Ep. 128: Movies As A Form of Activism

Guest: Giselle Portenier, director

How can movies advocate for social change?

Giselle Portenier is producing a documentary on the "Bravest Girls in the World," which is about girls who run through the jungle, across the desert, evading predators of all sorts along the way to escape a ritual that mutilates them and could kill them. She says, "It's a complete violation of their human rights."

Portenier is working to tell the story of girls who are running from genital mutilation, a custom that is imposed upon them by their cultures and their families. "It's not just a women's issue, because the girls get married to men and when they do get married to men, they're much more likely to die in childbirth, they're much more likely not to enjoy sex. And it's also the men that are demanding it be done in many of the cultures. A lot of FGM is performed for financial reasons because if a man wants a cut girl, and he has to pay a bride price for the girl, he's prepared to pay a higher bride price for girls that have been cut."

You can support Giselle’s production by contributing to https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/in-the-name-of-your-daughter/x/7718625#/