time in the Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC). The film cuts back and forth between the United Nations headquarters in New York and events on the ground in the DRC. We are with the peacekeepers in the 'Crisis Room' as they balance the risk of loss of life on the ground with the enormous sums of money required from uncertain donor countries. We are with UN troops as the northeast Congo erupts and the future of the DRC, if not all of central Africa, hangs in the balance. As Secretary General Kofi Annan tells the General Assembly at the conclusion of The Peacekeepers: "History is a harsh judge. The world will not forgive us if we do nothing." Whether the world's peacekeeper did enough remains to be seen.

This short documentary zooms in on the Dinka population of Alek, South Sudan, during a period of famine. The Dinkas are an extremely patient people. With empty stomachs, they await the next harvest. For the last 40 years, an intermittent state of civil war has divided the country in 2. This time, the population has requested aid. Sacks of grain are dropped from planes, but to prevent rioting, distribution is delayed until the arrival of reinforcements. During this week of waiting, we witness the true face of hunger.

This 1957 documentary short offers an analysis of South Africa's acute race problem, an issue that causes dissension not only within its borders but within the Commonwealth and beyond. In South Africa, a country of 14 million people, 4 out of 5 people are black. The film gives a dispassionate appraisal of the motivations behind the policy of apartheid and of whether the practice of segregation provides a satisfactory, long-term solution.

Discover a unique coop program in which students from Mozambique are taught dentistry techniques in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan in this short film from 1987. For many of us, dental health programs are something we take for granted, but in some regions of the world, they're considered a luxury. With this program, the Mozambique students are taught the skills they need to take back to their communities.

This short documentary follows a young Canadian doctor serving in a local mission hospital in Nigeria. Stationed abroad under the Canadian University Service Overseas Plan, Dr. Alex McMahon and his schoolteacher wife encounter new challenges every day throughout their rewarding experience.

This autobiographical documentary revisits the Mau Mau Rebellion of the 1950s. More than 50 years after the conflict, in which the director participated as a young British soldier stationed in Kenya for his national service, he confronts his past with audacity and unflinching self-inquiry.

Combining McWilliams' own photographic record of the times with original animation and archival imagery, A Time There Was crafts a thoughtful account of the Mau Mau Rebellion – one of the most contentious episodes in Britain’s imperial endgame.