Angelina Jolie Opens Film Festival About Sexual Violence In Conflict

Angelina Jolie speaking about sexual and gender-based violence in Kenya last year. 

Actress and anti-rape activist Angelina Jolie has opened a London film festival tackling the issue of sexual violence in conflict.

The ‘Fighting Stigma Through Film’ festival, which has the backing of the British government, is screening 38 documentaries and films, each telling the stories of survivors and those working with them.

The festival is the first of its kind to be dedicated to the issue, and it is hoped that it will help rally global action to end it.

Titles include ‘I Am Not Who They Think I Am’, which treats the subject of children born in Uganda as a result of sexual violence, and ‘Libya: Unspeakable Crime’, which looks at cases of rape following the fall of Colonel Gadaffi.

The festival comes as the Foreign and Commonwealth office announces half a million pounds in extra funding to the cause.

Ms Jolie, who co-founded the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI), was made an honourary Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (DCMG) for her work with the Foreign Office on the issue in 2014.

Now she has returned to London where she will meet filmmakers and lead a Q&A session with Congolese Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr Denis Mukwege.

“Artists and human rights defenders often take significant risks to tell the truth about crimes committed against defenceless women, children and men during war,” Ms Jolie said in a statement.

“The perpetrators of war crimes often go to extreme lengths to keep the truth from being told. So I am proud to support the filmmakers taking part in the festival.

“Stigma compounds the suffering of survivors of warzone rape. It is an unbearable injustice on a human level, and it is a major obstacle to achieving justice for victims of these sickening acts of violence.”

Lord Tariq Ahmad, who serves as the Prime Minister’s special envoy on preventing sexual violence in conflict, commented:

“Since launching the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) in 2012, the UK has continued to lead global efforts to end the horror of sexual violence in conflict.

“We’re calling on the international community to provide better justice for survivors and to hold perpetrators to account, strengthening global legal mechanisms needed to do so.”

Lord Ahmad added: “What these young filmmakers have done is taken their stories and brought it forward so the whole of society can understand.

“As one filmmaker said… we also need to show these films to the perpetrators, to make them understand when they’ve committed that crime… the consequences of that.”

Lord William Hague, Founder of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, shared his thoughts on the issues raised by the films: “We hear statistics about everything… but it's when you meet people who are survivors of sexual violence… or see the full depiction in a film of the horror of these crimes…

“That’s really what motivates human beings to act… now we understand what's happening, we can’t sit by and do nothing.”

The film festival marks 12 months until the UK hosts an International conference on Preventing Sexual violence in Conflict.

Admission to the festival at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London is free.