AWARDS
- Winner of the Public Prize at the 11th International Womens Film Festival in Madrid, November 1994
- Winner of the Audience Award at the 3rd Womens Film Festival in Paris, October 1994
PRESS
“This superlative documentary … an artful blend of images, words, ideas and music that the unpalatable message is delivered in an edifying and politically effective manner.” — The Globe and Mail, Toronto
“A particularly difficult and distressing issue for television to tackle, but it’s superbly and sympathetically handled here.” — The Sunday Times (Pick of the Week)
“A candid yet inspiring documentary about survivors and sufferers.” — Birmingham Film Festival
“(Parmar) depicts the screaming terror of people who would otherwise remain hidden away from most of us, silent.” — June Jordan, Poet
“The haunting beauty of the film is underscored by Parmar’s attention to detail, Walker’s intensity and the honesty of the women and girls they film.” — Deneuve, California
“Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar have given a blueprint for how the artistic becomes the political.” — City Pages
Warrior Marks (1993) from Kali Films on Vimeo.
NOTES FROM THE FILMMAKERS
To Alice Walker, the mutilation of female genitalia is “at the root of the domination of women the world over and the most brutal suppression of female sexuality that exists.” Her best selling novel which deals with the issue, Possessing the Secret of Joy, brought wider public attention to the subject. She resolved to make a film to raise awareness further and chose Pratibha Parmar to produce and direct it. In the film, Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar travel from California to England, to Senegal and The Gambia, talking to African women survivors and campaigners against the practice.
“When I was 12, my family expected me to go through the excision along with the other girls. I made an excuse that I was ill because I knew they cut something off and that it was very painful. A friend I deeply loved was excised on a Thursday and was dead by the following Monday. That’s when I decided it would never happen to me”. So speaks Aminata Diop of Mali, revealed in the film as a woman determined to fight back.
Participant Danny Glover remarks: “I know that there are those people who will argue that this is a question of custom and tradition, and there are probably people who erroneously will see this as exclusively a woman’s issue, I see these as all our issues…I personally, am very supportive of and have a great deal of admiration for the women, particularly the African women portrayed in the film who have the courage to take on the issue. And like all people of conscience I chose to stand with them, in making the choices they want about their bodies, their lives, their spirits. As a personal, reflective look at the issue I found the film riveting.”
“When I saw the completed Warrior Marks”, says Walker, “I recognised it as a symbol of our mutual daring and trust. It is a powerful and magnificent film, thanks to Pratibha’s brilliance as a director, constructed from our grief and anger and pain.”
Speaking of her involvement in the film, Pratibha Parmar says: “Female genital mutilation is a painful, complex and difficult issue, which involves questions of cultural and national identities, sexuality, human rights and the rights of women to live safe and healthy lives. But it is not an excuse to sit by and do nothing. Reluctance to interfere with other cultures leaves African children at risk of mutilation. If we do not speak out, we collude in the perpetration of violence.”
A book of the same title featuring the journals of Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar and interviews with women in Africa was published by Jonathan Cape in England and Harcourt Brace in the U.S.