Trees of Peace

Trees of Peace is a 2022 film which was written and directed by Alanna Brown in her directorial debut. It is starring Eliane Umuhire, Charmaine Bingwa, Bola Koleosho and Ella Cannon as four women (two Tutsi, one a Hutu moderate, and one American volunteer) who hide in a hole underneath a house for 81 days to survive the 1994 Rwandan genocide.^[1] It has a 98-minute runtime and it is an English language film.^[2]

The film was initially funded through a 2017 Kickstarter campaign which met its goal of $65,000 from 350 backers, yet, Alanna was unable to get the film off the ground, until she met Producers Ron & Michelle Ray on Instagram in February 2019, and finally got her big break. Ron and Michelle Ray financed and produced the film 100% through their production company RR Film Production, along with Brian Baniqued and Jeff Spiegel. The Ray's not only financed the film, but led the physical production, post-production, and the final delivery of the film to Netflix. Ron & Michelle Ray also brought in Executive Producer Nicole Avant (The Black Godfather, Six Triple Eight) to the project, and Nicole was instrumental in getting the film its due credit as an Executive Producer.^[3] Production ended in November 2019. A year after the film premiered at the 2021 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and won multiple other prestigious film festivals, Ron Ray personally negotiated the licensing of the film to Netflix as a Netflix Original Netflix and Netflix acquired the global rights to the film in March 2022.^[4] The film's trailer was released on May 13, and the film premiered on June 10. Within 5 days of its release, "Trees Of Peace" hit the Top 10 in 60 countries and launched multiple careers in Hollywood. The film received a 100% rating from Critics and 85% ratings from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Netflix acquired the global rights to the film, and released it worldwide simultaneously in 191 countries.^[4] The Hindu described it as a moving survival story.^[5]