- Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege heals and uplifts survivors of conflict-driven rape - more than 52,000 have been treated at Panzi Hospital. In this debut film by Platon, the stories and voices come into focus. A young woman hauntingly declares the words that inspired the title, 'My Body Is Not A Weapon.' At the intersection of war and peace, a noble doctor and courageous survivors emerge as heroes and thought leaders for civil and human rights.
- A young woman powerfully declares that her body is not a weapon. Another vows to bring joy to all she meets. An intergenerational collection of singers dance in the courtyard of a holistic healing center. Female police recruits in formation march in Bukavu. All of them, along with a team of surgeons lead by a selfless and inspiring doctor - Denis Mukwege, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate - stand at the intersection of a wartime rape epidemic. Survivors, and world leaders seek a freer, more just path to peace.
"My Body is Not a Weapon,' the debut film by world renown photographer Platon, documents the harrowing experience of wartime rape survivors and forced child laborers, and the extraordinary holistic healing sanctuary, Panzi Hospital. It is there that we meet Sandra, survivor of rape as a weapon of war, and Dr. Denis Mukwege. He and his team have treated more than 52,000 survivors of sexualized violence with medical, psychosocial, and holistic healing care. There is an innovative music therapy program at Panzi, and Sandra is a prodigious song writer. She wrote 'My Body is Not a Weapon' with her fellow survivors, and it is her haunting voice that sings the title song.
Narrated by Platon, the film examines the intersection between wartime rape survivors and Western organizations and world leaders. The portraits by Platon show survivors in esteem with those of all the world leaders Platon has ever photographed - including six Nobel Peace Prize laureates, every living US president, over 35 covers for TIME Magazine, and four books featuring cultural icons and celebrities that influence the media environment.
The unsung heroes from Panzi Hospital and Maison Dorcas are as powerful, esteemed, and deserving of an elevated platform. Dr. Neema 'Nene' Rukunghu, Darcy Ataman - a music producer who runs the music therapy program, work with Dr. Mukwege and dozens of other physicians and staff, empowering the women to transform their trauma into strength, singing out about their experiences in solidarity with their fellow survivors, calling for a more hopeful and peaceful future. Esther, a teenager brutally kidnapped and raped, holds her infant son born from rape tenderly and embraces joy and passionately fulfills her role as a bringer of joy rather than sadness. These individuals, and those they work and live with at the hospital complex, bring light and hope amid conflict.
The film also explores western complicity in suffering. How the west exists as a capitalist society directly impacts the livelihoods of those in Congo - from child laborers in cobalt mines, to women exploited as day laborers and modern slaves in the same mines, to well-meaning but unfulfilled promises made by local government officials and international organizations. 'My Body is Not a Weapon' delivers a humanized portrait of data, and offers a universal lens with which to look at how all of us have a stake in the health of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Each person interviewed for the film completed a complex informed consent process in their preferred language. The film runs 38 minutes, and was shot on Canon Mark II and iPhone 5. Still images shot on Hassleblad 555ELD and Leica M6.
The film was created in partnership with Platon's foundation, The People's Portfolio.
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