Aghion’s footage is a unique documentation both of Rwandan history, and of a population in the throes of nearly a decade of social reconstruction. About one half of the collection comprises open-air trials, with the rest made up of one-on-one interviews of survivors, defendants and witnesses.

Filmed outdoors, as well as in locations including a school and local lock-up, this material shows, for the first time, the long-term process of re-weaving a community’s social fabric after a cataclysm on the scale of the Rwandan genocide.

The footage is mainly in the Kinyarwanda language, as well as in English and French. The materials are fully translated into English, indexed to time codes every 10 to 15 seconds at most.

The agreement with Aghion is part of INA’s policy to expand its collection, and to engage in international cooperation for the preservation of audiovisual heritage.

According to Michel Raynal, Deputy Director, Heritage Collections, “These recordings, compiled with persistence, and made completely outside of the context of breaking news, contribute to the development of common memory. It is precisely within INA’s mission to collect, safeguard and provide access to this memory for new purposes, be they professional or scientific. Taking on this archive was an obvious decision.”

Audiovisual materials are an important part of any country’s historical and cultural legacy. But in Rwanda, more than anywhere else, less than a generation after the most efficient genocide of the twentieth century, these resources will play a critical role for future generations.

Indeed, well aware of the historical value of her footage, and intent on making it freely accessible in Rwanda, Aghion joined with social psychologist and historian Assumpta Mugiraneza, to launch Iriba Center for Multimedia Heritage. With Mugiraneza serving as Director, and Aghion as Co-Founder and Honorary President, Iriba Center will gather films, photographs and audio recordings dating from the start of colonial rule in Rwanda to the present day.

To further this end, once the digitization and the indexing of the footage is completed, INA will provide a copy of the entire collection to Aghion for Iriba Center.

Says Aghion, “I spent several years looking for the best institution to place this archive. Then I landed at INA, which is the perfect place, really, with their dedication to preservation and their international reach, INA is by far the best-suited to house these images.”