New film lays bare the scourge of gender-based violence
South African actress Natasha Sutherland says she is proud to have made her directorial debut in a groundbreaking new film which lays the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) bare.
Sutherland was handed the reins to direct the documentary, “That’s What She Said: A Social Inquiry”, working with producers Tracy Going, an award-winning former TV and radio news anchor, and Lesedi Job. The film sheds new light on the phenomenon of GBV by elevating new voices, while exploring Going’s experience after enduring an abusive relationship many years ago.
“I’m a mixture of both proud and daunted,” Sutherland told Independent Newspapers.
“I feel grateful for the opportunity and the belief that Tracy had in me as a creative. The fact that the trajectory of the documentary is something I feel so purposeful about, its message, the weight of its importance, made it even more noteworthy for me.”
The actress said she was proud to have directed a film which sent such an important message.
“The pressure was on not to mess it up on micro and macrocosm levels.
“I had women and men entrusting me with their stories, their vulnerabilities, and I wanted to be careful about how it was delivered and yet not so guarded that the essence of the film was smothered or muzzled.
“It was a delicate dance around a sledgehammer subject matter. There were long hours, moments of doubt, rebooting and recalculating along the way, but sometimes the deep end is the best place to start.
“Perhaps if I’d known what lay before me I might never have taken the leap – but I am so very glad that I did. Please don’t get me wrong, I learnt a lot along the way, and still have much to learn. I was humbled by how much I had to garner about the process, but also intrigued by what I feel I have intrinsically as a storyteller. I must say, I love writing/ directing so much… The act of creation fuels me and I feel of service to something bigger than me.”
“That’s What She Said” will not be released in cinemas in the traditional way. Instead, corporate organisations are invited to book screenings at cinemas or on their own premises.
The intention is for the film to be seen in groups and leveraged to spark meaningful discussion around the pressing phenomenon of GBV, so that dialogue can play a role in positive change.
Screenings are available until December 14. In addition, the film will be screened on Showmax from December 1.
South Africa is considered to be the rape capital of the world with 10 818 rape cases reported in the first quarter of 2022.
New research reveals that the rate at which women are killed by intimate partners in this country is five times higher than the global average. GBV, a widespread and common occurrence, is deeply ingrained in South African homes, workplaces, cultures and traditions.
This pandemic, because of unequal power between genders, has far-reaching effects that go beyond the violence itself.
GBV manifests in various forms, including physical, emotional, psychological, financial or structural harm, and is usually perpetrated by intimate partners, work colleagues, strangers and even institutions.
The film centres around reactions to the acclaimed theatre adaptation of the memoir “Brutal Legacy”, a South African best-seller written by Going, and the high-profile case that dominated local media in the late 1990s, a time when GBV received little, if any attention.
The book is being re-released to coincide with the film, with a prologue and epilogue added, providing closure to her story and additional information about what occurred after the events in the book.
What makes the documentary “That’s What She Said: A Social Inquiry” unique, is that the narrative, represented in haunting scenes from the theatre performance, is interwoven with commentary from a panel of unrelated men from diverse backgrounds.
Their reactions after viewing the provocative play provide intriguing insights regarding this controversial social issue. The result is the powerful message that GBV knows no gender. In fact, it affects us all.
Job said she came up with the idea for the film after hearing Going‘s interview on radio about her memoir.
“I had the idea of creating a play about her story. In 2019, I directed the play ‘Brutal Legacy’, which premiered at Theatre on Square, with the script written by Natasha Sutherland,” said Job.
“’That’s What She Said’ is a social inquiry into men’s responses to a woman’s story about domestic violence. We invited a group of men to watch the play ‘Brutal Legacy’ and then in a panel discussion they are given a space to engage in the conversation about GBV as well as airing their views on various other topics like masculinity, the #menaretrash slogan, patriarchy and how these issues/topics affect them as men.”
She says the importance of the documentary was to create an opportunity for men to share in the responsibility of addressing the issue of GBV by giving men the platform to engage in the conversation.
“In the documentary, the primary focus in the issue of GBV is that of domestic violence, but rape is touched on by one of the male panellists, which opens our eyes to the fact that rape doesn’t solely affect women but men too.
“GBV affects our South African society as a whole but because in most cases women are identified as the victims and men the perpetrators, the responsibility of tackling GBV has fallen into the hands of women.”
She said her aim with the film was to give a voice to the human experience.
“Telling a story doesn’t come with a specific goal or achievement in mind but instead to put “something” out there for society to engage with that will affect them on an emotional level and yet at the same time give them the opportunity to think about an issue in a way that they might not have thought about before.
“The documentary in many ways is a ‘key to the next door’ in addressing GBV in South Africa.
“Through a woman’s story, how do we create space for men to talk, to reflect from a place of truth and vulnerability that encourages them to tell their stories and in doing so hopefully have more men doing the same?”
Going said it was important to pursue a film of this nature.
“I realised as a child that we were keeping a secret. And secrets fester in the dark,” she said.
“My driving force over the years has been to talk about GBV and domestic violence. To bring it out into the open.
“To keep talking so that we expose this terrible violence because by exposing the violence the perpetrator becomes known and seen and hopefully it becomes a truly shameful act to hurt or break a woman.”
Asked what it would take to curb GBV in the country, Going said: “A multi-pronged approach is required. It simply cannot be punished.
“We need to offer support to both victims and perpetrators. But ultimately GBV needs to become a truly shameful act.
“It needs to be so shameful that no one wants to be seen abusing another. We also need to teach women that they do not deserve to be abused.”
She said GBV happened in South Africa because it was allowed.
“It also happens because it is applauded by the perpetrators’ peers.
“Then there are the desperate socio-economic circumstances where people, especially men, lash out in frustration and fear.
“There are so many men in our country who have no hope of a better tomorrow and they feel overwhelmingly emasculated, and in order to bolster themselves they wreak havoc on those closest to them.”
Sutherland said she faced several challenges while shooting the documentary.
“It has certainly been character building.
“A big challenge was compiling or writing the script post filming footage, and in prep to hand a script over to our amazing editor Ian Chuter.
“I’m quite a perfectionist and I write with edits of footage in mind down to the beats between word and image, paying close attention to the transitions I want to create.
“It was a massive job transcribing the entire panel discussion as well as all the interviews and then weaving both discussion and story play narrative together in a way that would make it palatable for a viewer to follow.
“The theme compartments in the film were basically dictated to us by the topics brought up by the panel of men in situ, but I had to group the themes together in a way that flowed alongside the play’s plot.
“It was a synergy of an origin story to capture, for sure. Luckily I got Tammany Barton on board as a story editor who was immensely helpful in keeping us on track and honouring the premise of the piece.
“Another challenge was that the panel of men we assembled were volunteers. Because the main thrust of the film is to harness their organic responses or reactions to the play or Tracy’s story, it was a mandate that as a director, and producers, we were not to interfere with the discussion nor try to influence it any way.
“This was great for my curiosity as a storyteller, but nerve-racking as a director/writer because as much as I could have assumptions and educated guesses about where they would ‘take us’ with their discussion, it really was a case of setting things up and then ‘letting go’ and trusting the process and intention of why we were making the film in the first place.
“One of the other challenges faced was that I was acting in the play that I was directing a documentary film on. But I had discussed much about the look and feel of shots and nuance I wanted to achieve in our pre-production and we had such a good team assembled, Vicci Turpin as our brilliant DOP, and Di Rosen who gave guidance, and theatre director Lesedi Job was also there to facilitate space for me as an actress.
“Also, because we’d done the play previously and I’d adapted it from the memoir, I felt I was pretty much grounded in the story and character enough to be able to have multi-focused attention to include direction as well.”
Asked why she thinks that GBV rates in the country continue to sky-rocket, Sutherland said: “I am not an authority on the subject matter. I’d like to believe that the counsellors and behavioural catalysts that we interviewed in the documentary would shed more light on the intricacies of what’s happening.
“Like Sidwell Sehoana who says ‘culture is not stagnant’, implying (in my mind) it’s something we as society create or perpetuate and therefore can also change.
“Fundamentally, I feel the constructs we live in as humans create a mass cognitive dissonance so that the wound is buried deep.
“We are sleepwalking through life and want to keep doing that. To make concrete change with positive traction would require an unearthing of these paradigms which many, many people don’t want to acknowledge, let alone choose to do.
“Change is uncomfortable and for some, a nuisance. Tracy, Lesedi and I have come up against the ‘turn a blind eye’ ecology (it’s what I call it) countless times in an attempt to tell or create this story.”
Corporate organisations that wish to book a screening can go to this website for more information: www.gravelroadafrica.com/twss, or contact matthew@gravelroadafrica.com
The Star
sameer.naik@inl.co.za