“And then, i that bout of research, finding that Rwanda to this day has the highest percentage of women appointed to the government, to any country in the world… that absolutely blew my mind,” she continued. “It was something that, along the journey, as I would tell people, nobody had ever heard this before. I had never heard of it.”

For her, it was a combination of the details of dope, powerful women that ultimately drove her to create Trees of Peace. The stories of survival and the will to survive, combined with the woman’s point of view of the story, really drove me to make the film.”

Intentional every step of the way, Brown wanted to ensure that the characters were portrayed by African women. “It was really important to me to have African women play the roles,” she expressed. The film’s lead is Rwandan and was able to come over on a work visa for filming.

Bringing it all full circle as an independent filmmaker was no easy feat for Brown either, but her tenacity and curiosity not only led her to the story, but led the path to bring it to one of the world’s leading streaming platforms.

Alanna Brown