In just four days, Pushing the Elephant, Arts Engine’s ninth Big Mouth Film, will premiere at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center in New York.

Three and a half years ago, Beth Davenport and I were at a lunch exploring ideas for a new documentary in response to a request for proposals put out by PBS. With us at the table were Julia Pimsleur, co-founder of Arts Engine and then-Development Director at the social entrepreneur support organization Echoing Green and Lara Galinsky, Echoing Green’s then-Vice President of Strategy, Sasha Chanoff, an Echoing Green grantee and founder of Mapendo International, and Wendy Ettinger, documentary filmmaker, co-founder of Chicken & Egg Pictures and Mapendo International Board Member.

Sasha was explaining to us the inspiration behind the founding of his organization, which protects and cares for at-risk refugees in Africa. In 2000, Sasha was working for the US government, helping to evacuate Congolese displaced persons. In a camp in Kinshasa, Sasha met Rose Mapendo and her nine children. During the sixteen months of her internment in a death camp, Rose’s husband was killed, she discovered that she was pregnant with twins, delivered those twins, and, through sheer will and resourcefulness, managed to keep her children alive.

Rose and her family were not on the list of people approved for evacuation. Due to complications with Congo’s government, the rescue team had explicit instructions not to add any other people to the final flight out. However, it was clear to the rescue team that the twins would die if left in the protection center. They were malnourished, sick and, at eight months old, weighed about eight pounds each. Knowing that adding people to the flight might jeopardize the entire mission, the team deliberated and finally made the decision to include Rose and her family on the evacuation. Mapendo was founded in the hopes that no others in need would be left off of a critical list.

Beth and I were riveted by Sasha’s account of Rose’s story. I could practically hear the wheels of Beth’s mind turning as she thought about the ways this story could make a fascinating and important film.

And then Sasha continued. “By the way,” he said, “although Rose was evacuated with nine children, she has a tenth. A daughter, Nangabire, was left behind.”

Beth and I looked at each other.

“They haven’t seen each other since Nangabire was four. That was twelve years ago.”

We looked at each other again.

“They are going to be reunited soon. Nangabire’s visa has finally been approved.”

We waited.

“We’re expecting the reunion to happen in the next two to three weeks.”

We knew we had found our story.

We have come to appreciate the power of serendipity over the course of making this film: that we happened to have that lunch and that conversation just three weeks prior to a reunion that had been in the making for years; that Wendy Ettinger was there when the idea was planted, placed her trust in us, and brought on Chicken & Egg Pictures funding and Executive Producing support in time for us to be able to shoot on such short notice; that the reunion took place in New York, rather than in Phoenix where the family lives, and so we were able to call on friends and colleagues to help out.

And we have also come to appreciate the good will, efforts, talents and ideas of those friends and colleagues: established professionals who have donated their time; interns eager to take on new challenges; family members and their incredible fortitude; our creative team, with their fresh perspectives and the passion and commitment they brought to our project. As we pulled together the final elements of the film, the credits list was a reflection and a celebration of the collaborative nature of this project.

And so, it is with gratitude to the forces of coincidence and the perspiration and inspiration of so many, that we head into the final days of our premiere. We hope that the ninety minutes of film these three and a half years have culminated in do justice to all the elements that went into their creation, and to the story of Rose Mapendo and her family.

We hope to see you on June 12th, 13th or 14th at Lincoln Center, or at another screening near you in the near future.