American-African filmmaker, Charles Perry, is set to screen his film, "The Black Cowboy"-a history you cannot hide.
The show will happen at Lavana, Kimihurura on Thursday where Perry will have discussions about the film with the audience, and a meet and greet.
He chose Rwanda as an African country for his test screening because the original herdsmen are in Rwanda and Africa.
According to the film director and producer, for many years, most people could relate cowboys to white males on horses because that's what films have portrayed, which in reality isn't true.
It is for this motive that Perry yearned to change the narrative and embarked on a journey of research about the black cowboys.
His film brings to light a broad look at the legacy of African-Americans as cowboys, in Oklahoma, and other places all over the world.
The filmmaker that works in Tulsa, Oklahoma, narrates that The Black Cowboy project started eight years back. He lived in cowboy states in the US, where he played basketball in Montana State where the cowboy culture is.
Living there and going to College, he realised that the cowboy culture is bigger than what is shown on television.
He stresses that when he became a filmmaker traveling across countries, he stopped in a small town dubbed Okmulgee, Oklahoma where he saw a black cowboy, as he drew closer to him, he observed about 15, 000 people participating in a rodeo.
"I was confused by it, so I ran back to my computer and googled about it, but couldn't find black cowboys. I decided to shoot a story for this town," he says.
Choosing Rwanda
Perry came to Rwanda on December 1, and has been carrying out research about the herdsmen history and areas where part of the cowboy history will be filmed. He has scheduled interviews to discover more about herdsmen and cattle.
So far, this is the first African country he has been to. He recalls having little information about Africa. Since the cowboy culture was invented by Africans and Mexicans coming through Mexico, during the slave trade and up to Texas, following the journey to discover black cowboys connected him to Art Burton, an author and professor, who is knowledgeable about black history of the west.
Whenever Perry interviewed him, he always mentioned Africa, throughout the interview, that he had no option but to research about Africa.
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"I was sure that if an opportunity arose, I would come to Africa. While in Germany, promoting and fundraising for the 'Black Cowboy Movie' in 2019, I met a Rwandan cinema manager, Aimee Umutoni, who requested me to come and film in Rwanda," he stresses.
He notes that he took time and read about Rwanda and noticed that there was more to it, and he has stumbled upon campaigns about "Visit Rwanda". He comprehended that it's a good place not only to film, live, but to also operate business.
Perry recently registered his business and opened up the 'Afro World Studios' that is aimed at raising the independence of Hollywood quality filmmaking in Africa.
He looks forward to offering a platform to Rwandans and Africans to tell their own stories because they know them better.
He is currently writing scripts where Africans and Americans can converge either on love stories, comedy, thrillers, and tell stories through cinema.
So far, he highlights that his experience in Rwanda has been amazing, due to the clean environment, receptive people, and proper security. He isn't worried about his safety.
"The process of research and filming for the last eight years has been eye opening, knowing the role Africans play in the US is not talked about. I therefore, started with the black rodeo, to black farmers, and then turned into black cowboys which Africans and Native Americans had a relationship through history in the US," he explains.
