Rising From Ashes, the award-winning feature-length documentary about
Team Rwanda, will premiere in San Diego on Thursday, February 6 at 7 p.m. when
the cycling film screens at the Museum of Photographic Arts in the El Prado. The
event is presented by the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition.
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.
Two worlds collide when cycling legend Jacques
“Jock” Boyer moves to Rwanda in 2006 to help a group of struggling survivors of
the genocide to pursue their dream of creating a national cycling team. Members
of the fledgling team were children left orphaned by the genocide a decade
earlier. Their pasts are painful. As they set out against impossible odds, both
Boyer – fighting his own past demons – and the team find new purpose as they
rise from the ashes of their pasts through remarkable achievements, both big
and small.
The documentary tells a story of redemption, hope
and second chances. It is not about the bike; however, the bicycle becomes a
tool that has helped change a nation.
Team Rwanda began as a cycling organization, but
became so much more once organizers realized the greater needs of the athletes.
Many of the riders could not read or write, lived in homes without water and
electricity, were malnourished and had never received healthcare. But there was
still a greater issue, the issue of the heart. These riders were all recovering
from the traumatic psychological effects of the 1994 genocide, which claimed
the lives of more than half a million Rwandans, or roughly one-fifth of the
nation’s population. Most of the riders were left orphaned by the massacres
that claimed their parents’ lives.
While 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.
But 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.
The film is also about redemption for Boyer, who was
the first American rider to ever compete in the Tour de France back in 1983.
One of America’s most fabled riders, Boyer grew up in Northern California
battling long-time rival Tom Ritchey for national supremacy. Boyer left the
U.S. as a 17-year-old to compete in the Tour de France, but upon his return to
the United States after a prolific racing career in Europe, he lost it all. In
this period of darkness, in which Boyer was incarcerated for an improper
relationship with a minor, he reconnected with Ritchey, who had toured Rwanda –
known as the “land of a thousand hills” – on a cycling trip in 2005.
Ritchey approached Boyer with an unlikely
proposition – an offer to become coach of Rwanda’s first national cycling team.
The success of the team came down to Boyer’s decision to move to Rwanda and
invest himself completely in the project, gaining the trust of the riders he
coached.
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.
Advance tickets are $10 and can be purchased online
at www.imathlete.com/events/risingfromashes. Tickets at the door will be $15. The Museum of
Photographic Arts, or MOPA, is located at 1649 El Prado in San Diego.
The mission of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition
is to advocate for and protect the rights of all bicyclists in San Diego
County. It promotes cycling as a mainstream, safe and enjoyable form of
transportation and recreation. For more information, go to www.sdcbc.org.
For more information about the film, or to view the
trailer, go to www.risingfromashesthemovie.com, or on Facebook at Rising From Ashes The Movie.
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