LIFE Film Initiative against Gender-based Violence

28/07/2022

Congratulations to the Class of 2022. We can't wait to see your names on the big (and small) screens! Thank you to Mr Andile Nene (MICT Seta: Regional Manager), our Keynote Speaker Mr Oyama Vanto ( MBDA Project Manager: Creative & Cultural Industries) and Master of Ceremonies Mr Luvuyo Belu. See you at the movies. MICT SETA

05/07/2022

21/02/2022

10/12/2021

Meet Ms Shanga Karim, panellist at our live stream from 16:00 to 17:00 today (SA Time) on the Impact of Storytelling on GBV issues, from an international perspective.

Shanga Karim is a Vancouver Local coordinator for The Shoe Project, providing opportunities to refugee women in Canada. She is a contributing author to the Global Writing Project book, "Geographies of the Heart Book”, stories from newcomers to Canada, in collaboration with the University of the Fraser Valley. She is currently working on a non-fiction book, sponsored by the BC Arts Council. Shanga has worked as a journalist and women’s rights advocate, and was editor- in-chief for a national newspaper in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq, before leaving her home country. She holds a B.A. degree in Media Studies. She worked on the issues of honor killing, child marriage, and female ge***al mutilation, all of which are prevalent in her home country.

In 2015, Shanga sought asylum in Canada, leaving her life and family behind in Kurdistan in order to embark upon starting a new life, with unique challenges ahead and not knowing how she would support herself. She has a passion for creative writing, using her voice and her Canadian experience to help immigrant and refugee women.

10/12/2021

Meet Ms Roopashree Jeevaji, panellist on our live stream from 16:00 to 17:00 today SA time (Friday, 10 December).

Roopashree Jeevaji is an actor/writer living in Los Angeles. Roopa was born in India and raised in Mumbai. At a young age, she trained in Bharata Natyam, a classical Indian dance form and her interest in acting developed right after.

After moving to the United States to attend college, Roopa enrolled at the ‘Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute’ where she was awarded a scholarship. She has since appeared in numerous films such as Taco Shop (with Eric Roberts and Tyler Posey) and Planes to name a few. Her television credits include NBC’s Outsourced, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NCIS and 9-1-1. In 2013, Roopa acted and produced the film In Search of America, Inshallah which has screened in over fifty film festivals all over the world. She also received the Best Actress Award at the California Women’s Film Festival for it.

Roopa’s screenplay In The Face of Courage was selected (among thousands of submissions) as a semi-finalist in The Writers Lab – 2019, a program supported by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. She is also the recipient of the Founder’s Award at the Story Summit founded by David Paul Kirkpatrick.

10/12/2021

Meet Ms Heidi Basch-Harod, facilitator and panellist at our live stream from 16:00 to 17:00 on the impact of storytelling (international perspective).

Heidi Basch-Harod is the Executive Director of Women's Voices Now (WVN), a Los Angeles based non-profit organization that uses film to drive positive social change that advances girls' and women's rights globally, and the founding editor of WVN’s digital publication, The WVoice. Heidi is a producer of the award-winning documentary Honor Diaries, and also of the acclaimed short film In Search of America, Inshallah. In 2021 she became an Emmy Award winning producer for the series, Girls' Voices Now with Here TV. Heidi is a scholar of the modern history of the Middle East and North Africa, specializing in women's movements of the region. She is a published author, both online and in print. Heidi lives in Los Angeles, CA, with her family.

10/12/2021

Remember to tune in at 14:00 today (Friday, 10 December) for the screening of two international short films that are testament to the power of film to change the world for the better. The films have been shared with us by Women's Voices Now - a Los Angeles-based non-profit organisation that amplifies the voices of all women by promoting the free expression of women's struggles for civil, economic, political, and gender rights worldwide.

You will "meet" the Executive Director of Women's Voices Now, Heidi Basch-Harod, during our online stream from 16:00 to 17:00 (South African Time), as well as Shanga Karim (Women’s Rights Activist and journalist who has written about ge***al mutilation in Kurdistan) and Roopashni Jeevani (Co-Producer and lead actress: In Search of America Inshallah).

If you care about film and GBV, these are sessions not to be missed.

Handful of Ash
Director: Nabaz Ahmad

A film that changed the law in Kurdistan. Handful of Ash is about Iraqi-Kurdish women and girls talking about their traumatic experience with ge***al mutilation. In this documentary, we learn about the underlying beliefs and the serious consequences of this practice.

In Search of America Inshallah
Director: Danish Renzu

A dependent Pakistani housewife comes to America to find her husband but is instead forced to find her emancipation.

09/12/2021

Emerging filmmakers are enjoying the open air live streaming of LIFE GBV at The Media Workshop Film School in Gqeberha. We thank Spar Eastern Cape for generously donating lunch hampers and t-shirts to all attendees.

08/12/2021

Please tune in tomorrow morning from 10:00 until 12:00 for another exciting programme, including panel discussions with Alison Botha, the subject of the film "Alison" that was screened today, as well as with Nicola Hanekom, the director of "Cut-out Girls".
You can view these sessions on the National Film and Video Foundation’s YouTube page, https://www.youtube.com/c/NFVFSouthAfrica/videos, as well as on the LIFE page, https://www.facebook.com/lavuthibhayi/.

08/12/2021

Stay tuned for our online film screenings, featuring full length films by some of South Africa's top production companies, as well as short films by high school learners and emerging filmmakers:

The line-up from 14:00 to 16:00 includes:

- That Room - A twelve-year-old boy is brought by his aunt to a modelling agency, but all is not what it seems.
- Izinqi (Audience Choice Award for Best Film 2019) - A man is haunted by the women he has abused.
- Cut-Out Girls - A story of how six young women’s lives are altered by the actions of two aspiring sportsmen.

08/12/2021

08/12/2021