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| The film “A Divine Journey” captures the work of activist Divine Mugisha, who has focused her work on porviding esducation for youth in the refugee camp where she grew up in Malawi. Courtesy Splicer Films. |
“She’s Mother Teresa meets Desmond Tutu!”
That’s how Annette King, founder and CEO of Splicer Films describes Divine Mugisha, the protagonist of her latest docuseries “A Divine Journey: The Trilogy,” which will premiere at Beach Break Film Festival at Half Moon Bay this weekend.
The Palo Alto-based production company has packaged the story of Mugisha — a Rwandan refugee who grew up in Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa, a town in the East African country of Malawi — in three episodes that run for around 25 minutes each.
The films capture Mugisha’s altruistic efforts to educate people in her camp and to help them deal with their mental health needs. She does this through an initiative called Supportive Pillar Organisation which she started at the age of 16.
The films also showcase the first time Mugisha leaves the camp to go to United States International University – Africa in Kenya, through a scholarship from The Mastercard Foundation. “This was the first time she was going to live in a place with running water, with power, with food…” said King, who co-directed the films remotely over Zoom, and worked closely with locals from Malawi on this production.
Though this method of remote production began due to the pandemic, it worked out well overall. “We realized it doesn’t make sense to have Americans parachute into a refugee camp to film this story,” she said, reasoning that the storytelling is more authentic when local nuance and culture is retained. “We need to employ the locals.”
For King’s co-director Ivanovitch Ingabire, who filmed Mugisha in person, the process has been immensely gratifying. “A Divine Journey has had a profound impact on me as a filmmaker. It is the first documentary I created about a refugee who spent 20 years in a refugee camp with little hope of achieving her dreams,” he said in a WhatsApp message sent from Malawi. “Witnessing Divine’s journey from that camp to presenting her documentary in the USA and introducing her organization Supportive Pillar, was incredibly inspiring to many people in the USA. Her dream came true as she stood before an audience, sharing her inspirational story and getting sponsors for her cause.”
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| “A Divine Journey” chronicles the work of Divine Mugisha to bring education to the young people in the refugee camp where she grew up. The docu-series also shows her own experiences attending college at United States International University – Africa. Courtesy Splicer Films. |
Ingabire is referencing Mugisha’s trip to the U.S. in December 2023, when the first part of the trilogy was released here; Mugisha spoke about her journey at several places including local schools and libraries. The premieres of the series’ second and third episodes at the Beach Break Film Festival will mark the debut screening of the completed series.
“We’ve screened the film at private schools here in the Palo Alto area and it very much resonates with students,” said King. Despite differences in geography, nationality and socio-economic backgrounds, themes like mental health and bullying, she discovered, were common across youth in Malawi and Palo Alto. “Some of the students here stepped up to volunteer and be a part of her organization and help her with social media.”
This trilogy is Splicer Films’ third production since its launch in 2020. “I started Splicer Films because I wanted to tell impactful stories that can inspire audiences and shift the narrative of what a hero looks like in film and media,” said King, who endeavors to make films that have the potential to inspire “the next generation of leaders.”
Previous documentaries from Splicer Films include “Finding Ubuntu,” about the humanitarian work of Congolese refugee Maick Mutej, and “Fear Not,” the story of Peninsula-based philanthropist Evelyne Keomian who grew up impoverished in the Ivory Coast.
In fact, it was during an interactive session with Mutej on Zoom that King first crossed paths with Mugisha, who was also present on the call as a member of the audience. “I realized she’s quite young but highly intellectual and had a high EQ (emotional intelligence), just very engaged and curious. So I asked Maick who she was,” King recalled. Mutej was mentoring Mugisha at the time. “She really aspired to do so much for her community. She had nothing herself; she didn’t even really have shoes and she was just so philanthropic at such a young age and so selfless and giving. That’s what caught my attention.”
Taken by her story, King decided to support her cause by donating to her organization. When she found out that Mugisha’s dream was to go to university to become a psychologist to help displaced refugees deal with their trauma, she started helping her with her college applications, especially with things like proofreading. “As I read her essays, I said — ‘Divine, your story is so profound and outstanding, can we tell your story in a documentary?'” she said.
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Divine Mugisha provides education for children in the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi and supports their mental health needs through an initiative called Supportive Pillar Organisation that she started at the age of 16. Courtesy Splicer Films. |
In February, the first episode of the trilogy premiered at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles. In July, it was on the program at Bravemaker Film Festival. In September, the first episode won the “Best Documentary” award at the North Hollywood CineFest. It was also showcased at the United Nations Association Film Festival in October. It has also been screened at the grassroots level, at refugee camps in Africa.
Eventually, after it has passed through the film festival circuit, King sees a home for this docu-series in academia, as curriculum in schools and universities for instance, rather than on a streaming platform.
In the meantime, Ingabire continues to film Mugisha’s journey as it unfolds; currently she is working on building a leadership academy for kids at the refugee camp in Malawi; funds she raised during her time in Palo Alto last year helped her meet this goal.
“This person is so committed to service; she’s just so remarkable,” King said. In its entirety, she envisions this story, tentatively, as an eight-episode series. “You don’t need a whole lot of resources if you have to have the will, the determination and the heart for it … that’s what Divine teaches us.”
This article was originally published on The Almanac.
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