Author: gerrit

In October 2015 the Protestant and Catholic congregation of Muenster – Roxel in Germany showed our film during an ecumenical church event and they collected money to support our protagonist Gerard’s education. After we had found private sponsors for Gerards 2015 school fees, his tuition is secured now for 2016 and  even a big chunk of 2017 school fees are taken care of. It makes us really happy to be able to give something back and it is great to see that watching our film moves people to jump in and help. So thanks a lot to everyone who supported Gerard and helps him to get a degree! Lots of love! The collected funds have been transferred to the Survivors Fund SURF – a NGO that, amongst other objectives, supports orphans like Gerard. They are taking care that the money reaches Gerard and the school. If you want to support SURF: donating to them is really easy with VIRGIN MONEY GIVING.

We Are supporting SURF also by sharing all revenue we make on the streaming platform VHX. 50% of all earnings go directly to their account and are supporting their program “Children of Rape” – so if you want to watch the film and make a donation at the same time you can do so by clicking right here.

Soenke and Gerard working on Gerards text for the film

Soenke and Gerard working on Gerards text for the film in a cafe in Kigali. The text he is reading in the film is written by Gerard.

Gerard and Gerrit driving in Kigali

Gerard and Gerrit driving in Kigali

Yay! Since October Ibyiza Birimbere is also available on Indieflix (For those of you who don’t know it – that is basically the independent equivalent to NETFLIX where you can watch tons of great documentaries and short films) and for those who have a subscription with Indieflix it is free. Even better: they liked the film so much that they featured it for 2 weeks as “Staff Pick” in November and are featuring it again over the holidays, that is really awesome! If you watch our film there, please don’t forget to rate it and leave a comment!

ibyiza-birimbere-rwanda-documentary-feature-indieflix

If you want to subscribe with Indieflix you can do so by using our affiliate links. You get a free one month trial if you use our affiliate link and click HERE for a $5/month monthly recurring subscription OR a free 3 months trial if you click HERE for a $50/year subscription. (for disclosure: if you use any of these links to sign up, we will receive a reward from Indieflix after the first payment is made)

 

This was the 3rd Festival screening this year: The CVIFF invited Ibyiza Birimbere to screen in October 2015 and we are proud and happy that the film was shown at another up and coming film festival in Africa. We would have loved to go there ourselves to represent the film and talk about it, but sadly flights to the beautiful Cape Verde islands are rather expensive, so we dropped this one. People there enjoyed the film and we received a positive feedback, so after all we are happy :)

Ibyiza Birimbere - The Best is Still to Come Filmposter with Festival Laurels

In case you didn’t notice on the website, we have made watching IBYIZA BIRIMBERE online as instant streaming or download super easy for you. Go to WATCH NOW to check out all the options. As for now the film is available on VHX (also via ROKU & Chromecast), on VIMEO (also via APPLE TV) and on REELHOUSE (Here you can also pay with PayPal or Bitcoins, great news!) We offer purchase and rent on all platforms and try to keep the price everywhere the same – though  there might be special offers sometimes on specific platforms. Invite some friends over, go to your favourite platform and watch it – and please let us know what you think about it!

IBYIZA BIRIMBERE was screening on July 24th in Kigali during the Rwanda Film Festival. Sadly neither Soenke nor I have been able to attend the screening but Shenge and Gerard have been present as well as some friends of ours in Kigali. It was a full house and people liked the film, I really wish I could have been there! Thanks to the festival and everyone who came to see the film!

We have had the honour to be invited by the Africa Festival in Kaunas to screen IBYIZA BIRIMBERE at the Center of Various Nations in the beautiful city of Kaunas on Tuesday the 26th of May 2015. Gerrit went to Lithuania to attend the screening and Q&A after the screening. The Center is a small place and the screening was completely sold out with about 40 people in the audience – so it was a great success for the young festival. The film was received very good and we are glad that we have been able to be there. A week later the Waldorf School in Kaunas held a screening for the 7th grade students and had them write film reviews in their English classes later, you can read a few of them here – it is the original and hence containing some typos 😉 Reviews from 7th grade Waldorf School Kaunas

Gerrit Hahn with guests and hosts of the festival

Gerrit Hahn and some of the hosts and guests of the Kaunas Africa Festival 2015

We are happy to announce that on December 2nd the “DIE” (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik) in Bonn is presenting our film to their guests.

Soenke will be present as well as the Rwandan ambassador to Germany, Mrs. Christine NKULIKIYINKA, and Mr. Günther Nooke, the Ger­man Chan­cel­lor’s Per­sonal Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Africa in the Fed­eral Min­istry for Eco­nomic Co­op­er­a­tion and De­vel­op­ment.
If you want to come to the screening please send us a mail to info@ibyiza-birimbere.com as this is not a public screening.