Brad MacIntosh, Vice Chair of SAFER (Social Aid for the Elimination of Rape) and a researcher at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital introduces tonight’s film, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo.
Dr. MacIntosh has been working since 2006 to end sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) through the purchase and donation of supplies to Panzi Hospital in South Kivu province not far from the Rwanda border. The hospital is the only one in the region that performs fistula repair operations, a unfortunate aftermath of violent sexual assaults.
Lisa F. Jackson’s film documents the uncountable casualties of the brutal war that has been raging in the DRC : the many tens of thousands of women and girls who have been systematically kidnapped, raped, mutilated and tortured by soldiers from both foreign militias and the Congolese army. Jackson spent 2006 in the war zones of eastern DRC documenting the tragic plight of women and girls in that country’s intractable conflict. She was afforded privileged access to not only the grotesque realities of life in Congo (including interviews with self-confessed rapists) but also to examples of resiliency, resistance, courage and grace.
The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo received a “Special Jury Award” at The 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo follows a screening of the documentary film, Tapologo, at 9 PM at Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario. For more information or to purchase tickets, please call the TIFFG Box Office at 416-968-FILM or toll-free 1-877-968-FILM. Tickets can also be purchased online at tiff.net/cinematheque or in person at the theatre.
