The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo
Directed by Lisa F. Jackson
2007, 76 minutes
The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The Greatest Silence is distributed by Women Make Movies.
About the Film
Shot in the war zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this extraordinary film shatters the silence that surrounds the shocking plight of women and girls caught in this country’s intractable conflict.
Since 1998, a brutal war has ravaged the DRC, killing over four million people and resulting in many tens of thousands of women and girls being systematically kidnapped, raped, mutilated, and tortured by soldiers from both foreign militias and the Congolese army. Until now, the stories of these women have never been told to the rest of the world. A survivor of gang rape herself, Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker Lisa Jackson travels through the DRC to understand what is happening and why. This moving documentary, produced in association with HBO Documentary Films and the Fledgling Fund, features interviews with activists, peacekeepers, physicians, and even—chillingly—the indifferent rapists who are all soldiers of the Congolese Army. But the most moving and harrowing moments of the film come as dozens of survivors recount their stories with an honesty and immediacy pulverizing in its intimacy and detail. Heart-wrenching in its portrayal of the grotesque realities of life in Congo, this powerful film also provides inspiring examples of resiliency, resistance, courage, and grace.
About the Director
Lisa F. Jackson has been involved in documentary filmmaking for more than thirty years. Her work has brought her many awards including three Emmy nominations, two Emmy awards, and four CINE Golden Eagles. Tom Shales of the Washington Post has praised her documentaries as “superb” and “outstanding.” John O’Connor commented in the New York Times that “producer/director Lisa Jackson is remarkably adept in getting her subjects to speak frankly and thoughtfully,” and the Christian Science Monitor noted that she takes on difficult subjects “with intelligence and courage.” Jackson studied filmmaking at MIT with Ricky Leacock and has directed and/or edited dozens of films for PBS, including: Voices and Visions: Emily Dickinson; Jackson Pollock: Portrait, Through Madness (1993 NYC Emmy winner); The Creative Spirit; Storytellers; The Van Cliburn Piano Competition; Bill Moyers’ Journal, the prize-winning series The Mind; and segments for Sesame Street and Live from Lincoln Center.
Director’s Statement
My objectives in making this film are political and personal. I am propelled by the urgency to expose an unimaginable, growing humanitarian crisis, and I have my own personal quest to understand the universal stigmas that attach to rape and its survivors.
I myself am the victim of a gang rape and have always felt a powerful connection to women and girls who have suffered the same plight. I’ve often found in conversations with survivors of sexual violence that our numerous differences are often trumped by our shared trauma, and that that commonality can build uncommon bridges. And this is what I discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In May and June of 2006, I traveled to the DRC, embarking on a voyage into a literal heart of darkness to find women who would bear witness to their own experiences and break the silence that envelops the subject of rape both in their country and around the world. I returned for a follow-up in November, and filmed chilling interviews with self-confessed, and unabashed, rapists.
I ask: Why has the systematic rape and sexual enslavement of tens of thousands of women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo escaped the world’s attention? Is it compassion fatigue? Racism? Is the political situation in Congo too impenetrable? Is there something about sexual violence that makes us all turn away? And, most importantly, where are the voices of the women themselves? Where are their stories?
I met with rape survivors in numbers that were overwhelming and found that our shared experience of victimhood was a means to connect. I am white, healthy, in charge of my own life, living relatively free from ostracism and fear: living a favored life. They had not been so favored. And yet, we have all survived.
Several dozen women and girls spoke to me with surprising openness about their experiences, their nightmares, and dreams. Their stories need to be told and, more importantly, they need to be the ones doing the telling, which is another important goal of the film: to explore, witness, and contribute to these women’s healing through the empowerment of personal narrative.
By bringing these women out of the shadows, the film will be a catalyst in focusing world attention on their plight, bringing opprobrium upon those in power who turn their backs, and sparking conversations and policy change concerning the fate of women and girls in a world consumed by armed conflict.
Click here to read an interview with Lisa Jackson, Director of The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo