Rwanda Film Festival 2013
Our Mothers, Our Heroes
Our Mothers, Our Heroes: Opening with Mama Africa, a documentary in tribute to Miriam Makeba (1932-2008)
Is our world misogynist? Is our perception of women preventing them from making an impact on society? What does it mean to be a female leader? Often relegated to play lesser roles in society, separated by class, access to education, gender roles and sexuality, women have been victimized, stereotyped and marginalized in the real world, as well as in the world of cinema. However, women have always played a critical role in changing societies and it is time for them to be recognized.
The role of women in our society has been mainly defined by men, and cinema is no exception. Though women have appeared in cinema for decades, taking on a variety of forms, from brilliantly layered characters to stereotypical victims, women were not the ones creating their images. Until now, men have told their stories from their own perspective.
Rwanda Film Festival’s 2013 theme, “Our Mothers, Our Heroes” serves as a unique platform to feature recent cinematographic creations, directed, written, or produced by women and creations that deal directly with the issue of women’s roles in society. Films of all genre and feature length will engage the audience in the deconstruction of clichés and stereotypes surrounding the role of women within our society. This year’s selection will provide a multiplicity of representations of women: resistant, resilient, emancipated and committed to writing their own pages of the history books.
(Source: Rwanda Film Festival programme)
Updated to include:
She is my mother, a short documentary film made by six girls in six hours during the workshop called Girls Make Movies organized at the Rwanda Film Festival.