Rising From Ashes, the award-winning feature-length
documentary about Team Rwanda, will premiere in Des Moines on Wednesday,
January 29 at 7 p.m. when the cycling film screens at the Fleur Cinema &
Café. The event is sponsored by the Des Moines Bicycle Collective.
Rising
From Ashes is a
joyous and uplifting independent film about the development of a national
cycling team in Rwanda, a country still affected deeply by the genocide that
tore the East African nation apart in 1994.
Over six years in the making, Rising From Ashes was
produced by two partnering non-profit organizations, Gratis 7 Media Group and
Project Rwanda. Narrated by Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker, the film has been
completely donor-funded and was produced through more than $800,000 in donated
funds. Since its release in 2012, the film has won awards at more than a dozen
film festivals worldwide.
Although Team Rwanda has taken care of the physical and mental
issues of the riders, it has also provided something greater: hope for a
nation. Rwanda is a country still recovering from one of the world’s most
devastating genocides and the country has longed for heroes. The riders of Team
Rwanda have become more than just a cycling team; they have become ambassadors
for a country rising from its ashes. They have given the small nation a vision
of something greater than itself and renewed a sense of purpose.
Rising From Ashes
is more than a movie. It’s a story that relates to each and every person. It’s
a gateway of hope. However, this is just the beginning. Since 2005, Team Rwanda
has developed a model for caring for passionate athletes and it has gone on to expand
that vision. In 2012, Team Rwanda began its next phase, the development of
Africa’s first all-black, all-African team to attempt the greatest cycling
event in the world, the Tour de France, after having qualified its first rider
for the Olympic Games in London.
Come early and meet your friends for an adult beverage,
coffee, or soft drink in The Fleur Cinema & Cafe lobby.