EDMONTON—As 12-year-old Rosie Makore runs across the northern Tanzania Serengeti, she is risking her life and taking a chance she may never see her family again.

But she, along with other girls her age, is taking a stand against female genital mutilation (FGM), aided by fellow survivors of cutting.

Director Giselle Portenier’s film, In the Name of Your Daughter is making its North American debut at NorthwestFest (formerly Global Vision) in Edmonton on Sunday. The trailer for the film opens with Makore running, spliced with happier images of a community celebrating and dancing. Both Portenier, and a 26-year-old survivor of cutting, Yasmin Mumed, will be in attendance and speaking at the event.

“When young girls are educated about the lifelong harmful and devastating effects of genital mutilation they don’t want to go through it,” Portenier said. “Some of these girls try to talk to their parents and say, ‘please I don’t want to go through this.’”

All risk, no benefit

FGM can be classified in four groups: clitoridectomy where the clitoris is partially or fully removed; excision where the clitoris and labia minora are removed and the labia majora may also be removed; infibulation, where the vaginal opening is sealed by cutting and repositioning the labia minora or majora; and a fourth type where the genital area is pricked, pierced, incised, scraped or cauterized.

Girls in Tanzania as young as eight years old have the choice between being mutilated and remaining in their community, or running away with the possibility of never seeing their family again. There are no health benefits, but the risks of cutting are great, including severe pain, bleeding, infection, urinary and menstrual problems, shock, long-term psychological problems and death.

A hopeful film

Portenier said her film is not another film about African victims, but a celebration of “little African warriors.”

It is equally heart-wrenching and hopeful.

Despite the difficulty of the topic, she wanted to make a film people would feel comfortable watching. Since 2010, she has kept a Google alert for FGM and when she heard about the safe homes run by Rhobi Samwelly in Tanzania, Portenier knew she could make a hopeful film.

“Female genital mutilation is the most egregious human rights abuse perpetrated on girls and women in the world today,” she said. “It’s sexual violence in its extreme form and not enough people know about it.”

FGM is an abuse of fundamental human rights, Portenier said, but some people think because it is a cultural practice in some communities that it should be allowed to continue.

“By being so concerned about respecting the cultural sensitivities of the adults, we risk sacrificing the human rights of the children,” Portenier said. “I know for a fact that girls in Canada are being taken back to their home countries to undergo genital mutilation.”

Tool for change

Based on the government documents she has seen, she estimates there are 80,000 survivors of FGM in Canada, with thousands more girls living in Canada at risk.

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There are more than 200 million girls and women alive today who have undergone cutting, according to a report from the World Health Organization released in January and from data released by UNICEF.

She said there are no protocols in Canada to educate and protect children from the harms of FGM.

The practice transcends religion. Of the girls who show up at the safe houses in Tanzania, one-third are Christian, one-third are Muslim and one-third are from traditional faiths. There is also a branch of Judaism that practice FGM.

Portenier hopes her movie will be shown in schools across Canada and across Tanzania.

“I’m really hoping it will be a tool for change,” she said.

The film was funded partially by her own money. The initial filming costs were paid for by an Indiegogo campaign by more than 400 people in 30 countries.

Supporting indie filmmakers

NorthwestFest program director Guy Lavallee said at least half of the films in the now 11-day festival were submissions, including, In The Name Of Your Daughter.

“I was rather blown away by it and everyone on the screening committee who watched it had a similar reaction to it,” Lavallee said. “Then the fact that it was Canadian and was submitted to us was icing on the cake. That’s what we’re trying to celebrate.”

The more festivals filmmakers can get into, the better chance they can continue to make movies, Lavallee said adding film festivals are the new distribution method for independent cinema.

“Go to any multiplex this weekend, and sure there’s 18 screens, and no exaggeration, 12 of them are showing Avengers: Infinity War,” Lavallee said. “I have nothing against Avengers: Infinity War. Trust me, I love mainstream blockbuster movies. It’s harder for those smaller films to get into theatres anymore.”

In The Name Of Your Daughter will be playing following a short film Love Survives at Metro Cinema at 8712 109th St. at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

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