Pathways
Real World
2008 - Present
Lead Researcher: Tessa Lewin
This project links talented young documentary filmmakers with academics from the Pathways consortium to collaborate on a series of shorts broadly exploring concepts around women’s empowerment.
Resources For This Project
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30%: Women And Politics In Sierra Leone
This film looks at the Sierra Leonean women's movement's campaign for increased participation for women in Sierra Leone politics and their aim to achieve legislation for a minimum 30% quota. The film explores this issue through the stories of Dr Bernadette Lahai of the Sierra Leone People's Party, Barbara Bangura, National Coordinator of the Women's Solidarity Support Group, and Salamatu Kamara, a prospective parliamentary candidate. …
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A Vida Politica - Christina
Christina is a member of the feminist theatre group Loucas de Pedra Lil s, who have been performing together for twenty years. The film follows Christina as she and the other Loucas perform a piece of street theatre on the march that takes place in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, on 28 September every year to commemorate the Latin American and Caribbean Day for the Decrminalisation of Abortion. Across the continent, abortion has become a huge political issue; in Brazil, the struggle has intensified as the traditional opponent of women's reproductive rights, the Catholic Church, has become ever more persistent and unscrupulous in its tactics. Using street theatre and skits at public events and in public spaces, the Loucas campaign on issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights, combining playful humour with powerful commentaries drawing attention to the deadly seriousness of the issues at stake. …
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A Vida Politica - Creuza Oliveira
Creuza is a former domestic worker and president of the National Federation of Domestic Workers. Put into domestic service without pay at the age of 10, Creuza received her first salary at 15 and suffered years of abusive treatment in the houses of her employers. According to the last census, Brazil has 8 million domestic workers, the majority of whom are black. Creuza has always felt it was wrong that domestic workers did not have the same rights as other workers. …
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A Vida Politica - Jane - Daspu
Jane is a model for the fashion label 'Daspu' (das = 'of'', pu - from puta = 'whores'), created by the NGO Davida, whose mission is to end discrimination against sex workers and secure their status as legitimate workers. She is a sex worker and a mother of three children, and she is openly HIV positive. The film follows her on a fashion shoot by one of Brazil's most prestigious fashion photographers. Sex work is not illegal in Brazil, but sex workers suffer stigma and discrimination. …
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A Vida Politica - Negra Jho
For Negra Jho, a hairdresser whose salon lies in the heart of the old centre of the city of Salvador - where more than 80% of the population are black - beauty is politics. In a context in which centuries of racism have shaped ideas of beauty, the politics of our hair gains new significance. Brazilian society has privileged images of white women as icons of beauty. Black women have grown up being told that their hair is ugly, and that beautiful hair is straight and smooth. …
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'Khul'
The film, which examines how the ancient Egyptian divorce law of khul’ is helping women in modern day Cairo to escape from abusive marriages, is directed by Lucy Bennett from Manifest Films. Forty-seven per cent of married women in Egypt are affected by domestic violence but whilst khul’ is a crucial law, it can come at a high price. Following the stories of three women, the film explores how khul’ has both helped and hindered them and asks what more now needs to be done. …
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Real World: Empowering Representations Of Women Through Film, IDS Bulletin, 43.5
This article makes an argument for the added value of the use of documentary film in development research communication. It draws broadly on the specific experience of the Real World film scheme developed by the Pathways of Women's Empowerment Research Programme Consortium and Creative England, to create empowering representations of women. It argues that both researchers and film-makers have much to gain by collaborating on the political project of co-crafting a visual argument, to create a nuanced and emotive end product. …
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Thorns And Silk
Directed by 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. …
