“A behind-the-lens reflection on a life-changing film journey.”

In 2017 and 2018, I had the extraordinary privilege of spending time in Rwanda, lensing stories that were as emotionally complex as they were inspiring. I went there to film. I left with something much deeper.

Over the course of two immersive trips, I created films and short videos for organizations including Zipline, MindLeaps, and the Rwanda Girls Initiative. Each were playing a critical role in reshaping the country’s future. I interviewed government ministers and walked the halls of genocide memorials. I filmed dancers, students, doctors, and drone engineers. I stood face-to-face with gorillas in the mist, captured sunrises over Lake Kivu, and sat in reconciliation villages where survivors and perpetrators of the 1994 genocide now live side-by-side.

But the heart of this journey was a short film I co-produced and co-directed with Lindsay Beck, centered on reconciliation and forgiveness. That film was later used to open a keynote address by President Paul Kagame at The Nantucket Project. It was an unforgettable moment that underscored the power of storytelling not just to inform, but to heal.

This is a look back. At the people, the projects, and the stories that shaped one of the most meaningful chapters of my creative life.

Arrival: Rwanda in 2017

From the moment you land in Kigali, it’s clear that Rwanda is not defined by its past. It’s defined by how it’s moved forward. The streets are clean. The people, gracious. The energy, focused and full of momentum. And yet, beneath the surface, there’s a powerful undercurrent of memory. A quiet resilience that informs everything.

My mission was to tell stories of progress, of organizations investing in the country’s future, and of individuals whose lives embodied its transformation.

ZIPLINE: Innovation in Flight

One of the first stories we filmed was for Zipline, a startup that uses autonomous drones to deliver blood and medical supplies to remote clinics and community health workers. In Rwanda, geography can mean the difference between life and death, especially for patients in need of transfusions.

Filming at the distribution center was like documenting a sci-fi scene turned humanitarian triumph. Engineers programmed drones, loaded cargo, and launched them from catapult-like ramps. Within minutes, the drones would be soaring across mountain ranges, delivering hope in a matter of hours instead of days.

What struck me most wasn’t the technology, it was the way it had become ordinary. Nurses and patients didn’t marvel at the innovation, they relied on it. Zipline wasn’t a novelty, it was a lifeline.

Rwanda Girls Initiative: Educating the Next Generation

We also spent time at the Gashora Girls Academy, the flagship project of the Rwanda Girls Initiative. Nestled in a rural area south of Kigali, the campus is alive with curiosity, intelligence, and empowerment.

We interviewed students who spoke not just about their classes, but about global impact, sustainable agriculture, and the future of Africa. One student told me her dream was to become a doctor. Not just to treat people, but to build a hospital. She wasn’t joking. You could see it in her eyes.

Filming at Gashora reminded me that education isn’t just access to knowledge, it’s the activation of potential. These weren’t just young women, they were future leaders.

MindLeaps: Using Dance as a Bridge

In Kigali, we also worked with MindLeaps, a nonprofit that uses dance to develop cognitive and life skills in vulnerable youth. Inside a small studio space, we filmed students leaping, spinning, and breaking into smiles that lit up the room. For many of these children, the program was their first structured activity. Their first chance to be part of something bigger.

But it was more than movement, it was a language. A way of processing trauma, building trust, and expressing hope. Watching the transformation on camera was one of the purest visual experiences I’ve ever captured.

Reconciliation and Forgiveness: A Story That Stays With Me

The centerpiece of the trip, though, was a short film created on Rwanda’s national journey of reconciliation and forgiveness. It was a project unlike anything I had ever worked on. It was co-produced and co-directed with the incredibly talented Lindsay Beck, whose vision, sensitivity, and storytelling instincts helped bring the emotional heart of this piece into sharp focus.

Together, we visited genocide memorials, spoke with survivors, and sat with individuals who had not only lost everything, but somehow found a way to forgive. We filmed inside a reconciliation village, where survivors live side-by-side with those who once committed atrocities against them.

It’s hard to describe what it feels like to sit in a circle with people who – just decades earlier – had been enemies, and now garden together, share meals, and raise families in the same community.

One woman told me, “Forgiveness isn’t forgetting. It’s choosing to live without hate.” That single line became the emotional spine of the film.

The finished piece, a poetic and powerful short film, was used to open President Paul Kagame’s keynote at The Nantucket Project. Watching our work projected on that stage, just before one of the most consequential leaders in Africa took the microphone, was a surreal and deeply humbling moment. Not because it was seen by a large audience, but because it had the chance to serve as a bridge between truth and reflection, past and present.

Ministers, Memorials, and Moments

Between these anchor projects, we captured other moments of cultural and emotional depth:

We interviewed Rwanda’s Minister of Health on the country’s digital health transformation.
We filmed in genocide memorials, walking silently through rooms lined with photographs and skulls—a reminder that remembrance is essential to progress.
We hiked the Virunga Mountains to film gorillas in their natural habitat—an iconic symbol of Rwanda’s wildlife conservation efforts.
We floated on Lake Kivu, camera in hand, documenting daily life and the quiet beauty that now defines so much of Rwanda’s visual identity.

My Takeaway

These weren’t just film shoots. They were acts of witness.

I came to Rwanda to tell stories of innovation, education, and healing. But I came away with a deeper understanding of what it means to move forward. Not by erasing the past, but by confronting it and choosing to build something better in its place.

Rwanda is not a country of victims. It is a country of visionaries. I’m deeply proud that our work – whether used to open a presidential address or simply to share a student’s dream – played a small role in sharing that with the world.

Years Later: Still Inspired

It’s been more than five years since I wrapped production in Rwanda, but not a week goes by that I don’t think about the people we met, the footage we captured, and the moments we witnessed.

This work not only shaped me as a filmmaker, it shaped me as a human.

Whenever someone asks me what storytelling can really do, I think of Rwanda. Where forgiveness lives next door to loss, and the future is being built, quietly and powerfully, two doors down.

Rwanda: A Story of Forgiveness, Innovation, AND Human Spirit