RISING FROM ASHES, The Impossible Triumph of Team Rwanda
a T.C. Johnstone Film, Narration by Forest Whitaker
“Rising from Ashes” is a feature length documentary about the first Rwandan National Cycling Team and their six year journey to the Olympic games in London. It's not about the bike. It's about second chances, how our past doesn't have to define our future, and the impossible triumph of the human spirit over one of the world's most devastating genocides.
Forest Whitaker - Executive Producer
Jon Halbert - Executive Producer
T.C. Johnstone - Producer / Director
Greg Kwedar - Producer
Peb Jackson / Dan Cooper - Associate Producers
Gregg Helvey - Writer
Elisa Bonora - Editor
Joshua Myers - Composer
David Eggerichs / Ryan Scheer / Jeremy Rodgers / Jeffrey Waldron - Cinematographers
Reviews:
“Cycling is an excruciating sport—a rider’s power is only as great as his capacity to endure pain—and it is often re- marked that the best cyclists experience their physical agonies as a relief from private torments. The bike gives suffer- ing a purpose.”
– The New Yorker on Team Rwanda
“As a seven-year-old, Adrien miraculously survived the slaughter (genocide) and is now the No.1 mountain biker on the biggest cycling team in Africa. He will be, without doubt, the most extraordinary athlete at the 2012 Olympic Games.”
– Sports Illustrated
“In London, Adrien Niyonshuti looks likely to rub shoulders with many other big names both in and out of the world of cycling. But the reality is that few, if any, will have had a more remarkable journey to get there.”
– The Evening Standard London
SYNOPSIS
In Rwanda, ‘The Land of a Thousand Hills’, the bicycle is essential to life. It is how you move. It is how you work. And during the Genocide, it is how you survived. Stand on any corner of any village through- out the country, and farmers will scream down hillsides barefoot on 25 year old bikes loaded with 100 pounds of potatoes, taxi drivers peddle diligently with a mother and daughter in tow, and a child amuses himself for hours guiding a bent wheel down alleyways. It seems natural, maybe destined, that bike rac- ing has a rich history in Rwanda. For decades the country has participated in the sport, hosting local races for bragging rights, riding barefoot, many times without brakes or gears. During 100 days in 1994, as five and half lives were systematically murdered per minute, thousands of Rwandans escaped certain death on their bikes. When the dust settled and the perpetrators were subdued, the country mourned the death of nearly one million of their countrymen. Amidst the heartache and trauma, a committed group of young cyclists began importing racing bikes into the country with the hopes of resurrecting the sport. In 2005, legendary bike builder Tom Ritchey explored the country on his bike, and upon meeting a group of cyclists who called themselves Team Rwanda, left with the vision there was potential for a National Team, and a question. What if they could make it to the Olympics?
Jock
Jock Boyer is one of America’s most fabled cyclists. He grew up battling Tom Ritchey in Northern California’s competitive cycling leagues, out of this rivalry a mutual admiration and friendship was born. At the age of 17, Jock left the U.S. to compete professionally against the World’s elite in France, and in 1983 he made history as the First American to ever ride in the Tour de France. Upon his return to the United States, after a prolific racing career, he would lose it all. In this period of darkness Tom reconnected with his long lost friend with an unlikely proposition, an offer to become the Coach of Rwanda’s first National Cycling Team.
PRODUCTION NOTES
"Rising from Ashes" was a monumental project that spanned over six years. Filmed across three continents and in some of the world's most demanding locations, the crew, led by Director T.C. Johnstone, pursued this extraordinary story. As the journey neared its dramatic conclusion, Emmy Award-winning Zacuto Films, a production studio based in Chicago, joined the team with a vision to capture the climactic moments of the production's most intense shoot in Rwanda. BTS is a three part web series produced by Zacuto Films about the passion, struggle, process, and purpose behind the making of Rising from Ashes.
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