In Mexico between 9 and 11 women they are killed every day. A few months ago I saw the documentary about the dignified life of Marisela Escobedo, a woman who was murdered at the gates of a government palace in Mexico without first being able to see justice for the femicide of her daughter Rubí. His femicide, like that of his daughter, went unpunished.
The documentary is over. My mom and I with a kind of pain and hope combined. Mutes. With no doubt that this happens in this country, with awareness of why Rubí is not me and Marisela is not my mother, but above all with hope and energy to say: enough.
This is a femicide country. The walls know it. We know it. The State knows it and they know it. But saying that implies things that go even further; my mother told me, that day we finished the documentary, that these violence against women They are a product of the system, but also of a lack of empathy.
Sometimes the cinema gives us the opportunity to feel the stories up close. On some streaming platforms there are some film projects that I have seen, alone and with someone, and I have found myself there, hugging the protagonists because one day I felt them or because I know that I can feel them.
In a country so dangerous and violent for womenEspecially when gender intersects with other conditions such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or gender identity, empathy, awareness and sensitivity are essential. Here I recommend some film projects that can be found on digital platforms and that really made me think about women; our diversity and intersectionalities. This is the list:
The three deaths of Marisela Escobedo
I start with this documentary —which, if you haven’t seen it, you should see it now— because it is a shame, it is honoring the memory of two women who are no longer there at the same time that you realize that they are not the only ones.
Marisela is a mother seeking justice for her daughter’s femicide. He never finds her and is murdered in the attempt. This is a story of courage. An exquisite journalistic work and a reflection of what happens every day in this country. The mothers. The search. The history. The voice. The memory. And the desire for justice, which does not come, but we continue to ask what we are.
Fire night
There is a lot of pain here, a lot. Marginalization, poverty, violence, misogyny, drug trafficking. This is a series that leads you to feel the greatest of rages, always worthy, but I think it is necessary.
Poppy fields, organized crime controlling entire towns and mothers trying their hardest to wake up and stay with their daughters. We cannot ignore this project, this reality.
The good wife
A woman writing in a time where that was unacceptable, a man taking the credits, receiving the awards, giving the speeches. Behind a woman who won a Nobel Prize and never received it.
This one hour and forty minute film lets us see and reflect on the invisibility of women in art and science, historically and systematically.
Period. End of Sentence.
Women menstruate in total about 2,535 days on average. That is to say: if we put the days of our period together, it would result that 7 full days of our lives we need to use feminine hygiene products such as tampons, towels or menstrual cups.
These products have a price, in some countries they also have taxes. Menses with dignity is unaffordable for thousands of women around the world. Giving up activities that we enjoy and feeling sorry is normal for thousands of girls and adolescents who have their periods for the first time. But in some places there are those who do not even have the option of going through that because before they have to leave school and lock themselves in their homes because a feminine towel cannot be obtained and being “dirty” is not an option either.
Reflecting on menstruation, normalizing it and fighting so that all women can face it with dignity is a pending task all over the world.
The pack
I remember that the first images I saw when “Chile woke up” were of some brave and admirable girls taking the subway facilities due to the rise in price. After a whole revolution came. Today a new constitution is being drawn up because the one that was in force since the Pinochet dictatorship is no longer wanted and the left also came to power.
This is a Chilean series that portrays in detail the courage, and at the same time the exposure, of adolescent women in a Catholic school where sexual harassment and feminicidal violence are systematically reproduced.
Inconceivable
As well as his name. I kept thinking about Marisela, Rubí, Lesvy, Mariana, Jessica, Ana and all of them. Inconceivable. Being bullied, harassed, violated, and even murdered. That there is all the evidence to do justice – and for the record that I do not believe in punitivism – and that it is not done.
A miniseries that also gives us the opportunity to see that the gender perspective as a transversal axis of the justice system and of all public policy, is a priority. Not only in Mexico, all over the world.
These recommendations are probably not a comedy or a suspense but, for me, they are film projects that manage to move us to places where practicing empathy, awareness and sensitivity is more possible.
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