UNWATCHABLESign the Petition
- SAVE THE CONGO!
- PRESENT A
- BLACK JACK FILMS & DARKFIBRE FILMS
- PRODUCTION
- “UNWATCHABLE”
- THEA WELLBAND
- GUY OLIVER-WATTS
- ANGELA DIXON
- KYRANA SHEA
- DANNY KENNEDY
- JAMES ALEXANDER
- MICHAEL LINDALL
- DANNY KENNEDY
- JOHN RACKHAM
- PETE GARRET
- ANDREW MCHALE
- PRODUCTION DESIGNER
- GUY THOMPSON
- CASTING
- CHRISTINE ARTON
- BTS
- FATRAT
- VIDEO HOSTING
- ROCKABOX MEDIA
- DIGITAL STRATEGY
- ROBBIE TINGEY
- JON BAINS
- POWER OF N
- WEBSITE
- PHENOTYPE
- SFX
- RUSHES
- DIGITAL INTERMEDIATES
- ASCENT 142
- ABSOLUTE POST
- FRAMESTORE
- COMPANY3
- COSTUME DESIGNER
- JO THOMPSON
- TELECINE
- SIMON BOURNE
- SOUND DESIGN
- JOE MOUNT
- NICK LOFTING
- TITLES
- JUSTIN BLAMPIED
- 2ND UNIT DIRECTOR
- MARC WOLFF
- ORIGINAL MUSIC
- DAVID ARNOLD
- CINEMATOGRAPHY
- MICHAEL BONVILLIAN
- FILM EDITOR
- NICK LOFTING
- EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
- JON BAINS
- BRADLEY WOODUS
- PRODUCERS
- TESS MITCHELL & MARC HAWKER
- WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY
- DARKFIBRE
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A DISSENTING VIEW
Is your mobile phone rape free?
I wish I could have made that title up – but I didn’t. That was Save the Congo, who basically just directly equated cell phone purchases to rape. QED.
And they did this how? Through shock and awe: `Unwatchable‘ is a film they just released in which a gang of British soldiers attacks an upper-class white family in the Cotswolds. Young women are raped. Men are shot. Gonads are severed and fed to survivors.
No, this isn’t a second-rate Michael Haneke knockoff, but it feels like it. It’s pretty awful, and apparently based on a true story. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean that mobile phones are the main drivers of rape in the DRC or that kneejerk legislation like the Dodd-Frank bill makes sense. We need intelligent discussion to work our way through these problems – I don’t see any room for shock tactics like this.
People who approach debate like this are absolute nutters and should be kept as far away from the discourse as possible.
>via:http://aidthoughts.org/?p=2905
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WHY WE MADE THIS
Unwatchable is an independent campaign produced by a wide array of individuals with support from Save the Congo.
We know we’ve made something which many are going to find disturbing and thought it was important to explain why we went to such lengths. The issue that hundreds of thousands are targeted by weaponised rape as a tactic of destroying communities to control mines has been with us for over a decade and still continues.
There are many organisations trying to support the victims, stop the trade and bring the perpetrators to justice. However, these organisations aren’t in the position to show the truth of the situation. If you are angry after watching the film, direct your anger at the electronics manufacturers who have historically turned a blind eye to where their minerals come from so our phones can vibrate, and the EU who have known about the issue for years but still haven’t put into place any legislation to help the situation.
When we discovered what was happening we got angry and ultimately that is why we made this.
GO HERE TO CONTINUE READING ABOUT WHY AND HOW THE MOVIE WAS MADE.
>via: http://www.unwatchable.cc/the-true-story/why-we-made-this/
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MASIKA
Unwatchable is based on the true story of Masika, a middle class business woman who was happily married with four children. In 1998 her family was attacked by soldiers. Her story is one of hundreds of thousands from the Congo.
Masika in her own words
“I heard intense fighting, alot of guns firing, then they broke into my house. The Armed men looted everything “Now we have taken everything we are going to kill you.” They took my husband and started to cut him with a knife. We were in the bedroom and my children were in the other room. He was talking as they cut his feet off, he was still talking as they started to cut though his stomach. He stopped talking when they got to his heart. Then they cut off his penis and put it aside.
I begged and pleaded with them, one turned to me and said ‘Mama, have you ever eaten chewing gum?”. I was confused, I thought, of course I’ve eaten chewing gum. He took my husbands penis and chopped it into pieces and forced me to eat it and chew it slowly. When i refused, they slashed my face – i have now got so many scars all over my body.
They told me if i did not finish they would chop me up and kill me the same way they killed my husband. When I finished, they threw me on top of my husbands body and started to rape me. I had counted up to 22 men when I heard my two girls scream from the other room.
I had seen what they done to my husband, but when I heard my little girls scream I could not bare it any more. I knew they were being raped. I blacked out.
I don’t know how i got to the hospital. I was comatose for 6 months. I didn’t know what had happened to me or that my husband was dead. I came home to find my daughters were pregnant from the rapes. It wasn’t until my youngest told me that I remembered what happened to my husband and our family. Every day I thought about my options and often wanted to end my life, but then i think- there are so many women like me who need my help and that keeps me alive.
I will not stop helping women who have gone through what I went through until we can make it stop.”
Masika has since gone back into conflict zones and carried over 200 people on her back to safety, She has helped over 5000 women and children and turned her home into a support centre for victims of sexual violence. She has been raped a number of times since due to her vocal protests. She says she wont stop speaking out and helping women and children until the conflict stops.
Masika is part of SFVS (Synergie des Femmes pour les Victimes de Violences Sexuelles) which is a platform of 35 local organizations in DRC working to prevent sexual violence, to assist survivors and to persecute perpetrators. Through collaborative action, Synergy aims to empower women and advocate for national judicial reform. This story has been explored in a new documentary by Fiona Lloyd Davies of Studio 9 Films. The trailer can be viewed below
FIELD OF HOPE PREVIEW from STUDIO 9 FILMS on Vimeo.
>via: http://www.unwatchable.cc/the-true-story/masikas-story/
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WHAT IS HAPPENING
IN THE CONGO?
At least 5.5 million people have been tortured and murdered within the Congo since 1998. The Congo is the most dangerous place to be a woman or girl in the World. Men and boys are also targeted and terrorized. Nobody goes untouched. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is thought of as the richest country in the world. yet is one of the poorest and most dangerous on our planet. So why has this potential paradise become a living hell?
Enough (not associated with this campaign) have created a short introduction to the issues surrounding the DRC.<br />
The Congo is worth more than 24 trillion US Dollars.
This is equivalent to the annual wealth of Europe and USA combined and due to it’s untapped natural resources, which include a vast amount of raw minerals/metals.
However, there are over 21 different armed groups occupying the congo, all trying to control and profit from these resources. Congo is the size of western europe. It has no protected borders, making it easy to illegally trade these conflict minerals. These minerals end up in electronics that we use everyday including our Mobile phones and Computers and DVD’s players.
In order to gain access with ease to these minerals, militias terrorize local communities. The most effective tactics used are rape and murder. Using rape as tactic of war is not only physically terrorizing, it is physiologically so damaging that the communities break apart into a form of social chaos, leaving no one to resist or challenge these armed groups.
This method of war is recognized by the UN as a strategic tactic, Amnesty International has stated that rape is cheaper and more effective than bullets
Armed groups Ransack villages for men and boys forcing them to kill their mothers and rape their sisters, so they have no one to returned home to. Many of the armed groups are controlled by fear and are occupied by men who have been forced to enlist. The men within these armed groups are unpaid and are often starving – essentially they are armed slaves. in order to survive they loot villages for money and food.
Our electronic companies are fueling this war by not taking responsibility of where their sourcing their materials from. doing business direct or indirectly with brutal armed war lords is Criminal and gives silent approval to these gross acts against humanity.
An estimated 400,000 women have been victims of sexual violence during the Democratic Republic of Congo's civil war. In the eastern states of the country a recent peace agreement struggles to keep warring factions from fighting. As the chaos that accompanies war contines so does the rape of women in the area. , Bulengo IDP Camp. Goma, North Kivu, DR Congo. Feb 2008
A sign in Kalenger, Eastern Congo discouraging men from raping women.
Mawazo Luwendo was shot in the leg and raped by soldiers when she was out looking for food for her children.
It might look hopeless but things are changing fast in the congo – 80% of the population believe the conflict can end within a year, lets help make it happen.
2008
- Former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba is arrested in brussels for crimes of war and sexual violence.
2009
- Congolese president Kabila issues statement for zero tolerance tolerance for perpetrators of sexual violence in the military
- Mobile courts are initiated by the open society justice initiate and given jurisdiction over the military and civil justice in response to war crimes and military induced sexual violence across the congo
2010
- within in 6 months of initiation of the mobile courts they tried 115 military gender and sexual violence cases, 68 people tried, 51 were convicted
- the first case before international criminal court (icc) to be focused almost on solely on sex crimes jean-pierre bemba on trial for crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes for the instruction of rape and murder.
- the Dodd – Frank act passed in the USA declare that american companies reveal conflict minerals in their supply chain
- Conflict smelter program launched – to voluntarily enlist companies to ensure raw materials are conflict free.
2011
- Congolese prosecuted soldiers and a commanding officer who sentence to 20 years in jail, sending a loud message across the congo to armies stating their behavior will be held into account.
- Apple and Intel pledge to stop purchasing conflict minerals to the congo by signing up to the conflict -free smelter program
- In the USA, Pittsburgh becomes the first city in the world to become conflict-free by passing a resolution regarding the use of Congo’s conflict minerals in consumer electronics,
- California has introduced a bill prohibiting the state from working with companies that don’t comply with regulations on conflict minerals has passed the state Senate committee.
- Unwatchable campaign is launched – share this
14 year old Asma Abdu was in the forest looking for wood when she was attacked by 2 soldiers. âWhen I want to cry, one put a gun in my mouth while the other raped me. When the first had finished the other took his turn. I thought they were going to kill me. After that I went home and told my mother. As she was also a victim of sexual violence, she knew what to do.
22 year old Basemae Maombi whose eyes were cut out after she was raped by one of her attackers who she recognised.
Congo images copyright Robin Hammond
