Persister: Films by women, about women speaking up and being heard
Luz, from the Emberá Chamí Indigenous community in Colombia, left her home territory for Bogotá when she discovered she had fallen victim to female genital mutilation at birth. The Emberá is one of the few communities in South America that still carries on the practice, a brutal byproduct of colonialism. Far from her family, Luz struggles to make her way in the relentless city, until she meets Claudia, a fellow Emberá Chamí and activist. Through the strength of their friendship, Claudia decides to travel to Luz’s home to start a dialogue with other Indigenous women and encourage them to make critical and urgent changes to end the practice of female genital mutilation. Through her intimate approaches to filming, director Priscila Padilla has crafted a deeply sensitive and breathtaking film that follows the women in their journey to break ties with colonialism and recover their ancestral wisdom of body–earth connection. Heather Haynes
Persister program presented in partnership with Oxfam Canada with the participation of the Government of Canada
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