Currently, Congocast.org is working to finish the feature length documentary film based on our podcast. Our goal is that the film can reach beyond the audience of the podcast and help continue to raise awareness for what is happening in the DR Congo. If you are interested in helping fund the completion of the film please contact Evan Vetter (email: evan[at]congocast.org) today. We would be excited to partner with you to make the vision for this film a reality.
Click here to download a PDF of our Official Press Kit.
In the summer of 2006, Robin Tabbiner and Wendy Merritt were preparing to leave their lives behind to serve women and girls victimized by sexual violence in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). Inspired by their plans, Director Evan Vetter approached the young women with the idea of filming their journey for a documentary podcast, in hopes that their experience would create awareness of the horrific rape crisis facing the country. Five years, seventeen episodes and over 200 hours of footage later, what began as a podcast has evolved into a feature-length documentary that shares a story of hope in the most tragic of circumstances.
Filmed in-part by Robin and Wendy during their year-long stay in eastern DR Congo, with additional interviews filmed before, during and after their experience, the story they returned with is much more than their own. It is the journey of a group of amazing Congolese women trying to find a way to move past their trauma and live their lives again. It is the story of their translator, a young man awakened to the crisis facing his country and inspired to do something about it.
One of the first feature documentaries to be born of a podcast, Congocast relays the challenges facing the DR Congo and its most vulnerable citizens—women and children. As Robin and Wendy struggle to help these women and their families rebuild their lives, they experience the harsh challenges of living abroad, unexpected friendships and the reality that compassion is the only way to truly change the world.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has endured a turbulent and violent history of colonial rule, extremist dictators, brutal militias and continued political instability.
Colonized by Belgium in the 1870’s, the country was prostituted for its natural resources and its people were terrorized, exploited and afflicted with disease. The country won its independence in 1960, only to suffer political unrest followed by nearly thirty years of corruption and extortion at the hands of Mobutu Sésé Seko. Mobutu renamed the country, calling it the “Republic of Zaire.”
Mobutu was overthrown in 1997 by forces led by Lauret-Désiré Kabila with assistance from Rwanda, Uganda and Angola, in what would become known as the First Congo War. In 1998, when Kabila demanded that all Rwandan and Ugandan military leave the country, which he had since renamed the “Democratic Republic of Congo,” the Second Congo War began. What would follow is five years of bloodshed and tragedy, in which 3.8 million people lost their lives, either from violence, starvation or disease.
Although this war technically ended in 2003 and democratic elections took place in 2006, the violence has not ended in DR Congo. Militia groups, including the Interahamwe, one of the groups responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide, continue to roam throughout the country, terrorizing villages, murdering families and raping women and girls.
To find our more about how you can help the people of the DR Congo visit our get involved page.
In America, we think of rape as a tragic violation of a woman that results in emotional scars that can take a lifetime to heal. Rape in the DRC is more than a violation of a woman’s body and spirit, it’s a weapon used to destroy a culture. Militia groups use this weapon to terrorize the Congolese people, attacking villages and raping women and girls from age 2 to 80, often while their families are forced to watch. These militias have kidnapped thousands of women and forced them into sexual slavery, which typically results in months of gang rape and sexual torture. As if the trauma of rape wasn’t enough, many women are mutilated so severely that surgery is their only option for survival. In the eastern region of DR Congo, rape has become so brutal and rampant that one hospital in the region of Panzi sees over 2,500 women a year for reconstructive surgery.
In the Congolese culture, it’s common for victims of rape to be divorced from their husbands, disowned from their families or shunned from their villages, as rape has made them “unclean.” As a result, these women have no way of supporting themselves or their children and have no other choice but to live in the streets, begging for food and money.
Although their stories are tragic and seem hopeless, there is a way you can help – click here.