Maïmouna Doucouré talks about her film Mignonnes | Cuties (2020)

Maïmouna Doucouré talks about her film Mignonnes | Cuties

Mignonnes (its English title Cuties) by Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré, premiered at the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section of the Sundance Film Festival in 2020, winning the Directing Award.

Synopsis
Eleven-year-old pre-teen Amy discovers in her new elementary school a group of dancers called: “Les Mignonnes”. Fascinated, she begins a sexy dance, the twerk, hoping to join their band and escape a family upheaval.

The U.S-generated controversy around the film moved the filmmaker to proactively counter the whirl of rightwing untruths and conspiracy-theories by people who have not seen the film, describing it as inciting child pornography and pedophilia. Already on the screens in France since August with no fanfare, it is set to be released in the United States by Netflix in September, against a campaign to remove the film from its streaming service.

The U.S.-made controversy was self-induced by Netflix itself, choosing to promote the U.S. release with a poster, very different from the French one, of the young protagonists scantily-clothed in sexually provocative poses.

One of her discussions of the film and why she made it appears in the Washington Post Opinions section. She introduces it by talking about what triggered her interest in the subject.

I was at a community event in Paris a few years ago when a group of young girls came on the stage dressed and dancing in a very risque way. They were only 11 years old, and their performance was shocking. Curious to understand what was happening on that platform, I spent the next year and a half interviewing more than a hundred 10- and 11-year-old girls across the city.

The result was my movie "Mignonnes," or "Cuties" in English. I wanted to make a film in the hope of starting a conversation about the sexualization of children.

Follow the link to the the entire text: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/cuties-director-maimouna-doucoure-why-i-made-the-film/2020/09/15/7e0ee406-f78b-11ea-a275-1a2c2d36e1f1_story.html? 

ALSO SEE: Why I made cuties. Interview with Maïmouna Doucouré

15 Sept. : International Day of Democracy | Journée internationale de la démocratie

15 Sept. : International Day of Democracy | Journée internationale de la démocratie

Source: https://www.un.org/fr/observances/democracy-day

Democracy
The International Day of Democracy provides an opportunity to review the state of democracy in the world. Democracy is as much a process as a goal, and only with the full participation of and support by the international community, national governing bodies, civil society and individuals, can the ideal of democracy be made into a reality to be enjoyed by everyone, everywhere.

The values of freedom, respect for human rights and the principle of holding periodic and genuine elections by universal suffrage are essential elements of democracy.  In turn, democracy provides the natural environment for the protection and effective realization of human rights. These values are embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and further developed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which enshrines a host of political rights and civil liberties underpinning meaningful democracies.

Women and Democracy
Democracy needs women to be truly democratic, and women need democracy if they are to change the systems and laws that exclude them. The role of women in democratic processes is emphasized in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women…

…The UN’s approach to support women’s effective political participation is to make local and national elections free and fair for women, to support women’s civil society organizations, to build accountability for women’s rights in public institutions, and to support women political leaders.

La démocratie
La Journée internationale de la démocratie est l'occasion de réexaminer l'état de la démocratie dans le monde. La démocratie est un processus autant qu'un objectif, et seule la pleine participation et l'appui de la communauté internationale, des organes de gouvernance nationaux, de la société civile et des individus, permettront de faire de l'idéal démocratique une réalité universelle.

La liberté, le respect des droits de l'homme et le principe de la tenue d'élections honnêtes et périodiques au suffrage universel sont des valeurs qui constituent des éléments essentiels de la démocratie. A son tour, la démocratie devient un environnement naturel pour la protection et la réalisation effective des droits de l'homme. Ces valeurs sont incarnées par la Déclaration universelle des droits de l'homme  et développées plus avant dans le Pacte international relatif aux droits civils et politiques qui consacre toute une série de droits politiques et de libertés civiles qui sont les piliers d'une véritable démocratie.

Les femmes et la démocratie
La démocratie exige que les intérêts des citoyens soient entendus et fassent l’objet de délibérations et de textes législatifs. Les femmes représentent la moitié de la population mondiale et, de ce fait, leur voix devrait être entendue dans le processus démocratique. La démocratie a besoin des femmes pour être véritablement démocratique, et les femmes ont besoin de la démocratie pour pouvoir changer les systèmes qui les empêchent, et empêchent les sociétés dans l’ensemble, de réaliser l’égalité…

…Les programmes d'ONU-Femmes sur le leadership et la participation des femmes s’inspirent d’une longue tradition d'engagements internationaux en faveur de la représentation des femmes. Ils aident notamment les femmes souhaitant exercer un mandat politique à développer leurs compétences. L’entité des Nations Unies consacrée à l’égalité des sexes et à l’autonomisation des femmes milite également en faveur de nouvelles législations nationales et de réformes constitutionnelles garantissant le juste accès des femmes à la vie politique, que ce soit comme électrices, candidates, élues ou membres de la fonction publique.

16th Mobile Film Festival (2020) : Women's Empowerment

16th Mobile Film Festival (2020) :

Women's Empowerment

PRESS RELEASE

We are launching the call for films for the 16th Mobile Film Festival, whose theme this year is Women's Empowerment

www.mobilefilmfestival.com 

Through this feminist theme, it is the point of view of women on women and female directors that we wish to support.

Our format is pretty unique 1 Mobile, 1 Minute, 1 Film and the call for films is open until October 20, 2020.

We are supported this year by UN Women, YouTube, BNP Paribas, the Women's Forum, Simone Media and Sens Critique and many NGOs around the world.

The jury chaired by the famous French director Agnès Jaoui, will award 7 prizes, among them 2 grants to produce film of 23.000 $ each.

Through this edition, we are looking for committed and militant films.

Here are our social accounts in English.

https://www.youtube.com/mobilefilmfestival

https://www.facebook.com/MobileFilmFestival

https://www.instagram.com/mobilefilmfest

https://twitter.com/MobileFilmFest

https://www.linkedin.com/company/mobile-film-festival

Léa Bouchier Di Benedetto

Communication Assistant

Mobile Film Festival 

Durban FilmMart Virtual Edition 2020 : "Africa's Future is Female - Women Filmmakers on Centring Women in our Narratives"

Durban FilmMart Virtual Edition 2020

7 September 2020 Durban FilmMart South Africa discussion:

"Africa's Future is Female - Women Filmmakers on Centring Women in our Narratives" 

with

Busi Ntintili, Lala Tuku, Gugu Zuma-Ncube

The discussion is paired with two "hangout sessions":

 - SWIFT - Sisters Working in Film and Television: addressing structural inequality in Africa's audiovisual sector

 - Ladima Foundation: building a safer industry

Writer and producer Awa Farah: Somalinimo, Young, British and Somali at Cambridge

Writer and producer Awa Farah: Somalinimo, Young, British and Somali at Cambridge

See the film Somalinimo by Alice Aedy, produced and written by Awa Farah: 

https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2020/sep/02/somalinimo-somali-culture-blackness-and-islam-at-cambridge-university

Interview by Lindsay Poulton and Jess Gormley

"Somalinimo: young, gifted and Somali... and at Cambridge"

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/sep/02/somalinimo-young-gifted-and-somali-and-at-cambridge-university-documentary

Writer and producer Awa Farah describes her collaboration with film-maker Alice Aedy to express her experiences as a British-Somali woman at Cambridge University in this new documentary

Image: The cast of Cambridge students on the set of Somalinimo. Photograph: Alice Aedy/Girls on Film