Once Upon A Time In The Congo

Hello folks, my name is Said Yenga Kakese wa Dibinga, I am from the Democratic Republic of The Congo. Welcome to the blog for the movie that I am developing, "Once Upon A Time In The Congo"!

This is a feature-length independent film that I wrote and am co-producing for a possible fall 2006 release. I don’t really talk about my projects until they are done, I would rather that you the audience find out about my projects when they are completed because its said that people who talk the most about what they are going to do usually don’t don’t do it. I made the decison to talk about the film here because several people kept asking about it.

I’m also the moderator for drcnn@yahoogroups.com (a news site for issues relating to Congo) and malu_kayi@yahoogroups.com (a listserve for Luba youth and Luba culture. Both sites are in English. Also, www.onceuponatimeinthecongo.com will go live within the next two months so stay tuned.

The movie is about an ex-Rwanda Tutsi soldier named Hatari Shinji living in exile in South Africa, who is wanted by (Rwandan President) Paul Kagame's inner circle and by members of the transitional government in Kinshasa (capital of The Democratic Republic of The Congo). Hatari has secrets relating to the matters in eastern Congo (specifically the Kivu's). Two hit teams are sent after him. One hit team, hired by members in the Kinshasa government, is comprised of two female ex-FAZ (armed Forces of Zaire) named Mukaya and Llinga. The other team is comprised of two ex-FAZ named Mulele and Patrice, who were hired by a survivor of one of Hatari’s supervised massacres in Eastern Congo during Rwanda’ two invasions (1996,1998).

We held an audition in Los Angeles in November 2005, and it went very well. Our casting director was fortunate to locate several Congolese actors living in Los Angeles. I’ll soon be posting photos here of the various cast members and other happenings.

Trust me when I tell you this, it takes a loong time to make a movie. Both Ophra Winfrey's movie "Beloved" and Steven Speilbergs "Schindlers List" took 10 years to make. Craig Brewers "Hustle & Flow" took 4 years to make. I wrote the first draft of the Congo script in 2003. We're almost there. Feel free to post your comments/questions. Oh, there will be a fund raising drive for the movie so you are more than welcome to participate in that also…:-)

Talk to you later,

Said