This is Congo

Bloody resource wars

Produced by Geoff McLean and Horeb Bulambo | Directed by Daniel McCabe

Filmed entirely in the Democratic Republic of Congo and fuelled by the perspectives of those directly involved and affected by the mineral conflict, this film depicts the cycle of battles waged daily by those who will kill – or will be killed – to plunder the country’s rare metals

Ruling class, rebels, and refugees alike, This is Congo bears witness to the enduring social chaos that has been the sole reality of generations.

The film begins deep in the remote mountainous regions of Eastern Congo, where immense resource wealth lies just beneath the jungle floor. Hidden away from view there is a violent scramble to extract these valuable resources at any cost. We meet miners of the raw materials who are also civilian victims of the wars. The chronically impoverished workers face threats from all sides of the armed conflicts. Many are former farmers driven from their plots by militants clearing the land of people to make way for mineral exploitation. Many miners are children working as forced labour. They toil in dangerous mines, which are controlled by various militant groups.

We will meet most of them, including the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and involved in the Rwandan genocide) and Mai Mai rebel factions, the main resistance factions to the government and organisations that maintain their power through control of valuable mining areas.

The very ‘up close and personal’ access in the film is a result of the emphasis on field production. Hear from the film’s Congolese producer, and see clips showing some of the risks, and the characters, encountered in making This is Congo.

This film is currently in post-production

Press

A short film has been adapted from This is Congo, and now features in the New York Times’s Op-Docs series. Watch Congo: the Road to Ruin

Testimonial

“WorldView provided us with the necessary funding for further development and allowed us the ability to keep the project moving forward at a critical time. We can’t thank them enough for their continued support!”  Geoff McLean, producer