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A film About Female Genital Mutilation

CFC releases a new Documentary on Female Genital Mutilation

CFC’s most recent film, Uncut! Playing with Life is a 46-minute film which presents the problem of female genital mutilation (FGM) through the eyes of both Stella Omoregie, a proud circumciser from the royal family of Benin, and theatre for development activists who studied her life and profession as research material for a play against FGM.

The film contextualises the problem by providing a traditional setting and point of view.

Chuck Mike, the director of a theatre for development group Peformance Studio Workshop visits Stella, who was taught how to circumcise when she was 12years old by her grandmother. Chuck tries to convince Stella to stop circumcising girls, but she refuses to listen to him. She strongly believes this is a good tradition and helps to curb promiscuity. Stella’s deep belief in this tradition is shaken when she attends a roundtable discussion in Lagos. During the event, she sees a drama performed by Chuck’s theatre troupe in which a woman is circumcised and dies as a result of severe pain and bleeding. Stella sees her life being mirrored on stage and makes up her mind there and then never to circumcise girls again. The story does not end there. Stella joins a campaign to eradicate female genital mutilation in Nigeria. And in 1999, this group succeeds in pushing for Nigeria’s first anti-FGM legislation bill to be passed in Edo State.

Throughout the film advocates and activists express their personal views, highlighted by heart wrenching, dramatic theatre sequences showcasing the societal pressures responsible for the practice of female circumcision. Interviews include points of view of circumcisers, the High Priest of Benin, law makers, civil society activists, medical experts, as well as the youth.

Uncut! Playing with Life was released on April 7, 2002 to mark World Health Day and was shown during prime time by 14 television stations in Nigeria.

The film was also shown at the “Spirit of Friendship” festival in Manchester, United Kingdom in June 2002. The following month, it was shown at the 2nd Lagos International Forum on Cinema and Motion Picture & Video in Africa, a film festival organized by the Independent Television Producers Association of Nigeria in collaboration with the Embassy of France in Nigeria.

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