Impact Days Catalogue
fifdh
By Patience Nitumwesiga and Patience Nitumwesiga

The Woman Who Poked The Leopard

Image du film The Woman Who Poked The Leopard - FIFDH 2023
IMPACT DAYS

In 2018, Dr Stella Nyanzi wrote a poem about the president of Uganda that landed her in prison. There, she refused bail and disrobed in court when her hearing didn’t go well. In 2020, she left Luzira Women’s Maximum Security Prison with a crown on her head and a “fuck oppression” sash across her body. Soon after, she announced she would run for parliament. The film follows her through a hectic campaign characterised by police brutality, high excitement, pressure from her children, and the masses she wants to deliver from poverty and bad governance. At the end of the long and exhausting campaign journey, her children are unhappy, her lover has abandoned her and she is haunted by not only the loss of the election but from her own story. Ongoing lack of security leads her to flee the country to provide a safe place for her children, leaving her newly reconnected lover behind.

Sections : Impact Days, Impact Days
Country : Uganda, Germany, South Africa
Original languages : Luganda, English
Directors
Patience Nitumwesiga
Patience Nitumwesiga (Uganda / Tanzania)
Producers
Rosie Motene
Natalia Imaz
Patience Nitumwesiga
Natalia Imaz (Germany)
Rosie Motene (South Africa)
Patience Nitumwesiga (Uganda / Tanzania)
SHAGIKA
parabellum film
Natalia Imaz (Germany)
Completion
November 2024
Impact Statement
We would like this film to inspire oppressed peoples of the world especially those on the margins of society such as women, ex-prisoners, nonbinary and queer people to find communities of support and to realise that an activist does not have to be like a superhero but can be an ordinary person like them, the way Stella Nyanzi is. Our film covers themes related to the intersection between human rights and sexuality, gender, democracy, police brutality, right to protests, right to assemble, freedom of speech, writers' rights, among others and we would like to create a global conversation about these with specific activist groups.
We want to fuel a global conversation on activism's cost for human rights defenders and activists. By celebrating ordinary everyday heroes like Stella Nyanzi, we aim to also inspire and support other activists and their families.
Impact Goals
  1. To change the narrative around African feminist voices with the aim of changing history and focusing on their story. To show marginalised communities what resilience looks like.
  2. For communities, dissidents, anti-government critics and opposition members to watch the film to see versions of themselves in the story and therefore draw comradeship and solidarity from the challenges and successes.
  3. To create conversations and find solutions to the safety of human rights defenders and create opportunities for activists who are forced to leave their homeland due to persecution.
  4. To create synergies with youth organisations for the children of human rights defenders, who are forced to live in exile, to help with culture and assimilation.
Impact Strategy
  • Create activist labs. The aim is to reimagine what an activist looks like in this day and age. We wish to demystify activism by making it inclusive through integrating different genders, non-conforming genders, and marginalised communities. Create safe labs and spaces for activists, young and old to educate, reflect and create new strategies that will align with their grassroots struggles and global spaces.
  • Connect with human rights defenders outside of Africa and exiled communities to regroup, plan and share stories
  • To support the children of the parents who are forced into exile. The aim is to assist them with culture shocks, language barriers and alienation. Organise a series of conversations between activists' children/daughters exchanging their experience (with or without their mothers/parents). - To support LGBTQI+ communities who live in homophobic countries. Provide platforms where queer people and their allies in oppressed communities can find connections across borders.
Contact
Primary contacts
Natalia Imaz (Germany): imaz@parabellumfilm.de
Rosie Motene (South Africa): thewomanwhopokedtheleopard@gmail.com
Participants present at the Impact Days
Natalia Imaz (Germany)
Patience Nitumwesiga (Uganda / Tanzania)
Rosie Motene (South Africa)

Organisations
Defend Defenders
Anonymous
SRI
ActionAid Denmark

Film funds and agencies
DOCUBOX

Organisations
Defend Defenders
Anonymous
SRI
ActionAid Denmark

Film funds and agencies
DOCUBOX