Cast & Crew

Alrick Brown has a MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. A filmmaker and teacher, he has found his calling writing, directing and producing narrative films and documentaries often focusing on social issues affecting the world at large. For over two years he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cote d’Ivoire. The interactions with the people of his village and his overall experiences in West Africa have informed his creative expression; an expression first fostered by his birth in Kingston, Jamaica and migration to, and upbringing in Plainfield, New Jersey. A fluent French speaker, he graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in English and a Masters in Education. Since then he has devoted his energy to changing the world by giving a voice to the voiceless and telling stories that otherwise would not be told.
 
Alrick’s collective work has screened in over forty film festivals, national and international, and received numerous awards. He and his Co-producer, received the HBO Life Through Your Lens Emerging Filmmaker Award to produce their critically acclaimed documentary DEATH OF TWO SONS. In 2004 he was one of four NYU students featured in the IFC Documentary series Film School, produced by Academy award nominee Nannette Burstein. In 2007 he addressed the Motion Picture Association of America on C-SPAN. KINYARWANDA marks Brown’s feature film directorial debut.

Ishmael Ntihabose - Executive Producer / Story

Ishmael Ntihabose is a Rwandan born filmmaker who after working on SOMETIMES IN APRIL, SHOOTING DOGS and SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL as an assistant, decided that he was ready to step out on his own. As Executive Producer he brought together a team of international filmmakers to bring his first feature film, KINYARWANDA, to life.

Darren Dean came to film late in life, writing, directing and producing the award- winning short, SLEEP OVER. He followed that up as Co-Writer and Producer of PRINCE OF BROADWAY, which has won 18 prestigious awards internationally to date. Dean, also a respected journalist, is currently in pre-production as writer/producer on the big screen adaptation of Will Eisner’s A CONTRACT WITH GOD.

Tommy Oliver began his filmmaking career during his junior year at Carnegie Mellon University resulting in the indie film SOFIA FOR NOW. After college, Tommy co-founded film production company, Black Squirrel Films where he produced several award winning shorts, commercials and the feature film BLANK. He is currently in pre-production on the big screen adaptation of Will Eisner’s A CONTRACT WITH GOD.

Deatra L. Harris has written, produced and directed several short films, including “Addicted” and “A Woman’s Worth”, which have shown at film festivals across the United States as well as Internationally. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in MIS/Math from Bowling Green State University and is currently developing a feature length narrative and animation.

Danny Vecchione - Director of Photography

Danny holds an M.F.A. from the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, where he focused on cinematography. While there, he shot over forty short films, winning the Wasserman Award an unprecedented eleven times. The projects that he has worked on have been shown in every major film festival across the world. He recently shot the feature film WILLIAM VINCENT, directed by Jay Anania and starring James Franco, Julianne Nicholson, Martin Donovan and Josh Lucas, which was an official selection of the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. His most recent feature, HOMEWRECKER, directed by The Barnes Brothers, won the “Best of Next” category at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Cassandra Freeman - Lt. Rose

Freeman is an established star of both stage and screen. She has appeared on Broadway in “Seven Guitars” and on TV in The Guiding Light, All My Children, Shark and Numbers. On the big screen, Freeman came to international recognition with roles in Chris Rock’s I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE and Spike Lee’s INSIDE MAN, where she starred alongside Denzel Washington. She is a graduate of both Florida State University and NYU’s prestigious acting programs.

Edourd Bamporiki - Emmanuel

Bamporiki is an award-winning filmmaker, actor and poet. As a young Rwandan artist, he has received national and international attention for his stories of hope, unity and reconciliation. Bamporiki was born in a small village in the Western province, educated in Rwandan schools and lives in the capitol city of Kigali. His feature debut in Lee Isaac Chung’s MUNYURANGABO yielded him a Best Actor nomination in Cannes. In 2008, he wrote, directed, starred in and produced LONG COAT, which won first prize in African Film at the Focus Future Film Festival in New York.

Cleophas Kabasiita – Francine

KINYARWANDA is Kabasiita’s 4th film. Looking on as an observer, she was accidently discovered during the casting calls for 100 DAYS. Since then she has been featured in EZRA and SOMETIMES IN APRIL. She is Ugandan/Rwandese by birth and began her life in Rwanda shortly following the Genocide of 1994.