Two Latin American documentary films, Argentina’s Primas by Laura Bari and Brazil’s Faces of Harassment by Paula Sacchetta, are currently available for streaming in Women Make Movies’ Virtual Film Festival, created to commemorate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month and highlight the new releases in the transnational feminist film collection of the New York-based distribution company.
A humanistic exploration of familial love, creativity, and courage in the wake of sexual violence, Primas is an evocative and poetic portrait of two Argentine teenage cousins who come of age together as they overcome the heinous acts of violence that interrupted their childhoods. When Rocío was 10 years old, she was dragged from her bike by a stranger, raped, set on fire and left for dead. Now a teenager, she still grapples with memories of the nightmarish assault that left her body scarred.
Together with her cousin Aldana, who was sexually abused for years by her own father, she lives, laughs and shares her story. Traveling through Argentina and Montreal, the two cousins embark upon a program of theater, dance, and circus that helps them process complex emotions. Little by little, they manage to rebuild the lives that were so brutally stolen from them and free themselves from the shadows of their past. Primas is a moving tribute to the deep strength of resilient women.
Faces of Harassment / Precisamos Falar do Assédio is an experiment in storytelling about trauma. When the hashtag #MyFirstHarassment swept across Brazil, it showed not only the widespread experience of sexual harassment and assault, but a widespread hunger to bring it out of the shadows. Faces of Harassment amplifies this movement, by opening space for women to speak their own truth. The film was shot in a mobile storytelling van, parked in rich and poor neighborhoods alike across São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and open to any woman. The van was a free, autonomous space, where women spoke to the camera directly, no interviewer or other influence present.
Faces of Harassment offers an honest and unflinching look at the scourge of sexual harassment and assault - and at the radical possibilities for dignity and healing that can happen when women are free to speak completely for themselves.
Both films, with other international titles are available throughout March. The festival attendees will receive free access to select films about women from around the globe. Click here to register.
