- Hello, welcome to a special Q and A recording
of "Downstream to Kinshasa" playing as a special event
at the 45th Toronto International Film Festival.
My name is Thom Powers and I'm TIFF's documentary programmer
celebrating my 15th year at the festival.
I'm honored to be here with the film's director
Dieudo Hamadi who is joining me from his home in Kinshasa,
in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He was last at TIFF in 2014 for his film "National Diploma"
and we're pleased to have him back.
Also welcome our translator Sienne Gu.
I wanna thank you the audience for being a part of TIFF
during these unprecedented times.
We are grateful for your support to keep TIFF going
for years to come.
This film is eligible for the People's Choice Award.
You can vote for your favorite films at tiff.net/vote.
Dieudo, welcome.
We're sorry that you can't be here in person in Toronto,
but we're glad to be connected to you from your home.
(translator speaking in a foreign language)
I want to-
(Dieudo speaking in a foreign language)
(laughs) I wanna start- - Thank you very much.
- By asking you, you originally studied medicine
but you've been making documentary films for 10 years.
What motivates you to be doing this work?
(translator speaking in a foreign language)
(Dieudo speaking in a foreign language)
- Well, things change over the years.
At first, I was motivated to tell stories.
At the beginning of my career,
I was an editor working on ads
and other commercial projects,
but then I eventually became interested
in documentary production and I wanted to tell stories.
So 10 years later here I am,
and I believe that the DRC is a very complex country
and it's often told by foreigners,
or not the Congolese's voice
so I wanted a Congolese voice to be heard,
and that's why I'm producing documentaries.
- Let me ask you about this specific film.
What was it that drew you to the story of these war victims
going from Kisangani to Kinshasa?
(translator speaking in a foreign language)
(Dieudo speaking in a foreign language)
- Yes, first of all, I've lived through this war myself,
the Six-Year War.
I think I was 14 or 15 years old at the time
and so I've seen, I've lived through these atrocities
when I was living in Kisangani.
That was 10 or 15 years ago,
but I realized at the time that myself and other Congolese
had forgotten about this war
and it was erased from our collective memories.
Kisangani is my hometown, it's my birth city,
and that's when I met this association of war victims.
And I felt ashamed that it was completely forgotten
and I had erased as part of history from my memory
whereas the victims themselves were still suffering.
They had lost family members, limbs.
They had lost many things like their homes,
and many of them are still trying to overcome it.
It's not over.
They were not able to restart their lives.
So I felt as a documentarist it was my calling
to tell that part of history, that part of recent history.
- Can you elaborate when you say that the memory of the war
has been erased, even for yourself?
I think it's hard for some listeners to understand that
because it seems like such a traumatic thing.
(translator speaking in a foreign language)
(Dieudo speaking in a foreign language)
- Yes, so to forget the memories of war is a way to survive,
it's a defense mechanism to process that trauma
so that survivors may keep going.
They can move on so they can hang on to the future.
And so collectively the Congolese must forget,
but the flip side of forgetting is that we are reliving
the same atrocities over and over again.
It's feeding into that cycle, the vicious cycle.
In Congo for 20 years there's been violence,
especially in the east side of the country
because it's as if it's recreating that cycle
because people forget.
And it's almost fodder to the fuel for that violent circle.
- I wanna ask you about the scene, long scene in the film
when everyone is making the journey down the Congo River.
It looked like a very harrowing journey on film.
I wonder if you can describe what it was like
to be on that boat ride and filming it.
(translator speaking in a foreign language)
(Dieudo speaking in a foreign language)
- It was an extremely difficult and challenging journey.
There were only tarps that were covering us
so we were basically exposed to all the elements.
We were at the mercy of weather and the sun,
and we had to deal with all these other external factors.
The second challenging thing was the other passengers.
They did not necessarily want to be filmed
or felt comfortable so I couldn't bring out my big cameras.
I had to film the entire scene with my iPhone.
So it was a little bit difficult to work
because the iPhone is not the ideal tool, obviously,
for a filmmaker but at least it allowed me to do my work
and to capture this journey.
And thirdly, this journey for me was very meaningful
because it was the first time that I went from my hometown
of Kisangani to Kinshasa by boat.
So I was able to have a completely different vantage point,
a complete different perspective of this journey
thanks to this film.
- I wanna ask, Dieudo, if you've had a chance
to show the film to the people who are in it
and if you've had that chance, what was that like?
(translator speaking in a foreign language)
(Dieudo speaking in a foreign language)
- Yes, I was able to show the film to some of the characters
who are still in Kinshasa at the time,
the first draft of the film.
And it's a bit of a strange sensation
and it's the same every time when I film documentary films.
I usually get a mixed bag of reactions.
Some people like it, some people are neutral.
Sometimes it's hard for me to tell
if my characters are happy with the film
or the final product, and same thing for this time.
Some of them reacted positively.
They were rather happy to see themselves in a movie,
but others, it was just, I could not read them.
I didn't know if they were happy with it or not,
if they were enthusiastic about it or not.
But the positive thing I would say
is that many of the characters, if not all,
wanted to have a copy of the film after
so that they can use it to raise awareness
for the Six-Day War.
So that was a positive outcome.
- So for my last question,
I wanna ask what is next for you?
(translator speaking in a foreign language)
(Dieudo speaking in a foreign language)
- What I'm working on next is fiction.
I've done a lot of documentary
and I was able to tell the story of Congo,
but I would like to approach that from a different angle
and some of the stories that touch me
can only be best shown through fiction.
And therefore I've worked on a TV series
and I've just finished my first feature film, as well.
- Well, it's wonderful to hear
that you're staying so active.
We're really proud to have you back a second time at TIFF
and we appreciate you being here for this conversation.
And we look forward to having you back again in the future.
(translator speaking in a foreign language)
(Dieudo speaking in a foreign language)
- Thank you very much. - All right, bye bye.
- Au revoir.