Kenya / 2010 / 71mins / Documentary / English and Kikuyu

Monica Wangu Wamwere: The Unbroken Spirit explores the search for justice by a mother for her three sons and forty nine other detainees locked up during the clamor for multiparty democracy in Kenya. It is a story of courage, determination and power for the powerless. Above all, it is the story of a mother’s unconditional love.

Jane Murago-Munene

Veteran filmmaker and producer Jane Murago-Munene was trained at Voice of Kenya (the name of which was later reverted back to Kenya Broadcasting Corporation). Her first production, The Tender One, was made during the first United Nation’s International Year of the Child in 1979. It was this UN project that made her realize her interest in documentaries. Founder of CineArts Afrika in 1990, she is also chairperson of the Kenya National Film Association and Eastern Africa regional secretary of FEPACI (the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers). Other works to her credit include: The Chosen One, co-directed in 1991 with Dommie Yambo-Odotte, the 14-minute documentary Women, Water, and Workload (1994), Enkishon: the Maasai Child in Kenya (1995), a 28-minute documentary, and Out of Silence, a 23-minute documentary produced in 2000. The fiction films, The Price of a Daughter and Behind Closed Doors were released in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Her work Turning Tide: Women Entrepreneurs in Africa is a 13-part series made in 2008 in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to showcase successful businesswomen from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Jane Murago-Munene directed Monica Wangu Wamwere: The Unbroken Spirit in 2010, which won Best Documentary at FESPACO in 2011. Learn More