WATCH CLIP: INTRODUCTION TO THE FILM

Mrs. Goundo's Daughter

A film by Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater

U.S./Mali | 2009 | 60 minutes | Color | DVD | Bambara, French | English subtitles | Order No. 09974

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SYNOPSIS

Mrs. Goundo is fighting to remain in the United States. But it’s not just because of the ethnic conflict and drought that has plagued her native Mali. Threatened with deportation, her two-year-old daughter could be forced to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM), like 85 percent of women and girls in Mali. Using rarely cited grounds for political asylum, Goundo must convince an immigration judge that her daughter is in danger.

Sensitive and moving, this important film reveals how women are profoundly affected by the legal struggles surrounding immigration. As issues of asylum, international law and human rights collide with FGM and its devastating health consequences, filmmakers Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater travel between an FGM ceremony in a Malian village, where dozens of girls are involved, to the West African expatriate community of Philadelphia, where Mrs. Goundo challenges beliefs and battles the American legal system for her child’s future.

PRESS

"An invaluable teaching tool…A 'must-see' for women's rights, human rights, and immigration law teachers, lawyers, students, and organizers.”

Hope Lewis Professor of Law, Northeastern University

“Eye-opening...Examines both sides of the issue without judgment or condescension by letting those closest to the subject matter do the talking.”

New York Magazine

“Very moving…Sure to generate dialogue and debate both on FGM and current immigration policy. A must-have documentary relevant for a range of disciplines and classes.”

Beverly A. Mcphail, Ph.D. Dir., Women’s Resource Center, University of Houston

“Packs a sharp punch equal to that of films twice its length…. The filmmakers seamlessly weave together parallel storylines….. the soul-sickening footage of anxious-eyed little Malian girls post-excision that makes Mrs. Goundo's point more succinctly than words ever could.”

Chris Barsanti Filmcritic.com

“Gracefully depicted and painstakingly observed.”

SILVERDOCS AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Film FestivalNew York Magazine

“The filmmakers skillfully interweave the legal case, interviews with ‘excisers’ in Mali, and candid discussions with Mrs. Goundo and her Malian girlfriends.”

Maria Garcia Film Journal International

“Heart-wrenching testament to the integrity and solidarity of women in the face of staggering adversity…. humanist filmmakers Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater demonstrate a nerve-shredding talent for cinematic juxtaposition… that avoids feeling trivial.”

Ed Gonzalez The Village Voice

"...it is the best film I have seen on the subject of female genital cutting (FGC), presenting different sides of this controversial issue starkly and sensitively."

Films for the Feminist Classroom

“…a strong addition to classes in law, immigration, human rights, women's rights, and globalization.”

Elizabeth Reis Films for the Feminist Classroom

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

  • Winner, Best Social Documentary, 2011 Addis International Film Festival
  • Silverdocs Documentary Festival
  • New York Human Rights Watch International Film Festival
  • Urbanworld Film Festival
  • London Human Rights Watch International Film Festival

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Barbara Attie

The EMMY® nominated filmmakers Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater have collaborated on award-winning documentaries for national and international broadcast, as well as wide-spread educational and advocacy use, since 1990. Attie and Goldwater’s work has been recognized with a prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts, a Leeway Transformation Award, and a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship in Media. Their previous documentaries on reproductive rights include Rosita (HBO Latin America, 2006) the story of a 9-year-old Nicaraguan girl whose rape and pregnancy resulted in a political and religious uproar that resonated across Latin America; Legal But Out of Reach (2000), about women whose personal struggles lead them to choose abortion, only to find that the lack of public funding made that choice inaccessible; and Motherless: A Legacy of Loss from Illegal Abortion (1992) about children orphaned when their mothers died after back-alley abortions before Roe. v. Wade. Additional independent documentaries produced and directed by Attie and Goldwater for national public television broadcast are the following: BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez (2015), a biography of the renowned African American poet and activist; Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter (2009), an ITVS co-production also supported by Sundance, about a Malian woman seeking asylum in the US to protect her daughter from female genital cutting; Maggie Growls (2003, ITVS co-production) a whimsical biography of Gray Panther founder Maggie Kuhn; and Landowska: Uncommon Visionary (1997), a biography of the celebrated harpsichordist Wanda Landowska.

Barbara Attie received an M.F.A. from Temple University, where she was named to the School of Communications and Theater Hall of Fame. Her documentary about teenage girls who joined the resistance movement during the Holocaust, Daring to Resist (with Martha Lubell), was broadcast nationally on PBS and named “one of the 10 best documentaries of 2000” by The Boston Globe. Attie is former board chair of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women and served on the Board of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Janet Goldwater

The EMMY® nominated filmmakers Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater have collaborated on award-winning documentaries for national and international broadcast, as well as wide-spread educational and advocacy use, since 1990. Attie and Goldwater’s work has been recognized with a prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts, a Leeway Transformation Award, and a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship in Media. Their previous documentaries on reproductive rights include Rosita (HBO Latin America, 2006) the story of a 9-year-old Nicaraguan girl whose rape and pregnancy resulted in a political and religious uproar that resonated across Latin America; Legal But Out of Reach (2000), about women whose personal struggles lead them to choose abortion, only to find that the lack of public funding made that choice inaccessible; and Motherless: A Legacy of Loss from Illegal Abortion (1992) about children orphaned when their mothers died after back-alley abortions before Roe. v. Wade. Additional independent documentaries produced and directed by Attie and Goldwater for national public television broadcast are the following: BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez (2015), a biography of the renowned African American poet and activist; Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter (2009), an ITVS co-production also supported by Sundance, about a Malian woman seeking asylum in the US to protect her daughter from female genital cutting; Maggie Growls (2003, ITVS co-production) a whimsical biography of Gray Panther founder Maggie Kuhn; and Landowska: Uncommon Visionary (1997), a biography of the celebrated harpsichordist Wanda Landowska.

Janet Goldwater earned an M.F.A. from Boston University. She has taught at Sweet Briar College, Rowan University, Temple University and the Art Institute of Boston. Goldwater served on the boards of the Women’s Medical Fund, the Philadelphia chapter of the ACLU-PA, and NARAL-PA. She is currently a patient escort at the Philadelphia Women’s Center and a founding member of the Philadelphia Support Network (for abortion clinics). (06/20)

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