The Rewind Remix Reclaim Festival took a radical take on women’s rights with two critical documentaries, Selbé (One Among Many) 1982 and Mi Aporte (My Contribution) 1969
Selbé (One Among Many) is an ethnographic documentary that uses one Senegalese women’s experience to comment widely on gender and society.
Directed by Safi Faye, this documentary hits hard as disgust is inevitable towards the irresponsibility of the men. One can’t help but sympathize with Selbé and the women in the community as they partake different jobs with miniscule income; from salt mining to pottery.
This unfortunately goes a notch higher as the one job that Selbé’s husband has, ploughing, which is critically essential in feeding the family, is late to do so, not conscious of the rain season closing in and one again making Selbé and her eight children suffer the scorching sun doing his task as he idols around with the buddies, tobacco in hand.
The cinematography doesn’t shy away from shining a spotlight on the harsh living conditions Selbé and the neighboring communities face, coupled up with long takes that draw you in to the subjects’ lives.
Mi Aporte (My Contribution), an illustration of the difficulties women encounter when they seek to achieve economic integration and equality with men in a country at the height of revolution
A self-reflective, critical and direct documentary, Mi Aporte, directed by Sara Gomez intrigued me. Going in, I expected the subjects to be all in support with each other but the crux of the issue, issues really beg to differ
The age differences cast a light at the opinions of the younger women who most of them don’t want the conventional family structure even though they’re free to pursue professional endeavors, and the elderly who are critical of the former and express their emphasis on a balance and deeming the former as self-subservient
The aforementioned made me take a second after the credits rolled, an appreciation to a piece of media that makes one think extremely critically in the quest to understand the Federation of Cuban Women and women’s rights in general
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