Domestic Worker's Empowerment

Tour

National movie-screening tour of

BARAKEDEN, les petites bonnes de Bamako

followed by public debate

&

National information campaign on the rights of domestic workers

October / November / December 2016

A project produced by L’ECHANGEUR in association with ADDAD Mali

(Domestic workers Defense Rights Association) and

CNA Mali (Travelling Numerical Cinema Association)

SHORT DESCRIPTION

*Title: Domestic Worker's Empowerment Tour

*Pitch: Movie-screening tour followed by public debate across Mali in order to carry out awareness raising actions to assert the right of domestic workers in Mali National.

*Opening: official opening screening at Institut Français du Mali, Bamako, 7 october 2016 *Closure: official closing screening at Magic Cinema (ex-Babemba), Bamako, 10 decembre 2016

*Activities: Tour in four areas distributing the documentary film Barakeden, les petites bonnes de Bamako.

*Territories of intervention: Koulikouro and region, Ségou and region, Sikasso and region, district of Bamako

*Goals:

- To distribute the film Barakeden, les petites bonnes de Bamako in the zones and neighbourhoods where maids work.

- To organize debates on life and labour conditions of the young girls, in the presence of parents, employers, young girls and boys and representatives of different organizations.

- To raise awareness of young girls and public opinion on the maid’s rights and on the support they can have.

*Actions: organization of screeing-debates in presence of rural and urban communities in coordination with local organisations, media and international NGOs that specialise in the issue of child and distribution of information material on the rights of domestic workers.

*Programming: Barakeden, les petites bonnes de Bamako by Adeline Gonin. Opening: trailer of the national tour and 1 short film on child labour and seasonal migrations of young girls.

In Bamako, in every house there are one or several housemaids.

Each earn between 4,000 and 7,500 CFA about 6-11 euros per month.

In Mali, the legal minimum wage is 30,000 CFA.

The audiovisual tool : a lever for social integration A cultural project presented by ADDAD, Cinéma Numérique Ambulant and l’Echangeur

In West Africa and especially in Mali, more and more teenage girls leave their villages to become maids in the City. Poverty and forced marriages scare them away and prompt them to leave the countryside in the hope of a better life. But often what they find is a living hell. Some of them arrive in the City at the age of 9, they endure endless days of work for a pittance, and suffer violence and humiliation. Some organisations try to help them, in order to really change the situation though it would take a wake-up call of the entire society.

One of the most efficient ways to reach this goal is to organize screening-debates for a wide audience, of a film giving word to the maids themselves. The film Barakeden, les petites bonnes de Bamako, edited in 2014, is the perfect base for such screening-debates. The aim of the project is to organize 30 screenings in 4 areas in Mali, in order to reach all communities et socio-economic classes (rural or urban populations, popular or wealthy classes).

Each screening will enable a debate between the audience, the maids - after being trained to debates techniques - and specialists on the matter, in order to create a dialogue with villages populations, employers and urban elites. The distribution of the films aims to provoke a wake-up call and promote social changes on child labour in general, and conditions of maids coming from the countryside in particular.

CONTEXT

The underage maids from rural backgrounds work 17 or 18 hours a day, without a break, for monthly a salary sometimes lower than 5000 fcfa (not even enough to buy a loaf of bread a day). That is to say ⅙ of the legal minimum wage (28460 fcfa) for a working time generally two times that of the legal one. They literally do everything at home: cleaning, shopping, cooking, washing dishes and laundry, watching the kids... Often, they’re despised, insulted, abused, beaten up or even raped. It’s not uncommon for their employers to steal their savings or to refuse to pay them after months or even years of work. They are particularly at risk of venereal diseases and unwanted pregnancies. And when they do get pregnant, they are generally left out on the streets and bound to prostitution. Analysis of the situation and proposal The main explanation for young maids to be vulnerable takes place in their isolation and absolute lack of knowledge of their rights. They are unable to negotiate their wages or their tasks as well as to refuse the advances of the men in the house. When raped or when they do not receive wages, they don’t press charges. Some associations try to help them but the number of girls they reach is little in comparison with the total number of maids. Only a wide-ranging sensitization campaign could permit the situation to evolve. The rally of maids themselves, demanding decent life and labour conditions, also appears to be indispensable. This film is dedicated to the maids, now come for them the moment to appropriate this tool in order to involve their rights. This film speaks for their suffering and their expectations. It’s a way, for a large audience, to realize how hard and long can be a work day, and what they wish for. The film will also approach other subjects, related to the phenomenon of maids: child labour, seasonal migration, life conditions in villages, forced marriages… Favorishing debates on those matters, the audiovisual tool constitutes a lever for social integration of all.

Adeline GONIN

Directed BARAKEDEN Graduated in anthropology and sociology

Documentary filmmaker, Founder of the Festival de Cinéma des Foyers

BARAKEDEN

The little house maids of Bamako

Written and directed Adeline Gonin

Genre Documentary

Duration / Year : 57’ - 2015

Context

Barakeden means "little house maids" in bambara, the national language of Mali. For urban Malians, this word sounds

like an insult. At twelve or thirteen years old, many girls leave their village to serve families in the capital city. They often

work more than 15 hours per day for a pittance (around 7,000 FCFA, being less than 8 euros per month). Abuses,

unpaid wages, rape, these are how their employers and townspeople in general treat them.

Synopsis

Oumou left her village when she was 14 to come to work as a maid in Bamako. Endless days, humiliation, pittance…

Like hundreds of thousands of her fellows, she endures harsh life with hope for a better life. By night, these "little maids"

gather to express their resentment. Helped by some activists, some of them begin to organize themselves so as to

defend their rights. Meanwhile, Hawa is about to leave her village and come for the first time to the city…

Director’s biography

Adeline Gonin, 35 years old

After graduating in anthropology and sociology, Adeline Gonin got involved in the support of migrant workers housing (foyers). In 2009, she sets up a film festival, "le Festival de Cinéma des foyers" together with her non-profit organisation Attention Chantier (Caution, Work in progress). In 2011, after a first short film, she attends "Ateliers Varan" (Varan video workshop) where she makes Papa Ben, a portrait of a parisian rag-picker. Adeline Gonin runs several video training workshops in popular areas around Paris, prisons, migrant workers housing... and at the same time works on several documentary projects.

Technical elements

A film written and directed by Adeline Gonin Music by MÛ MBANA (Guinea-Bissau)

Cinematography : Adeline Gonin and Jonathan Duong – Sound : Jean-Marc Delaunay – Editing : Olivia Bernholc –

Color corrections : Matthieu Augustin, Sonosapiens – Sound mix : Xavier Thibault, Sonosapiens

Production : Attention Chantier, Thomas Laou-Hap and L’Échangeur, Julien Fiorentino with the support of SCAC

Ambassade de France in Mali, Mairie de Paris, DRDJS and the KissKissBankers

Visa : 140 645 (2015) Shooting format : HDV Screening format : Couleur – 16/9 – Stereo 2.0 – DCP, BluRay, HD files

*TV Broadcast : TV5 Monde Afrique 2016 / Canal France International (CFI) 2015

*2016 selections : Cinema des Africanistes, Musée Quai Branly, Paris / 16ème

FrauenWelten FilmFest, Tübingen, Germany / Mois du Doc, Cin’Hoche, Bagnolet, France / 7

th International Images Film Festival for Women, Harare,

Zimbabwe / 10th Ethnocineca Film Festival, Wien, Austria / 15

th European cinema meeting, Vannes, France / 21

st Afrika

Film Festival, Leuven, Belgium / 13th

Bobines Sociales Festival, Paris, France *2015 selections : 2

nd Documentary Film Festival, Africadoc, Saint-Louis, Senegal / 5

th New documentary cinemas

festival, Porto-Novo, Benin / 12th

Verzio Human Rights Documentary Festival, Budapest, Hungary / 23th African Diaspora

International Film Festival, NYC, USA / 35th

International Film Festival, Amiens, France / 2nd

Africa Women Films Meeting, Dakar, Senegal / 9

th Terra di Tutti Film Festival, Bologna, Italia / 15

th Lumières d’Afrique Festival, Besançon, France /

10th

Cinémas d’Afrique Festival, Lausanne, Swiss / 3rd

Maputo African Film Week, Maputo, Mozambico / 11th Ciné Droit

Libre Festival, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso / 2nd

After Varan Festival, Ateliers Varan, Paris / 19th

Arrimage Festival, Institut National de Géographie, Paris, France

Contact / Production and distribution :

Association L’Echangeur : 134, rue Saint Maur 75011 Paris France / Tél. : +33 6 18 94 83 14 / +223 78 61 62 23

Mail : lechangeur@gmail.com / à propos : http://addad-mali.blogspot.fr / www.associationlechangeur.org

 

PROCESS  

Effective duration of the project: 3 months of screening and public debate tour in                           October/November/December 2016  30 free screenings/debates: 12 villages, 6 medium size towns, 10 Bamako working­class                       neighborhoods + 2 special screenings in Bamako cinemas (4 regions of Mali)  Information campaign on the rights of domestic workers: Editing and production of 1,000                         information leaflets and 15,000 flyers informing about the basic rights of domestic workers and                           giving the contacts of key support persons where they can get help and advice. 500 flyers are                                 distributed during each screening in the towns and villages of Mali.  Publicity plan of the documentary film and the tour: concurrent multicast broadcasting of the                           movie on television ORTM and TV5 Monde ; radio spots and trailer "short sketch" informing                             about the dates and venues of the tour and the basic rights of domestic workers, via radios (RFI                                   and local radios) broadcasting and on social networks; trilingual DVD edition handed out to the                             movie crew, associations, elected officials and village leaders during the tour.  *Associated partners  

L'Echangeur is the administrative project director and is also in charge of the artistic direction                             and coordination of the screening and awareness raising tour. Locally, ADDAD implements the                         social and legal aspects of the tour, carries out the mobilization of the targeted publics and the                                 training of the young women in facilitating debate and advocacy techniques. The CNA is                           implementing the cultural and technical aspects of the project through the organization of the                           public screenings­debates in consultation with the authorities and in partnership with local                       communities as well as via the moderation of the debates.      

Coordination & Artistic direction  Implementation Implementation of the project of the social & legal aspects  of the cultural & technical aspects 

  

  

    

  

For more information, please contact: lechangeur@gmail.com