Ripples of Genocide:
Journey Through Eastern Congo

As part of the USHMM Committe on Conscience’s mandate to produce works exposing the horrors of genocide that are taking place in the world we live in today, the Ripples of Genocide: Journey Through the Eastern Congo project focused on some of the atrocities ongoing in the Congo. The USHMM focused on Angelina Jolie’s visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003 as the focal point for this project. John Prendergast, Senior Advisor at the International Crisis Group, went with Jolie to chronicle the devastation unfolding in the eastern part of the DRC.

Working with the USHMM design team from the early stages of the project, bluecadet helped to refine the vision of the project and create a roadmap for execution. The goal of the project was to deliver an interactive online travel log of the journey as narrated by Jolie and Prendergast. During the production phases, bluecadet focused on the task of creating the images and animation that comrpise the online collage and, using Flash and web development tools, integrated the narration of Jolie and Prendergast throughout the presentation. As part of the project required captioning of great lengths of audio, bluecadet developed a Flash component that allows a user with no prior Flash experience to create captioning for long audio streams. That tool is now in use at the USHMM for use on other internal projects.


Honors and Awards

• Flashforward 2006 nominee: narrative category
• Awarded a Gold Pollie for Internet/Electronic Media Websites serving National Grassroots/Issue Advocacy/Public Affairs
• South by Southwest (SXSW) 2005 Festival award nominee for Best Use of Flash
• Site profiled in People Magazine
• Site profiled by InteractiveNarratives.org