Screening of It’s a Girl at
I Will Tell International Film Festival

I Will Tell is a growing film festival which takes place in the heart of London every year from 30th August to 9th September since 2005. This year the festival celebrated its 8th year with the theme THE ‘R’ THING, on Relationships, with screenings of over 30 international films, inspirational post-screening discussions and festival activities all on the theme Relationship.

The festival’s Closing Gala was a Tribute screening to Dr Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014) followed by an inaugural awards ceremony where they announce the Best Drama, Best Documentary, Best Short Film, Best Animation and the Audience Award for I Will Tell 2014.

Best Documentary was awarded to It’s a Girl for “its in-depth exposé of a deeply harrowing subject, which a sensitive portrayal of its subjects together with an enlightened look at a complex issue created a powerful documentary that inspires and motivates.” http://www.iwilltell.com/pr.html

We are so very honored and touched by this award and by the many people who were involved in the process.

Accepting the award via Skype was the film’s amazing director, Evan Grae Davis.

“Congratulations to the amazing women who shared your stories, the experts and team who made this film a success! You deserve this!”

“We filmmakers really value the opportunities film festivals like yours provide for us to connect with audiences who are motivated to learn about important issues and to get involved.”

If you’ve seen It’s a Girl you know Li’s story:

 

Li and her husband lived in a rural village with their two daughters. Under pressure by their families to have a son, Li and her husband decided to have a third child, in the hopes that it would be a boy. When Li became pregnant again and found out it was going to be another girl, their families insisted she abort the child because another daughter would do them no good.  But Li and her husband wanted to keep their child, though she would be born illegally under China’s coercive One-Child Policy. The law restricts couples to one child, or two in rural areas if the first child is a girl to so they can try for a son. This law is strictly enforced and violations can lead to forced abortion or forced sterilization, as well as fines that would take several years salary to pay off. Li gave birth to her third daughter in hiding, with the family planning police actively looking for her. Under extreme pressure, Li and her husband fled to flee to a distant region, away from their three young daughters. They found work in a distant factory, earning what they can to send home to provide for their daughters.

 

 

Today, three years after filming Li’s story, we have news from Miss Li. She has returned to her home with her daughters and is currently raising the children on her own. She gave birth to another baby girl last year, now with a total of four daughters. Li’s husband still works in another province to make enough money to pay part of the government fines for exceeding the birth policy limit. The financial strain continues to be great on their family. Li’s in-laws are unwilling to help because she has not birthed a son.

Because we were able to tell Miss Li’s heartbreaking story in It’s a Girl, many viewers have expressed desire to help Miss Li and women and families going through similar situations.

Here is how you can continue to help Miss Li and other women like her in China:

Women’s Rights In China is the grassroots organization that helped the It’s a Girl team reach Miss Li to tell her story. WRIC has helped us get in touch with Miss Li again and has established a way to funnel a limited amount of donations to her and her daughters without putting her at risk for punishment by the government. Because of the complexities of providing direct financial assistance from outside of China, the amount that can be safely provided to Miss Li is limited. But WRIC’s network of field workers has hundreds more women and families in need of similar assistance, and any excess amount of funds received will go directly to support women pregnant with girls in China.

Women’s Rights In China works directly in the field to
provide support for women who are pregnant with girls and
are at risk of forced abortion in China.

By making your tax-deductible donation (in the USA) to Women’s Rights In China, you are helping to provide the help women need to keep their daughters and continued support for Miss Li’s family and the many women and families just like them.

Donate today to help end gendercide in China.

Note: The link above enables you to make donations directly to Women’s Rights in China.
All funds go directly to support women and girls in China.

We are so grateful for the thousands of you who joined us this year in fighting gendercide globally. Since the film was released last year, it has screened over 500 times globally, has been broadcast on television in India, Ireland, Nigeria, Poland, New Zealand, and reached thousands more through our DVD and iTunes release this year.

As we wrap up the year, we want to highlight some of the campaign’s greatest achievements that were made possible by YOU:

January 15 – Music Video Released: We announced the release of Omékongo Dibinga’s music video inspired by It’s a Girl! Omékongo’s video brought greater attention to the global issue of gendercide and still continues to make an impact!

 

 

March 8 – International Women’s Day: Eighteen groups around the globe brought respect to women and  girls by celebrating International Women’s Day with a screening of It’s a Girl during this week!

 

 

March 4-9 – UN Commission on the Status of Women: It’s a Girl screened several times during the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) in New York! Governmental leaders around the world met for this event known as the primary policy-making body on the planet when it comes to gender equality and women’s rights. The theme this year was the elimination of violence against women and girls.

 

 

April 25 – Capitol Hill Screening for U.S. Congress: Bipartisan members of U.S. Congress stood with the Coalition Against Gendercide to host a screening of It’s a Girl! This screening took place in the Capitol building in Washington D.C., in conjunction with the Tom Lantos Commission on Human Rights.

 

 

May 9 – TEDxGrandRapids: It’s a Girl film director Evan Grae Davis was invited to speak at TEDxGrandRapids, engaging an audience of 750 leaders, influencers and innovators from the West-Michigan area. You can watch the video now, titled: How to Become a Culture-Changer.

 

 

May 28-30 – Women Deliver: It’s a Girl and the It’s a Girl  Music Video were screened during the Women Deliver global conferencein Malaysia.
 

September 24 – DVD and iTunes Release: you helped bring It’s a Girl to a worldwide audience through DVD and iTunes!  Within one week of its release, It’s a Girl hit #7 in the Documentary genre and #2 in the Foreign Films genre on iTunes! This means more people were exposed to the truth about gendercide and thus more people have joined the campaign to end gendercide!

October 11 – UN International Day of the Girl Child: It’s a Girl released on more platforms on the second UN International Day of the Girl Child. This day is meant to promote girls’ rights and highlight gender inequalities that remain between girls and boys.

            
November 18-19 – Premiere on Chinese Soil: It’s a Girl screens for the first time on  Chinese soil! Amnesty International’s Premiere of It’s a Girl in Hong Kong was followed by a presentation from Women’s Rights Without Frontiers’ President Reggie Littlejohn. Littlejohn’s visit demonstrates a growing international opposition to forced abortion as violence against women.

In connection with the film screening, she met with top human rights leaders, lawyers and legislators to discuss the state of China’s population policy.

 

Thank you all for a great year in the fight against gendercide!

– The Shadowline Films Team

Reggie Littlejohn President, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org

Forced Abortion in China Will Continue, Despite “Easing” of One Child Policy Under the misleading headline, “China to Ease One-Child Policy,” Xinhua reports that China will now lift the ban on a second child, if either parent is an only child. This minor reform will not “ease” the One Child Policy. It will merely tweak it.

All the reasons for this adjustment are economic or demographic: China’s dwindling labor force, the country’s growing elderly population, and the severe gender imbalance. Completely absent from the discussion is the issue of human rights violations. China has not promised to end forced abortion, forced sterilization or forced contraception. The coercive enforcement of China’s One Child Policy is its core.

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, stated: “While we are glad for the second babies who will be born under this adjustment, instituting a two-child policy in certain, limited circumstances will not end forced abortion or forced sterilization.The problem with the One Child Policy is not the number of children “allowed.” Rather, it is the fact that the CCP is telling women how many children they can have and then enforcing that limit through forced abortion, forced sterilization and infanticide. Even if all couples were allowed two children, there is no guarantee that the CCP will cease their appalling methods of enforcement. Regardless of the number of children allowed, women who get pregnant without permission will still be dragged out of their homes, strapped down to tables and forced to abort babies that they want, even up to the ninth month of pregnancy. It does not matter whether you are pro-life or pro-choice on this issue. No one supports forced abortion, because it is not a choice.

“Further, instituting a two-child policy will not end gendercide. Indeed, areas in which two children currently are allowed are especially vulnerable to gendercide, the sex-selective abortion of females. According to the 2009 British Medical Journal study of 2005 national census data, in nine provinces, for “second order births” where the first child is a girl, 160 boys were born for every 100 girls. In two provinces, Jiangsu and Anhui, for the second child, there were 190 boys for every hundred girls born. This study stated, “Sex selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males.” Because of this gendercide, there are an estimated 37 million Chinese men who will never marry because their future wives were terminated before they were born. This gender imbalance is a powerful, driving force behind trafficking in women and sexual slavery, not only in China, but in neighboring nations as well.

“Moreover, the Chinese Communist Party periodically modifies the One Child Policy, but the coercion at its core remains. Reports of these tweaks — especially when mischaracterized by western media — throw the human rights world into confusion and blunt genuine efforts to end forced abortion in China. On September 9, 2010, for example, TIME ran the headline, “China Could Overthrow One-Child Rule.” Myriad other news sources followed suit. This dramatic headline was based on the fact that China proposed to run a pilot program allowing some couples to have two children. Soon afterwards, on September 25, 2010 – the 30th anniversary of the One Child Policy – a top population control official praised the policy and stated that China “will stick to the family planning policy in the coming decades.” Moreover, despite this pilot program, numerous reports of late-term forced abortions have surfaced since 2010, including the forced abortion at seven months of Feng Jianmei in June 2012.” For a discussion of forced abortion cases that have arisen in 2011-2012, read WRWF’s Complaint to the UNCSW. http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=717

For a discussion of forced abortion and other egregious violations of human rights in connection with coercive population control, read WRWF’s 2013 Complaint to the UNCSW. http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=1254

Read the Xinhua Report: “China to Ease One-Child Policy” http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-11/15/c_132891920.htm

Reggie Littlejohn, President
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org
Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 mins)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY

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The views expressed by guest contributors to the “It’s a Girl” blog represent the opinion of the individual author who contributes the content and should not be interpreted as being endorsed or approved by Shadowline Films. We feature these contributions to foster dialogue and exchange on gendercide and invite our readership to join the discussion.