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Here’s the biggest secret to getting work in the film industry - go on holiday. A vacation. Set out on a trip where you’re fairly confident zero work will come in. Maybe even tilt the odds in your favour and intentionally leave your laptop and any tools of the trade out of your luggage.
Two weeks ago I took off on a trip for my birthday armed with nothing heavier than an ipad when I landed during a one hour layover to an email asking if I’d be available to start working on something asap.
The most I could do was take a zoom call at 7am Monday morning being jet lagged as I was in California speaking with people in New York, India, and Ethiopia. I wasn’t wholly surprised at the request, what was surprising was the lack of time and the quantity of work.
20 edited one minute videos, in two different formats, in several different languages and all subtitled totalling about 40 videos. But those numbers were nothing, compared to what I heard again and again in the edit room once I began working for five days (now an additional sixth day today) straight upon my return.
At least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation.
An additional 2 million girls could be at risk by 2030 due to COVID-19, resulting in a 33 per cent reduction in the progress toward ending this harmful practice.
Around 1 in 4 girls and women who have undergone female genital mutilation, or 52 million worldwide, were subjected to the practice at the hands of a health personnel.
This proportion is twice as high among adolescents, indicating growth in the medicalisation of the practice.
Believe me, I love my work. There’s nothing that inspires me more than supporting the stories of others, especially those regarding human rights. But I really wish this work I’m doing didn’t need to exist because something as violating and inhumane as FGM didn’t exist.
So when it’s getting close to midnight, and both eyes and my computer are exhausted from exporting I know we both have to keep going. There are 2 million lives that could change from these 59 videos.
Here is just one of those videos, and it’s one that didn’t make it for the final campaign, but I thought was actually the most impactful. Take a look at the rest of the campaign for the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation on the UNFPA social media channels and their joint programme with UNICEF.
59 videos that I should not have had to make