Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, I Want A Wedding Dress and Ungochani were three of the films recently screened at the Women’s Law Centre in Harare as part of a new film based gender rights series initiative between Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe (WFOZ) and The Women’s Law Centre. The collaboration started in February this year and will continue in the next semester.
Congolese documentary Greatest Silence (76 min, 2007, directed by Lisa F. Jackson), looks at the lives of thousands of women and girls who have been systematically kidnapped, raped, mutilated and tortured by soldiers from both foreign militias and the Congolese army.
Local production by Nyerai Films, I Want A Wedding Dress (88 min, Zimbabwe 2010), interrogates the choices made by women in their everyday lives especially concerning their sexuality. Ungochani, (42min, Zimbabwe 2010) by Porcia Mudavanhu, is a documentary film investigating the different views of the church, community, gays and lesbians about homosexuality.
Commenting on the screenings Olaf Koschke of Nyerai Films says the films were taken from previous editions of the International Images for Women (IIFF), which is sub-Saharan Africa’s only gender-centered film festival and shown at the Women’s Law Centre regional course for master’s students in law.
States Koschke: “From the beginning on, the students and lecturers found film an extremely powerful medium in communication, especially on the issues involved. (Report by Martin Chemhere)
