The Greatest Silence on HBO Promo

Since 1998 a brutal war has been raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Over 4 million people have died. And there are the uncountable casualties: the many tens of thousands of women and girls who have been systematically kidnapped, raped, mutilated and tortured by soldiers from both foreign militias and the Congolese army.

The world knows nothing of these women. Their stories have never been told. They suffer and die in silence. In The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo these brave women finally speak.

Emmy Award winning producer/director Lisa F. Jackson spent 2006 in the war zones of eastern DRC documenting the tragic plight of women and girls in that country's intractable conflict. She was afforded privileged access to not only the grotesque realities of life in Congo (including interviews with self-confessed rapists) but also to examples of resiliency, resistance, courage and grace.

Jackson was herself gang raped in 1976 and shared her experience with the survivors she interviewed. These women in turn recount their stories with an honesty and immediacy pulverizing in its intimacy and detail. The film is a journey into a literal heart of darkness, a search for survivors who pay witness to their own experiences, and break the silence.

Background, context and opinion are provided by interviews with peacekeepers, politicians, activists, doctors and priests. But above all there is the wrenching testimony from dozens of survivors of sexual violence who recount stories of chilling barbarity. This film gives them dignity, a face and a voice that will finally break the silence that surrounds their plight.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

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• lisa
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• greatest
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• rape
• congo
• HBO

[WomenforWomenIntl]

Encore presentation of The Greatest Silence on HBO. East Coast Thursday Nov 20 10:30pm. West Coast Friday Nov 21 1:30am.

[glocharles]

...

[musyokat]

I just wanted tell everyone how I managed to watch this although I don't have HBO.

I called my cable company and they agreed to switch it on for one night! (I called the next morning to confirm that HBO had been switched off).

I don't have the words to adequately describe what this film did to me.

I will still buy the DVD though I must not forget our sisters in The Congo.