Saturday 10th May was full of excitement at Jali Club Gardens. Here Kigali joined the rest of the world to share stories of their experiences through the power of Film.

The Pangea event was being broadcast in 6 different cities-Kigali, London, Cairo, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles at the same time. The idea of ’Pangea Day’ was started by Jehane Noujaim a film maker who worn the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) award for the best documentary.

The TED committee (which consists of some of the world’s known figures like Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and C.E.O’s of big companies like NOKIA among others) met last year at its headquarters in New York City, and this is when Jehane Noujaim requested for a day when the whole world would join together to watch short films that unite all, hence Pangea Day. The question stands however; why of all African cities was Kigali chosen? According to Pierre Kayitana the Kigali coordinator for Pangea Day, the responsibility of choosing the participating countries was given to Bill Clinton and he happened to choose Rwanda because it’s a country he has close at heart.

"One of the conditions for Rwanda to host this event was that every item from the music, venue, advertisements, and graphics to the guest speaker had to be originally Rwandan and local." said Kayitana.

Before the films were shown there was live entertainment from ’Dream band’, which played contemporary Rwandan music that was so intense and captivating.

The crowd was huge and seemed to be having a great time and every time a live broadcast of Rwanda was shown on the projectors the crowd would burst with applause. 20 short (3mins average) films and 1 longer film by Jehane Noujaim (15mins) were shown. Different speakers were shown and there was live interaction between the sites, all being moderated by the host. "Jean Paul Samputu was the ’speaker for Rwanda’ and he had to fly all the way from Atlanta for this event. This shows how committed he is to his country" said Kayitana.

The basis of Pangea Day is to unite people globally through Film, Music and Speech, and I believe Rwanda has achieved much on this today", said Kayitana

We look forward to Kigali hosting the next pangea day event.