Winners of the 30th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards were announced in New York City on Monday night. Among those honored with nominations were two documentaries that raise awareness of the ongoing wars and human tragedy in Congo and Darfur.
“The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo” was nominated for Outstanding Informational Programming and Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft while “The Devil Came on Horseback” received a nod for Best Documentary. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times said it best in her review: “Brutal, urgent, devastating—the documentary ‘The Devil Came on Horseback’ demands to be seen as soon as possible and by as many viewers as possible.” Undoubtedly, viewers of “The Greatest Silence” would say the same. Here’s a little more about the two films:
Winner of the 2008 Sundance Special Jury Prize, “The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo” features the untold stories of women and girls who have fallen victim to the violence that continues to tear the Congo apart—stories of rape, mutilation, and torture by foreign and local militias and by the Congolese army. Director Lisa Jackson, a two-time Emmy winner, traveled deep into the conflict zone to collect interviews with not only these survivors, but with peacekeepers on the ground and Congolese soldiers who had committed acts of rape. Watch the trailer here.
"The Devil Came on Horseback" offers an eyewitness account of how the Sudanese government systematically exterminates its citizens in Darfur. Directed by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, the film draws from former Marine Captain Brian Steidle’s first hand testimony of the state-sanctioned atrocities and violence he observed during his six months working for the African Union as an unarmed monitor in Darfur. The film screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 and won the “Working Films Award” at the 2007 Full Frame Documentary festival. Here’s the trailer.