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Service and Prosperity through Innovative Education
Our oral history project builds and maintains literacy, libraries, and legacy.
We work with pioneering filmmakers to restore cinema to the country. (It was lost thirty years ago.)
We use film and the arts to catalyze educational outreach.
Making Education Exciting through Innovative Methods
Art as the master of imagination
We especially focus on women, who are frequently denied an education in our area.
Integrating all art forms into curriculum
"Art helps us see connections & brings a more coherent meaning to our world." - Earnest Boyer, President, Carnegie Foundation
Visual Arts
"Logic will get your from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." -Albert Einstein
Art teaches planning and possibility
"Science and art equally are expressions of man's marvelous plasticity of mind." -Jacob Bronowski, scientist, formerly of the Salk Institute
The people in the Lodja area went through a devastating war sixteen years ago. Art is one way of catalysing the change of mentality from survival-based (24-hour mind-set) to imaginative (future-based, planned, prepared)
We use visual arts, as pictured here, and more.
Cinematic Art
“When I looked at life through the camera, I felt like I could finally see it.”
― Katherine Howe, The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen
Film making provides a road to sharing instruction in anything, insights on everything, and a new lens to see dimensions of beauty--all vital in a post-war situation.
Film training and screening in a country which lost its cinemas thirty years ago
The "Heart of Africa" Film project
We have now completed the filming of three films, two features and one documentary. We have done this with our Congolese team. Our goal is to empower and fuel them. One of the films, "Heart of Africa," is finished and ready to distribute, with an excellent distributor attached. We are raising funds for distribution. Profits from the film will return to our film initiative.
Why film?
Because it generates a sustainable industry and fosters imagination.
The DR-C is listed as the poorest country in the world, yet young filmmakers have already begun to build a film industry--without good equipment or infrastructure. We have seen the film industry thrive in other African countries and are honored to help catalyze its rise in the Congo.
Bimpa Production
Team in the Congo
Our team in the Congo is committed to establishing cinema in their country, to training nascent filmmakers, running an annual film festival, and taking film into the far reaches of the Congo. Long-term goals include the establishment of a film school and an arts-based university. For now, the objective is to provide education and inspiration to the whole country through film.
Oral histories
As we collect oral histories and train others to write effective histories as well, we validate each life. Every person has a story worth telling. These stories invite peace-building, respect, introspection, inspiration. They also become key to literacy.
The story of Aselu Celestine: Abandoned at birth after her mother died, Celestine was raised by an aunt. We recorded her compelling oral history in 2018.
Celestine was reunited with her family in May 2019. The event and the history behind it will comprise a documentary in 2020. Proceeds will go to our initiatives.
Reunion
Book binding
In a place with few books and where books fall apart easily, we teach book binding not only for book creation and preservation, but as a potential business. Oral histories are bound and become part of a library.
The university library in 2018--few books, all at risk
Students show the books they have bound.
Activities
Cooperating with other organizations to accomplish our mutual goals
Books for Literacy Development
We also work with the African Storybook organization (www.africanstorybook.org) to provide translations into the dialects in our area. This is a precursor to literacy training.
Books are the door to the future.
Translating and printing
Our mission is hope and healing.
Contact Congo Rising
561 N. 700 W. Provo, Utah 84601
801-592-4515