NO! The Rape Documentary at Filmmor Women’s Film Festival in Turkey
March 15, 2008
NO! The Rape Documentary will have her Turkish premiere at the 6th International Filmmor Women’s Film Festival on Wheels. Featuring 46 films from 13 countries, The festival’s theme this year is “Women’s History: Obedience, Rebellion, Feminism.”
The festival will be held in Istanbul from the 14th through the 22nd of March. Afterwards, the festival will travel to 28th-29th of March at Eski?ehir, 4th-5th of April at Tunceli and 11th-12th of April at Van, after Istanbul, making the festival more accessible to audiences in Turkey.
Read a March 15, 2008, article, in the Turkish newspaper “Today’s Zaman” about the festival, which features a photograph of Aishah Shahidah Simmons and mentions NO! along with several other featured feminist films and documentaries from around the world.
Click here to read the article online.
Click here to download a pdf of the article.
Aishah Shahidah Simmons Will Deliver Keynote Presentation at FCADV’s Children & Youth Institute
March 13, 2008
Stopping Domestic Violence Against Youth
In their ongoing commitment to bring atention to the unique needs of children and youth who have experienced domestic violence, the Florda Caolition Against Domestic Violence (FCADV) will host their “2008 Children and Youth Institute” from March 27-28, 2008, at the Regal Sun Resort in Orlando, Florida. The theme for this year’s Institute is “Imagine, Impact, Involve, Teaching Our Children Well.”
On Thursday, March 27, Aishah Shahidah Simmons will deliver the morning keynote titled “From Victim to Survivor to International Activist.” She will host the discussion following an evening screening of NO! on that same day.
On Friday, March 28, The Youth and Adult Researchers of the Youth Researchers Program, Caminar Latino Inc. will present the results of the research study they have conducted using participatory action research strategies, during their morning keynote titled “Por qué?: Latino Youth as Researchers of Domestic Violence”
Immediately following the morning keynote on March 28, Aishah will facilitate one of the morning workshops titled “Breaking Silences: Using Film/Video to Initiate Dialogues about Sexual and Domestic Violence With Youth.”
For detailed information, including a full listing of all of the workshops, please download this pdf.
Sexual Assault Education | NO! @ University of Michigan Thirteen Years Later
March 12, 2008
Sexual Assault Education | NO! @ University of Michigan Thirteen Years Later
Almost since the conception of the idea for the documentary that has evolved into NO!, I’ve been on the international road raising awareness about rape and sexual assault; and the critical non-negotiable need to end it.
In June 1995, my sister-survivor-comrade Janelle White, who was a graduate student at the time, brought me to University of Michigan for my very first paid NO! speaking engagement. At that time, I hardly had any footage. What I had was a vision and a commitment, as a survivor of incest and rape, to use the moving image to address a global atrocity, through the herstories, testimonies, scholarship, activism, poetry, music, and dance of predominantly African-American women.
Little did I know that my vision and commitment would be tested over and over and over again on multiple seen and unseen levels. Nor did I know that it would take a full 11-years before my vision would wo/manifest.
The funds received from that first paid engagement enabled me to film Essex Hemphill perform his very powerful and (unfortunately) timeless poem “To Some Supposed Brothers,”which is featured in his book ground breaking book of poetry and prose Ceremonies. Five months later, Brother Essex made his physical transition into the metaphysical world due to complications resulting from AIDS. Brother Essex transitioned eleven years before NO! was officially released. And yet through the power of film/video, Essex lives on, not only in NO! but through cinematic masterpieces produced and directed by (the late) Marlon Riggs, Isaac Julien, and Shari Frilot.
Almost 13-years later, I came full circle when I returned to the University of Michigan in January 2008 to screen my completed, award-winning, internationally acclaimed documentary NO!. My return to the University of Michigan began in June 2007 with my meeting Erika McCollum and Puneet Sohdi two fierce feminist activists in the anti-sexual violence movement, who are undergraduate students at the University of Michigan, at the very radical and not to be missed Allied Media Conference. When I met them, they were in organizing and strategizing mode about bringing me and NO! to the University of Michigan. Through Erika and Puneet, I met Alexis M. Watts who, on behalf of Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, worked tirelessly in collaboration with many of her anti-sexual violence activists/comrades to bring me to University of Michigan.
The travesty about coming full circle with NO! is that it is as relevant and critically needed as a completed feature length documentary in 2008, as it was when it was when it was barely a work-in-progress in 2005. The flip side of this sobering reality is that there are more and more survivors, activists, and/or advocates of all ages, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations who are working tirelessly to end all forms of sexual violence.
Black History Month | Screening of NO! The Rape Documentary @ The Brecht Forum
March 12, 2008
Black History Month | Screening of NO! The Rape Documentary @ The Brecht Forum
On February 7, 2008, there was an almost standing room only screening NO! The Rape Documentary at the Brecht Forum. Immediately following the screening there was a very lively panel discussion with Ejeris Dixon, the Program Coordinator of the Safe OUTside the System Collective, Ebony Noelle Golden, poet and organizer, who is a founding member of UBUNTU and other groups in the Durham area after the Duke lacrosse case, and Michael Simmons, who is an international human rights activist and a featured interviewee in NO!. Unfortunately, due to illness, Salamishah Tillet, who was scheduled to moderate the discussion, wasn’t able to participate in the conversation.
One of the people who attended is a member of an organization called “SAFER (Students Active for Ending Rape)“, an advocacy group in the US which works to improve universities’ response to sexual assaults in the campus environment. After attending the event, she wrote two reaction pieces on the SAFER organization’s blog, which you can read by clicking the following two links.
NO! A Documentary about Rape
NO! Part 2
Women’s History Month | Screening of NO! The Rape Documentary @ Raday Salon in Budapest Hungary
March 12, 2008
Women’s History Month | Screening of NO! at Raday Salon in Budapest Hungary
After a long hiatus of screenings, book signings, and lectures, the Raday Salon kicks off its 2008 season with a screening of NO! The Rape Documentary to commemorate Women’s History Month. This is not the first time that Raday Salon has hosted screenings and discussions of NO! The Rape Documentary both as a rough cut and now as a completed documentary to standing room only audiences. However given the horrific and unfortuante global manifestation of sexual violence, combined with requests from people who have not had the opportunity to view the documentary, Linda Carranza and Michael Simmons, the Salon’s co-founders, are hosting an encore screening.
“...We have developed many new ties with folks who are new to Budapest or just new to our Salon, who have expressed an interest in seeing the film. We would be happy to see both old and new Salon friends at this showing, especially as the discussion is always different and brings up new observations every time we show the film…” will be an encore screening and discussion of NO! The Rape Documentary.” — Linda Carranza & Michael Simmons
Aishah Shahidah Simmons will not be present at the screening. However, Michael Simmons, who has definitely screened NO!, more than Aishah, throughout Europe and the Middle East, will both host the screening and facilitate the dialogue following the screening.
For more information about the screening and equally as important for upcoming events at Raday Salon, please visit their site (http://raday.blogs.com).
“Our Salon is dedicated to the proposition that all people are fascinating individuals, and everybody has a story to tell.” — Linda Carranza & Michael Simmons, Co-Founders, Raday Salon
If you ever find yourself in Budapest, Hungary, definitely get in touch with both Linda and Michael. They definitely walk their talk.
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