Warrior Marks

Wasn't until I read a radical film criticism book called "Keyframes" (Tinkcom and Villarejo) that I could articulate the problem with this film.

2 feminists (American and British) with a sense of self-important "truth" wander into 2 countries without much research or organization to "do good." The result turns the multicultural area of Africa into a very large place that is all the same, advances that there could be no reason for anyone ever to have performed these rituals that they do not understand, depict the elderly circumcisions as a monster, ignore a women's activist group because their cause was not our cause...in short, act like the very colonial powers they are attempting to discredit.

A muddle, but not without emotional power. Just don't think much as you watch...and get your little charge of Liberal energy.

Although it's been years since I've seen this film, I remember its power in dealing with the issue of female circumcision. It is tender, reflective, painful, and somehow empowering. Tracy Chapman and Alice Walker appear in the film, as do many "nameless" women who have experienced circumcision, have performed circumcisions, and those who have escaped it. I also recommend reading Alice Walker's novels Possessing the Secret of Joy, which deals with, among other issues, the devastation of one woman's experience at the hands of her mutilator.