The Persistance of Memory
Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire
Using Dallaire's return to Rwanda on the 10th anniversary of the genocide, in which Hutu extremists murdered some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a 100-day "cleansing" massacre Dallaire was powerless to stop, Peter Raymont's documentary uses the lingering trauma of one man as a way of opening on larger questions of global indifference and responsibility.
Roméo Dallaire is a lifelong soldier who flaunts his weakness, guilt and vulnerability. Even more importantly, given the current epidemic in false, contested and politically opportunistic forms of historical memory, he's an advocate for the persistence of memory. Because he can't forget Rwanda, and because those memories haunt him still, Roméo Dallaire's single most compelling qualification for the role of hero might be his insistence that no one else be allowed to forget either.
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
Using Dallaire's return to Rwanda on the 10th anniversary of the genocide, in which Hutu extremists murdered some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a 100-day "cleansing" massacre Dallaire was powerless to stop, Peter Raymont's documentary uses the lingering trauma of one man as a way of opening on larger questions of global indifference and responsibility.
Roméo Dallaire is a lifelong soldier who flaunts his weakness, guilt and vulnerability. Even more importantly, given the current epidemic in false, contested and politically opportunistic forms of historical memory, he's an advocate for the persistence of memory. Because he can't forget Rwanda, and because those memories haunt him still, Roméo Dallaire's single most compelling qualification for the role of hero might be his insistence that no one else be allowed to forget either.
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
posted by othercat @ 1:59 p.m.
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