Slug & Lede

Rwanda, by Victoria Holden is compelling video about a mother and son who travel back to their home after driven out by Genocide. More than half of his family had been killed, including his father. The piece shows and tells the young boy visiting where he was born and reiterating that Rwanda was genocide, not a war.

The strongest aspect of this piece is the emotion that is shown in their eyes and through their tone. The movement of the camera emphasizes emotion that the mother and son are expressing. There is one scene in the video where the mother is crying and the camera focuses to just her face and eyes. The movements made the audience focus on the amount of pain this event caused her. This emotion displayed the way it was, allows the audience to recognize the event in history and perhaps take action in Darfur most recently. 

 Another strong aspect of this piece was the sequence of events. All the way from packing to leave for Rwanda, having family time while over there and then ending with a contribution to his father. This sequence of events introduces different emotions at appropriate times.

Additionally, the summary available under the video is very beneficial. It gives you a chance to get the point of the story and some background whenever you have time to view it. This caption allows one to pay attention to the video and have some understanding of the genocide they are referring to at the same time. The end gives good closure to his father’s death and the sons view on genocide.

A weak point of this video would be the use of wasted time. The video is quite long, which would not be an issue because it is attention grabbing; however there are scenes where I lose attention because these scenes do not follow the theme. For example, there is a part where the young boy explains what his family eats. This may tie into the aftermath of the genocide but it is unnecessary to discuss in this piece. 

 Another weak aspect of the video was tone of the young boy. For me this was boring, however I understand that his tone reflects the subject he is discussing. I suggest spicing the sound up in the video by adding music of the culture or other noises reflecting the subject. The boys voice is necessary but the natural sound is too similar throughout the piece.

In summary, the video was a successful piece. The few things that were weak are minor. The subject of genocide is very fragile and I think it is hard to construct a piece on it. Video was a perfect media for this interview and subject. Showing travel through video worked well. Also because emotion is key to explaining and promoting awareness of genocide, it was important to use video as the media to show people. Words do not address this audience as strongly as visuals. The audio and visuals together worked hand in hand to show the audience what genocide did to this family and many others.