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In the name of Your Daughter

Heartbreaking and heartwarming, the award-winning In The Name Of Your Daughter tells the story of Tanzanian girls as young as eight who have to make the most difficult choice of their young lives: whether to submit to female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage or risk their lives and run away from home, not knowing if they’ll ever see their families again. Rhobi Samwelly, one of the most charismatic women in Africa, risks her life to give the girls a safe haven. This is a story of courage and hope.

  • Giselle Portenier
    Director
    Killer’s Paradise
  • Giselle Portenier
    Writer
  • Cathy Gulkin
    Writer
    Killer’s Paradise
  • Giselle Portenier
    Producer
    Killer’s Paradise
  • Deborah Parks
    Producer
    Lowdown Tracks
  • Samson Kapinga
    Cinematographer
  • Andrea Wettstein
    Composer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Human Rights
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 24 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 15, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    275,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Tanzania, United Republic of
  • Language:
    Swahili
  • Shooting Format:
    digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • CPH:DOX
    Copenhagen
    Denmark
    March 20, 2018
    World Premiere
    Official Selection
  • NortWestFest
    Edmonton
    Canada
    May 6, 2018
    North American Premiere
    Best Canadian Feature Documentary
  • Zanzibar International Fil Festival (SIFF
    Stonetown
    Tanzania, United Republic of
    July 10, 2018
    African
  • Lady Filmmakers Festival
    Los Angeles
    United States
    September 29, 2018
    U.S. Premiere
    Jury Prize for Best Feature Documentary
  • Raindance Film Festival
    London
    United Kingdom
    October 4, 2018
    U.K. Premiere
  • Zonta Film Festival
    Kitchener -Waterloo
    Canada
    November 10, 2018
    Ontario Premiere
    Best of Festival Award
  • Marda Loop Justice Film Festival
    Calgary
    Canada
    November 18, 2018
  • Montreal International Black Film Festival
    Montreal
    Canada
    September 27, 2018
    Quebec Premiere
  • This Human World Film Festival
    Vienna
    Austria
    December 4, 2018
    Austrian Premiere
  • Giffoni Film Festival
  • Windsor International Film Festival
Distribution Information
  • DR Sales
    Country: Denmark
    Rights: Free TV
Director Biography - Giselle Portenier

GISELLE PORTENIER BIOGRAPHY
Giselle Portenier is a Canadian award-winning documentary filmmaker who consistently focuses on human rights issues around the world. Her ground- breaking films have sold to broadcasters everywhere, and have received numerous accolades, including two Peabodys. Many of her films have been used by human rights organizations in action campaigns, and several have resulted in changes in laws.
During a twenty-year career at the BBC in England she directed dozens of television documentaries, including Murder in Purdah about honor killings in Pakistan; Getting Away With Murder about South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Killers' Paradise about the epidemic of the murder of women in Guatemala; Israel's Secret Weapon about Israel's weapons of mass destruction; Let Her Die about female infanticide and the routine abortion of female foetuses in India; Dying For Sex, an investigation in Thailand's sex industry where whole villages survive by selling their daughters into prostitution; Congo's Forgotten Children about the devastating effects of war on children, and many more. Portenier is now an independent filmmaker living in Vancouver, Canada.

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Director Statement

For more than two decades, I’ve wanted to make a documentary about this human rights violation--female genital mutilation. Then, when I found the story of Rhobi Samwelly, a powerhouse activist who risks her life to protect girls from female genital mutilation; when I met some of the brave young girls who risk risking everything to save themselves from this fate, I knew I had found the right way to highlight this issue. The children’s voices have rarely been heard. They need to be heard, and with this film, they are being heard. I’ve made many documentaries about the human rights of children and women, but I believe this to be the most important film, because it comes from a different perspective of all the films about FGM that have come before. The point of view of the children who, once they find out what's in store, do not want to go through female genital mutilation. I am so honoured that the documentary has been embraced not just by Rhobi Samwelly and the girls in the film, but by anti-FGM activists around the world.