As Egyptians revolted against their president in Cairo’s Tahrir Square last spring, Peggy Goldwyn knew she had to find some Arabic films for her annual Family of Women Film Festival.
“Everybody was so interested in what was happening and wondering how women were affected; I knew we had to have films from that area,” she said.
Goldwyn went to work and learned that Cairo was the equivalent of India’s Bollywood, serving as the hub of Arabic filmmaking. And she was able to come up with a few Arabic films for the festival, which will be held March 2-4 at the Sun Valley Opera House.
Among them: “Cairo 6.7.8,” a film about three women who take charge of their lives in the face of sexual harassment prevalent in Egypt.
“One of the episodes takes place in Tahrir Square. And it’s very funny at times, particularly when the men of Cairo become panicked at the thought that women vigilantes are taking revenge on the gropers on buses,” Goldwyn said.
She said it was her son Peter, a motion picture producer and distributor, who found her a much-copied DVD of the film at the Cannes Film Festival and Market. Getting a clean copy of the film was another matter, however, since it is against the law to send a DVD out of Egypt. Goldwyn was finally able to obtain from a distribution company in Amsterdam a copy which, she said, may have been smuggled in someone’s luggage.
Goldwyn started the festival five years ago to bring attention to the lives of women in the countries where the United Nations Population Fund works. UNFPA provides women’s health care, AIDS prevention and treatment and promotes the rights of women in more than 150 countries.
Some of the films have been depressing as they’ve dealt with subjects such as sex trafficking. But others are triumphant.
“Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” for instance, followed women of Liberia who united to overturn a dictator. And “Salaam Dunk,” which will be shown this year, follows a group of Iraqi girls who show up to their first basketball practice at an American university in northern Iraq in high heels. By the second year they haven’t won a single game. But they’re determined to win a game for their coach before he must return to the U.S.
Stephanie Freid-Perenchio, who displays humanitarian photographs she’s shot around the world in her SFP gallery in Ketchum, says the visual impact of photographs and films can spur change.
“Raising awareness through film and photography of what is truly happening on the ground in these countries will encourage small steps and individual success stories,” she said.
Ketchum resident Gemma Daggatt said she values the film festival because she believes it’s important for her 8- and 10-year-old daughters to understand what it’s like for women in the rest of the world.
“Even as tough as things are these days, we have an opportunity for education and many other wonderful things,” she said. “I love how this festival brings in directors and producers, as well — we’re so lucky in the Wood River Valley to be exposed to these amazing people. And I love the fact that the people who come to the festival have such a curiosity.”
No comments:
Post a Comment