Rachel Mwanza | |
|---|---|
 Rachel Mwanza at a TEDx presentation in Paris, October 2014 | |
| Born | 1997 |
| Nationality | Congolese |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 2013-present |
| Notable work | War Witch |
Rachel Mwanza is an actress from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, best known for her performance as Komona in the 2012 film War Witch (Rebelle). Prior to being cast in the film, she was homeless and living on the streets of Kinshasa. [1]
Mwanza was born in 1997 in Mbuji-Mayi, the third of six siblings, and spent her early childhood in Kasai Province. [2] Her father dispatched her mother and siblings to Kinshasa when she was eight years old, promising to rejoin them later. There, the children no longer attended school, and her mother held her responsible for the family's misfortune after a false prophet stated Mwanza was a witch. [2] He charged her mother for attempted exorcisms to rid Mwanza of witchcraft, but eventually she was thrown out on the street. [3]
Mwanza spent several years living as a street child in Kinshasa before being cast in the Canadian film War Witch (Rebelle). [4] She also appeared in the 2013 film Kinshasa Kids written and directed by Marc-Henri Wajnberg. [5]
She later moved to Montreal, where she attended the high school École Lucien-Pagé and lived with the family of Anne-Marie Gélinas, the associate film producer for War Witch. [2] [6]
Mwanza was cast in Rebelle after director Kim Nguyen and producers Pierre Even and Marie-Claude Poulin saw her in a documentary film on the street kids of Kinshasa. [7] Due to her lack of education, she did not know how to read or write when she was first cast in the film; the filmmakers have since made arrangements to pay for her education and housing until she turns 18. [7] In February 2013, she was granted a visa to allow her to attend the Academy Awards, [8] as it was the Canadian entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The visit combined attendance at the awards along with promotion work for Rebelle while she was in the United States. [7]
Mwanza's performance in Rebelle garnered her awards including the Silver Bear for Best Actress from the Berlin Film Festival, [4] the Tribeca Film Festival and the Vancouver Film Critics Circle in 2012, as well as the award for Best Actress at the 1st Canadian Screen Awards [9] [10] and Québec Cinéma. [6]
Mwanza subsequently wrote a book titled Survivre pour voir ce jour, describing her childhood and experiences in the hope that it would both inspire young people but also bring attention to the 20,000 children who live on the streets of Kinshasa. [3] [5] [11]
Her later performances have included the Belgian film Third Wedding (Troisièmes noces) in 2018. [12]
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2002 to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of Lower Manhattan following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Until 2020, the festival was known as the Tribeca Film Festival.
The Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short Drama is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best Canadian live action short film. Formerly part of the Genie Awards, since 2012 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.
Anne-Marie Gélinas is a Montreal-based film, documentary and television producer. She is the president and CEO of EMAfilms, a production company that she founded in 2008.
Monsieur Lazhar is a 2011 Canadian French-language drama film directed by Philippe Falardeau and starring Mohamed Saïd Fellag, Sophie Nélisse and Danielle Proulx. Based on Bashir Lazhar, a one-character play by Évelyne de la Chenelière, it tells the story of an Algerian refugee in Montreal who steps in to teach at an elementary school after the former full-time teacher dies by suicide.
War Witch is a 2012 Canadian dramatic war film written and directed by Kim Nguyen and starring Rachel Mwanza, Alain Lino Mic Eli Bastien and Serge Kanyinda. It is about a child soldier forced into a civil war in Africa, and who is believed to be a witch. The film was primarily shot in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in French and Lingala.
Inch'Allah is a Canadian drama film, released in 2012. Written and directed by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, the film stars Evelyne Brochu as Chloé, a Canadian medical doctor with the Red Crescent. Splitting her time between her clinic in Ramallah, West Bank and Jerusalem, Chloé finds her loyalties torn as she witnesses the effects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on her friends, colleagues and patients on both sides of the border. At the 1st Canadian Screen Awards, Inch'Allah received five nominations, including Best Motion Picture.
Kim Nguyen is a Canadian film director and screenwriter, best known for his 2012 film War Witch (Rebelle) which received numerous honours including an Academy Awards nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
Kinshasa Kids is a Belgian drama film, which was screened at several film festivals in 2012 and released on February 6, 2013. The film was written and directed by Marc-Henri Wajnberg.
The Tribeca Film Festival Award for Best Actress is one of the annual film award given by the Tribeca Film Festival, since 2003.
Julie Roy is a Canadian filmmaker and producer of animated films, who has been the head of Telefilm Canada since 2023. She was previously the executive producer of the French animation studio at the National Film Board from 2014 until her Telefilm appointment.
Québec Cinéma presents an annual award for Best Actress to recognize the best in the Cinema of Quebec.
Québec Cinéma presents an annual award for Best Supporting Actor to recognize the best in the Cinema of Quebec.
Québec Cinéma presents an annual award for Best Supporting Actress to recognize the best in the Cinema of Quebec.
Herd Leader is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Chloé Robichaud and released in 2012. The film stars Ève Duranceau as Clara, a shy woman who must build confidence in herself when she inherits her late aunt's dog and has to learn how to train it.
Ésimésac is a Canadian fantasy drama film, directed by Luc Picard and released in 2012. Although an unofficial sequel to the 2008 film Babine, unlike the earlier film Ésimésac was not directly based on Fred Pellerin's previously published stories; instead, the film's screenplay placed some of Pellerin's established characters in a new original story.
The 15th Prix Jutra ceremony was held on March 17, 2013 at the Salle Pierre-Mercure theatre in Montreal, Quebec, to honour achievements in the Cinema of Quebec in 2012.
The Prix Iris for Best Makeup is an annual film award, presented by Québec Cinéma as part of its Prix Iris awards program, to honour the year's best makeup work in films made within the Cinema of Quebec.
Mizinga Anthony Mwinga is a Zambian actor.
Third Wedding is a comedy-drama film, directed by David Lambert and released in 2018. A coproduction of companies from Belgium, Canada and Luxembourg, the film stars Bouli Lanners as Martin, a gay man grieving the recent death of his husband; in need of money to keep the house they shared, he decides to enter a marriage of convenience with Congolese immigrant Tamara so that she can stay in the country, with the two unexpectedly falling into a sort of love as they try to convince the authorities that their relationship is real.
Marie-Claude Poulin is a Canadian film and television producer from Quebec. Formerly a partner with Pierre Even in Item 7 from 2009 to 2016, she left that firm in 2016 to launch her own company, MCP Productions, before joining Sphere Media in 2021.
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