Mission Congo
Dir. Lara Zizic & David Turner
Documentary, DR Congo/US, 2013, 65 min.
French, English & Kinyarawanda w/ English subtitles
Televangelist, multi-millionaire, and leader of the religious right, Pat Robertson is a man on a mission. During an escalating refugee crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Robertson ran a media blitz on his television station, the Christian Broadcasting Network, to raise money for his charity, Operation Blessing. Over the airwaves, he gave glowing reports of the charity's relief efforts in Congo, raising donations from viewers eager to assist. Absent from these reports was his simultaneous involvement in a very different mission: diamond mining.
Post-screening discussion with the filmmakers
FILMMAKERS:
Lara Zizic (Writer/Director/Producer) received her MFA in filmmaking from Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts, where she was a Fulbright finalist for her feature film script. Her short film The Isabel Fish screened at numerous International Film Festivals including the Los Angeles International Film Festival, The Newport International Film Festival, and The Austin International Film Festival. She has directed and produced documentaries for Al-Jazeera English and Current TV and CNN International. She has written and directed films for the European Union, the United Nations and the US Agency for International Development.
David Turner (Writer/Director/Producer) finished his Master’s program in directing at the Polish National Film School in Lodz. He has directed two documentaries for Aljazeera Witness; Hungry For Change and Children’s Parliament. His short fiction films have been selected for numerous international festivals including Cannes, Venice, Los Angeles and New York.
Erin Heidenreich (Producer) produced the documentaries Levitated Mass, The Other Shore, and Made in India. She also directed the documentaries Girl Unbound (TIFF 2016) and Rising Sons, as well as the narrative film The Stories We Tell Ourselves. She has represented over 10 Oscar winning/nominated films as one of the co-founders of Cinetic Media.