Persister: Women speaking up and being heard

Four young women with an ocean between them come together via video letters to connect and share life stories—everything from their difficulties with dislocation and poverty to the wonders of motherhood. Displaced by fire, Karoli and Christy are Indigenous Shipibo filmmakers from Lima, Peru. Khaldiya and Marah are Syrian filmmakers living as refugees in Jordan. The four women navigate their personal transitions from childhood to motherhood, sharing an authentic, distinctive look at the community that surrounds them and the social issues they confront. This friendship and collaboration results in an inspiring cinematic journey and despite diverse struggles and loss, they learn to understand and care for one another across the ocean. Finding connection across what at first seems an insurmountable divide, sharing joys and sorrows, their video letters are intimate and surprising, expressing a touching simplicity and veracity. Darlene Naponse

Co-presented with Pioneering Women

Persister program presented in partnership with Oxfam Canada

MEDIA COVERAGE

• Women and Hollywood - INTERVIEW with directors Khaldiya Amer Ali, Marah Mohammad Alkhateeb, Karoli Bautista Pizarro and Christy Cauper Silvano