Film Festival 09 - Rough Aunties
Rough Aunties
UK 2008, 103m
Director: Kim Longinotto
Festivals: Amsterdam Documentary 2008; Sundance 2009
Kim Longinotto (Divorce Iranian Style, Sisters in Law) brings her
admiring observational eye to bear on a South African organisation
called Bobbi Bear, a collective of women, black and white, who
fight to repair the damage caused by child sexual abuse and ensure
that the perpetrators are brought to justice. The efforts of these
six 'rough aunties', some of whom have suffered abuse themselves,
go some way towards raising awareness that the 'macho South African
male' must be challenged. They are severely under-resourced, so
painfully aware that some of the children who come into their care
will find themselves back within the family folds where so many
crimes originate. Longinotto is a kind of aunty herself, someone
with whom these formidable women can be totally candid, staunch,
shattered, yet never completely daunted. A level of violence seems
to be part of ordinary life here, but despite scenes that make for
almost unbearable viewing, the film also tells a story of
empowerment engendered by community and shared experience.
In English and Zulu, with English subtitles
www.roughaunties.com/film
