Pathways News
Real World
The two documentary directors, Katrina Mansoor and Paulina Tervo, selected under the Real World scheme (jointly organised between Pathways and Screen South) completed their filming at the end of 2008. The films were premiered in London on Monday 9 March at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) as part of the annual International Women’s Film Festival - Bird’s Eye View. For more information see IDS News. See also Rebecca Frankel's (former Editor of FourDocs) blog for the Birds Eye View Festival at http://www.birds-eye-view.co.uk/news/2009/03/08/a-litte-more-info-on-real-world-films/
Following the success of the Real World scheme films, Screen South and Pathways are again looking for an innovative documentary filmmaker to make a 20-minute short documentary film, along with a three minute and a thirty second film during 2009. Details of the scheme and guidelines can be downloaded here: Real World Guidelines 2009 (pdf file 118KB). The deadline for applications was the beginning of June and has now closed - more information on Real World 2009 will be available soon.
A Vida Politica - Kat Mansoor
A series of creative films exploring the activism of four Brazilian women, as they demonstrate innovative ways of bringing hidden issues into the political public domain.
Each film marks the activism as its key driving element. Stylistically, the films capture the point of view and reality for our shape shifting activists. Each focusing on the way that the activists employ their activism, through Image, Voice, Art and Body. The journey for the viewer is to understand the journey from being inactive and invisible to active. These short films capture key moments in the lives of activists who take their personal ‘activism’ into the public arena.
See full synopsis of the films (pdf file 18 KB)
Thorns and Silk - Paulina Tervo
Thorns and Silk tells four unusual stories from Palestine, featuring women who work in jobs that are conventionally associated with men in their society. All four of them have the courage to break traditional rules, though not without challenges.
We dip into the life of a wedding filmmaker, who films women-only weddings in the most conservative part of Palestine; hear the stories of a female taxi driver who works in the Israeli parts of Jerusalem; discover a young police trainee at the Palestinian Police Academy and learn about the hardships in occupied Nablus from a mother who takes on male roles in order to keep her family toilet paper factory going.
See full synopsis of the films (pdf file 14 KB)
Links: SEE Festival 2007; IDS News, Screen South Links to Katrina and Paulina's previous work: Katrina Mansoor and Paulina Tervo. Also see more about the Real World scheme on our annual report 07/08 web pages.
16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence
25 November to 10 December is a period of annual mobilisation aimed at heightening global awareness of violence against women. As part of their 50:50 initiative, Open Democracy are providing coverage of this period, including articles and a multi-voiced blog. As part of this feature, see article by Takyiwaa Manuh on 'African Women and Domestic Violence' .
The Gambaga 'Witches' Camp
To mark the end of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, Tessa Lewin discusses a new Pathways supported project which deals with gender violence in the north of Ghana. Journalist and filmmaker Yaba Badoe is making a documentary film investigating violence against women thought to be witches. See IDS News...
VII Annual Encampment of Women Rural Workers and Indigenous Women in Bahia, Brazil
By Claire Cesareo-Silva
Anthropology Ph.D. Candidate, Columbia University
Professor of Anthropology, Saddleback College
At the closing ceremony of the VII Annual Encampment of Women Rural Workers and Indigenous Women, organized primarily by the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (MST) or Landless Workers Movement, a woman dressed in a red evening gown and carrying an infant wrapped in the MST flag, which she then handed to her male partner, sang the words that seemed to epitomize the meaning of this week long event for many of the women there:
Photo/Claire Cesareo-Silva
I am a warrior,
But I am also a queen.
You too are a queen
In the reign of our history.
Every female warrior is a queen;
A queen of all the warriors.
This was a week in which over a thousand women rural workers throughout the state of Bahia, Brazil, gathered to share their experiences in the struggle for land and in the struggle against all forms of violence but especially domestic violence; to rejuvenate and replenish themselves for another year of battle against the power structures; and to remind themselves that, as women, they need to demand to be treated with respect by both their colleagues in struggle and by society at large.
As part of what the MST refers to as mística or mysticism, this ceremony served to demonstrate and celebrate the women’s faith in the possibility of change and in the creation of a world that is just, harmonious, and plentiful. Despite the hardships that many of these women face in their daily lives, through mística, which is a component of all MST gatherings, they constantly evoke their many victories and the righteousness of their cause. If these women left the encampment with nothing else, they all took with them a renewed sense of purpose and commitment.
Every year, coinciding with the week of International Women’s Day, women from the MST meet in Salvador, the capital of the state. This year the gathering was expanded to include women from two other organizations: Movement of Encamped and Settled Workers (CETA) and the Indigenous Women’s Movement. Making conscious links outside the movement as well, the MST also works closely with the Federal University of Bahia and its women’s studies program, the Núcleo de Estudos Interdisciplinares Sobre a Mulher (NEIM), in the organization of the event. Notable as well was the presence of two indigenous women from Bolivia, who shared their experiences with agrarian reform and argued that the problems facing the landless in Brazil are indeed the same problems that the landless face the world over. The conference was organized around two themes: the ending of violence, beginning with domestic violence but also generalized to the other forms of violence that affect rural workers in their struggle for land, and food sovereignty, particularly the need to break the reliance on international capital from debt to genetically-modified seeds.
Arriving by the busload late into the evening on the first day of the conference, women from the different regions of Bahia, as well as a few men, set up camp throughout the buildings and grounds of the old national petroleum company (Petrobras) complex. Women coordinated the event while the men ostensibly did the cooking and the dishwashing (although in reality, the chores seemed to be shared and many women could also be seen carrying buckets of water and washing dishes at the main water tank). The cultivation of female leadership is, in fact, one of the key principles of the MST platform, and all local groups must include female as well as male coordinators.
Photo/Claire Cesareo-Silva
In addition to the focus on the two main themes, there was a day of smaller workshops that included topics as diverse as permaculture techniques, capoeira (the Brazilian martial art and dance form), body movement, AIDS awareness, belly dancing, sexual tourism, the women Rastafarian movement, and dream analysis. The women actively participated in these workshops and the halls of the building resounded with laughter, music, and introspective dialogue.
During the encampment, the women also traveled to the state offices to meet with officials from the new Worker’s Party (PT) government of Jacques Wagner, elected governor of the state in October of 2006. There they presented their demands, dealing with issues related to agrarian reform, women’s health, job creation, agroecology, and education. Primary among these demands was the need for an acceleration of the disappropriation of unproductive land and the granting of this land to the landless of Brazil.
In the afternoon of March 8, International Women’s Day and the final day of the gathering, the women took to the streets and joined a larger demonstration for women’s rights in Brazil, particularly for the legalization of abortion and greater representation in public office, as well as another demonstration organized to protest the Brazilian visit of U.S. President George W. Bush. The women of the MST were indeed the largest and most organized contingent in the march, confirming once again their supreme reign as warriors for social justice in Brazil.
See also What Does Empowerment Mean to You? Andrea Cornwall's comments from the annual Movimento sem Terra women's gathering in Bahia, Brazil
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