City of Joy
Directed by Madeleine Gavin
Democratic Republic of Congo | 2016 | Documentary | 74 min
Film Source: Film Sales Corp
New England premiere
Sponsor: The Caroline Baird Crichfield Fund for Women in Need
* Director Gavin and Christine Schuler-Deschryver in attendance – Sunday*
Also Showing Friday, October 27 at 4:45PM
This documentary manages to achieve the near impossible – exposing a painful, brutal truth while creating a feeling of hope and optimism in the audience. For 20 years, Congolese women have experienced rape as a weapon of war as rotating factions attempt to control their country and its mineral rights. Where do these women turn for help when their own communities turn them away? Three devoted pioneers (2016 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Denis Mukwege, women’s rights activist Christine Schuler-Deschryver and radical feminist Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues) come together to create a place, City of Joy , that hopes to turn the women’s pain into power. Madeleine Gavin, a successful narrative film editor, expands her role to include both director and editor of this powerful portrait of a special school that aims to transform the lives of its students and put graduates up in a position to lead their troubled country in a new direction. The audience is given access to the journey of City of Joy’s first class. Watch as they move past pain, through self-discovery and into empowerment. You will be cheering for the women, the founders and the power of the human spirit. ~JS
